Dolf Verroen

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Dolf Verroen (born 20 November 1928 in Delft, Netherlands) is a Dutch writer who creates books for children. He has won the Zilveren Griffel prize five times: in 1979, 1981, 1987, 2019 and 2020, for five different books: De kat in de gordijnen; Hoe weet jij dat nou?; Een leeuw met lange tanden; Droomopa; Niemand ziet het.

He started his career at the newspaper Het Vrije Volk. He published his first book of poetry in 1955, In los verband. His first children's book Het boek van Jan-Kees appeared in 1958 (later republished as Paarden, van die enge grote); he wrote the story when he was about 14 or 15. In 2006 he won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for Wie schön weiß ich bin, a German translation of Slaaf Kindje Slaaf by Rolf Erdorf, which was later republished as Hoe mooi wit ik ben with illustrations by Martijn van der Linden. The book was inspired by his 1976 trip to Suriname with Miep Diekmann. In 1999 he was knighted as Ridder in the Order of the Netherlands Lion. In 2016 he published Oorlog en vriendschap, the Kinderboekenweekgeschenk for Boekenweek. His books have been illustrated by Jet Boeke, Thé Tjong-Khing and Harrie Geelen.