We love it when authors get involved! Our latest #bookfairyforaday was Belgian writer Vera Van Reterghem and she hid copies of her book The World of Oscar Cook.
About the author:
Vera was born in Bruges (Brugge) and now lives near Leuven with her husband and 3 children.
She studied history and as a writer she is inspired by Roald Dahl, Annie M.G. Schmidt and Astrid Lindgren because the stories they wrote are so timeless.
Reading bedtime stories to her own children is what inspired her to become a writer herself. Before that she had only written for the university and for scientific magazines as a historian.
She loves to write for children and read to them and dress up.
About her time as a book fairy:
She absolutely loved being a book fairy and her enthusiasm really moved me. It was an honour to meet her. She is a truly amazing person, with a gigantic heart and a crazy imagination that just never stops.
For our day together she took photos with her books in the woods so they would have a fairy tale feeling, bought fairy wings, wrote emails to ask permission to hide books at a Chinese restaurant, at the university and a retirement home (3 locations linked to the books). And most importantly she wrote clues for Oscar’s Facebook page so that people could find the books. We were both surprised that some people actually followed these clues and thanks to this all the books were found, which made her so happy.
She took her role as a book fairy very seriously and said it was a day to remember forever and was very grateful for the experience.
Her trilogy about Oscar Cook is very funny and adventurous and moving at the same time. The books are written for children, but can be enjoyed at any age. Friendship is the key element and the books prove that people are always braver than they think. Also the bond between young and old is very important. At first Oscar is very unhappy when they move to the retirement home (his father becomes the new director) and he misses his mother who died 5 years earlier, something his father never wants to talk about. But then he becomes very close to 3 of the inhabitants of the home and they help him to find out the truth about his parents while going on crazy adventures that even involve time travel.
I can honestly say I fell in love with the characters, and that was before I met Vera. Now that I know where they come from, I love them even more.
My mum read the books too and said: “these should be made into a movie.”
Vera loved that 🙂
About the Book:
“I am thirteen and I live in a retirement home. The building is filled to the brim with farts and swear words, with doom and gloom. But I have to admit, also with joy and friendship. The former military Karel, the mad professor Otto and the sweet Lise have become my friends. Without them I would never have digged in the count’s past to save my father from prison. I would never have found out what happened to my mother when she died under mysterious circumstances a few years ago. I would never have known how courageous a person can be. I would never have realized how close my friendship with Stiene actually is. And I would definitely never have believed that superhuman powers exist …”
A truly original story about the emotional and fascinating search of a boy to find out who his father and mother really were.
This is the link to her website.
And Oscar Cook’s Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/DeWereldVanOscarCook/
Thank you to Tineke, a book fairy in Leuven who spent the day with Vera and wrote this blog post.
Want to join in the fun?
You can get your own stickers right here in our shop (it’s the only place you can find them!) and pop them on any books you have enjoyed and want to share. Have fun!!
If you’re an author and would like to be a book fairy for a day, please email bookfairyemail@gmail.com.