Bibi Dumon Tak

Bibi Dumon Tak is an author living in the Netherlands who writes nonfiction, or as she calls it: the truth in stories. She has won the Gouden Griffel, the highest honor for children's books in the Netherlands, as well as the Theo hijssen Prize, the highest honor for authors. Two of her books, Soldier Bear and Mikis and the Donkey, have won the Mildred L. Batchelder Award. Most of her stories are about animals, and all those stories are true. They are about cows that have escaped from slaughter; about animals that help people in times of war; about birds, arctic animals, uncuddly animals, cloven-hoofed animals, city animals. She has no preferences, as long as it can crawl, fly, swim, or run and as long as it has fur, scales, spines, or feathers. And as long as they aren't people.