Internationally acclaimed children's author and illustrator Joke van Leeuwen sees the world through the uninhibited eyes of youngsters. Her unique brand of fantasy and humour cast a strange spell in her Radio Books story.

Joke van Leeuwen - 'The Fork as a Human'

Born in Den Haag in 1952, Joke van Leeuwen started writing and illustrating stories and poems as a child. She studied graphic arts at the Royal Academy in Antwerp and history at the University of Brussels.

Her first book ‘De Appelmoesstraat is anders’ (Applesauce Street Is Different) was published in 1978. About a newcomer who wants to end the uniformity of her new street, the book’s black-and-white illustrations were unlike most in children’s literature of the time. The next year her second book won both a Silver Griffel (pencil) and a Gold Penseel (paintbrush) for best children’s story and illustrations – her first of numerous awards.   

Bird’s eye view

“My imagination always stands on the two legs of reality,” says van Leeuwen. In most of her work, the young heroes and heroines are on a quest to find their place in the world. Her 1996 book ‘Iep!’ (Cheep!) is a moving story about loss, loneliness and the desire for freedom.

Eep is a creature with little wings and little limbs. Half-bird and half-human, the foundling is adopted by a couple that always wanted a child. When Eep suddenly flies off to find the sunny south, the couple follow in pursuit and meet many unusual characters along the way. But no one is disturbed by Eep’s ambiguous form.

“In her own country Loetje had never seen anybody with wings. But she wasn’t at all surprised that they existed. She’d learned from TV that there were people who could turn a man into a woman or vice versa. And that they could make peaches and plums grow together into one. And maybe they could do the same thing with berries and apples too. Then you’d end up with berrles or applies or something like that.”

Outsider’s voice

Language is important in van Leeuwen’s work. She exposes its inadequacies and plays pranks with sound and meaning in her stories and poetry. Her debut collection of poems ‘Laaste lezers’ (Last readers) won the C. Buddingh’ Prize of the Poetry International Foundation.

Just as van Leeuwen takes children seriously in her stories, her poetry gives a voice to outsiders – the “uprooted” of the world. At age thirteen, she moved from Amsterdam to Brussels with her family. In the poem ‘Child in Brussels’ she expresses the confusion a child finds in a new environment where everything is new, including the language:
 
    “…I had
 to get more words. But how to know 
 if what I meant my words to say 
 and they their words in their own way 
 would be the same.”

Joke van Leeuwen is currently the City poet of Antwerp and is on the short-list for Dutch Poet Laureate 2009.  
 
Clasping tight

Imagination, humour and wordplay are all elements in van Leeuwen’s Radio Books story. A puppeteer’s experimental performance in the community centre of a rural village is disrupted by a band of rowdy teenagers. On the way home, she loses her way.

“Her evening performances were always for adults. Her goal was to depict the essence of existence with spoon and fork. Through them she expressed fear, insecurity and the need to clasp tight. Her work had influenced the way she saw things. For her, objects had faces, she heard their voices. She and objects were on good terms with each other.” 

‘The Fork as a Human’ by Joke van Leeuwen was translated by David Colmer. The story is read by Jacky Spears.

The series Radio Books is an initiative of the Flemish-Dutch Huis de Buren in Brussels, in association with the Flemish radio broadcaster Klara and Radio Netherlands Worldwide.