Loes Riphagen
Bedroom Beasties (Slaapkamernachtdieren)
Children are prepared to believe many things, as long as you present them in a convincing way. This must have been what Loes Riphagen was thinking when she created Slaapkamernachtdieren (Bedroom Beasties), her picturebook debut. In this amazing ABC of fabulous creatures, she introduces a whole range of new species, all of which are regular visitors to human bedrooms.
Riphagen has provided each of these imaginary creatures with a fun description, complete with a Latin name and colour illustrations. The gringibbon, for example, spends most of its time under beds and wardrobes, where its furry body leaves behind the dust we know so well, and the flying moper – not to be confused with the mosquito – lives inside lamps and has thick, hard skin on its feet so that they don’t get burned on the light bulb.
This is a beautifully designed book that is great fun to read or just to leaf through. It features 26 nocturnal animals – Riphagen lets her imagination run riot from A for Ammahula to Z for Zzzzawnose, coming up with one crazy creature after another. Her happy little band of beasts is sandwiched between endpapers that indicate where in a child’s bedroom each of the creatures can be found. The book also includes an index to help you work out whether you’ve had a visit from one of these peculiar bedroom beasties. Children who dare to enter into Riphagen’s bizarre imagination and follow her on this fantastic journey through the bedroom will find a lot to enjoy in this book.
Excerpt
Kissimmee (Dutch: Ammehoela)
Kissimmees always live in pairs, one male and one female.
At night they go about building a nest together. They usually do this in people’s hair since it’s a soft, warm, comfy place. This causes the hair to get knotted and tangled.
The male and female differ from each other. The male is larger and has arms and a tail. Both are bright red in colour. This is very handy, because if one of them gets caught up in a head of hair, the other one can easily find him or her. Then they help each other untangle themselves. The female is somewhat clumsy. She gets tangled up more often than the male.
female: max. 2 cm in size
Kissimmees are soft and squishy…given that they have no bones. Therefore it’s not so terrible if they get stuck underneath a heavy head. In fact, the Kissimmee likes being squashed.
Kissimmees are very tiny at birth and arrive in litters as large as thirteen. When they are born, they don’t have wings or arms yet and are stuck to their mothers.
male: max. 4 cm in size
Publisher
De Fontein
Prinses Marielaan 8
NL - 3743 JA Baarn
TEL. +31 35 542 21 41
FAX +31 35 542 38 55
Website: www.defonteinkinderboeken.nl
Publishing details
Slaapkamernachtdieren (2008, 40 pp)
Age: 5+
Biography
Loes Riphagen (b. 1983) grew up in a small farming village surrounded by the heath and woodlands of the Dutch Veluwe. In 2007 she graduated from the Art Academy in Rotterdam. Her favourite crazy critter is the Poopsipus (Schijtlijster): ‘I always have gobs of freckles on my face in the summer, so I suspect there’s a whole lot of Poopsipuses living in my bedroom!’
Quotes
Riphagen’s humorous descriptions and drawings are a real treat for the young reader and deserve to find a wide audience.
Lezen
Delightful debut
de Volkskrant
Gorgeous
NRC Handelsblad
Translations
- Schlafzimmertiere. Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 2010
- Continued...
Rights sold
- Turbine (Århus, )
- Vodnikova Založba (Ljubljana, Slovenië)
- Continued...