Het werkstuk, of Hoe ik verdween in de jungle.
(The paper, or how I disappeared into the jungle)
Illustrated by Karst-Janneke Rogar.
Querido 2019.
German edition: Der Urwald hat meinen Vater verschluckt.
Translated from Dutch by Andrea Kluitmann.
Thienemann 2021.
Eva has chosen to write about the topic of “biological fathers” for her school project, since she hopes to understand why she herself has a mother but no father. Like a detective Eva gathers evidence, questions her mother, searches through family papers, does research on the internet. When she finds out where her father lives, she flies to Suriname with the film team of a television show – and suddenly finds herself alone in the middle of the jungle. Simon van der Geest packages the moving story of his protagonist’s search for her own identity into a fast-paced adventure story. The author is able “to look deep into the soul of a child,” said Sylvia Schwab in a radio review on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Indeed, the reader always feels very close to Eva, who records all her experiences and insights in the diary-like first-person narrative. This is supplemented by the project report which includes her drawings, and her email correspondence with her best friend Luuk. (Age: 10+)