Annie M.G. Schmidt
Puck and his Breakdown Lorry (Pluk van de Petteflet)
Nice and naughty
There is probably one only children’s book in the world where a cockroach is cherished as a pet and that is Pluk van de Petteflet. Shy little Zaza, content with a piece of apple peel now and again, can be seen as a symbol for the contrariness in all Schmidt’s works. Everything has to be just that little bit different, freer, with more room to manoeuvre. In anything but dignified language, Schmidt creates a world in which children and animals – and the odd nice adult – struggle against hypocrisy and bourgeois respectability. Not too wild, not aggressive, but in a friendly, funny way. ‘Nice and naughty’, as she once called it herself in a poem.
Pluk van de Petteflet was published in 1971, since when the book has become an institution in the Netherlands. Many a bookshop has a wooden replica of the main character Puck’s red breakdown lorry on its doorstep. Those too big to try it out for size are disappointed.
So Puck is a little boy with a breakdown truck. He has no parents, but that is simply by the by. And he has no house, either. Luckily, a pigeon finds the answer for him: the little room in the tower of the highest block of flats in the town is unoccupied. Puck makes friends in and around the flats, the pigeon, the cockroach, a bookseller, the unorthodox Mr Stamper and his sons with their unruly mops of hair, a seagull with a wooden leg, the longest horse in the world. Together, they prevent the only piece of the park still anything like the woods from being paved over. Together they save the rare Curliqueue, a bird with curls instead of feathers, from a sticky end in the museum for stuffed birds. Pluk van de Petteflet is one of those scarce books that continue to surprise, delight and touch, never losing its sparkle.
By Judith Eiselin
Publisher
Querido
Singel 262
NL - 1016 AC Amsterdam
TEL. +31 20 551 12 62
FAX +31 20 639 19 68
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.querido.nl
Publishing details
Pluk van de Petteflet (1971, 167 pp)
Biography
Annie M.G. Schmidt has often been hailed as the ‘true queen’ of the Netherlands. Her books are still being reprinted and reprinted and a number have already been successfully filmed. Schmidt, born in 1911 in Kapelle (Zuid Beveland) as a vicar’s daughter, debuted in 1950. Before the war she was a librarian and, afterwards, was made head of documentation for the Dutch national newspaper, Het Parool, where her talents as a text writer were discovered. Schmidt enjoyed an immensely successful career. In 1965 she was awarded the first Dutch State Prize for Children’s and Youth Literature. Many more awards followed. In 1988, she received the international Hans Christian Andersen Prize. Schmidt died on 21 May 1995.
Website: www.annie-mg.com/
Quotes
Annie M.G. Schmidt’s books deserve preferential treatment. Books of this quality are a rare thing.
NRC Handelsblad
In the first reading it is mainly the story that enchants the reader. Reading the book a second time, one is struck by how clear the sentences are, how carefully the words have been chosen, how everything seems to be in just the right place. With each subsequent reading you see that there are hidden jokes you can only pick up by re-reading.
Trouw
For the very young this is a delightful book to be read aloud – but Pluk and his adventures are for all ages.
De Vrouw
Translations
- Pluk, djecak iz Solitera. Lukavac: Dom stampe, Kujundzic, 2000
- Pluk ja punane autokraana. Tallinn: Kirjastus Eesti Raamat, 2000
- Niks no nagennama; Otíte; Minuce. Riga: Apgäds Rasa, 2002
- Continued...
Rights sold
- Iwanami Shoten (Tokyo, Japan)
- China Children's Press and Publication (Beijing, China)
- Querido (Amsterdam, )
- Continued...