What a wonderful day we’ve had
On Saturday, May 23, 2026, Coen and I took a stroll towards the Nawijn & Polak Bookstore in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.
I was there to lead a drawing workshop for two groups of children (age 4-8), and Coen was my assistant.
We deliberately arrived a little early to meet up with Toni & Moniek from Nawijn & Polak, who’d arranged everything down to the last detail. And Kicky, from the Dutch ‘Give a (Picture) Book as a Gift’ campaign was also there.
Before the first group arrived, Kicky and I quickly slipped some illustrated cards and sheets of drawing paper into the clipboards the children would be using during the workshop.
The Nawijn & Polak team had set out cushions for the kids to sit on. There was plenty of paper and more than enough drawing supplies (in literally every color of the rainbow!) to choose from. They’d even provided drinks and treats for both the children and the parents, which was really nice since it was such a very hot day.
Time to draw!
I started the workshop with reading from my new book 'Bijna Gevonden!' (Almost Found!), and then the children got to decide who they wanted to draw first: August or Suzy.
The first group wanted to start with Suzy, while the second group asked if they could draw August first. (And of course they could!)
In the end, every single child made two beautiful drawings. A few parents even happily joined in on the drawing, too.
Some children, who didn’t feel like drawing, enjoyed themselves with the coloring pages, which was fine too.
In the end, it’s all about having fun and being creative that’s important to me, and that’s what they all did in the end.
I’m SO very proud of everyone, and of what they made.
You can see the photos I took below.
Check out August’s gallery on the left, or Suzy’s gallery on the right.
These are some pretty amazing drawings there, wouldn't you say? š
These are all the drawings made of August (click to enlarge).
And these are all the drawings made of Suzy (click to enlarge)
A big thank you!
Finally, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who dropped by. Thank you SO much to all the wonderful children and parents who came out and joined in on the fun.
A special thanks goes out to Toni and Moniek and the rest of the Nawijn & Polak, team for taking such good care of us. Thanks to you, everything ran like clockwork, and it was an absolutely wonderful afternoon. ( I was even gifted a beautiful bouquet of flowers that has found a place in our ktichen now.)
And Kicky, thank you for being there and for taking all these lovely photos!
It was such a wonderful day.
Well, that’s it for this update.
PS: If you’re interested in my coloring page …
With love,
