#thea beckman

[reviews-sky]

New book review!

Crusade in Jeans by Thea Beckman

[oediex]

I've been reading a trilogy of YA books that I last read when I was a child. My library still holds them in their collection, and I was pleased to note they were often not available.

It's the story of a post-apocalyptic Greenland, in which a society ruled by women is colonised by a European patriarchal empire. Or rather, they attempt to colonise - the colonised put up a good fight.

I'm not sure how many times I've read these books, but they always stayed with me. Reading these books a quarter century later is quite eye-opening. Both the world and myself have changed, and I can read these books with a greater understanding of the wider implications and reflections on our current world order.

As a 12-year-old, I learned about colonisation as a thing of the past - a privilege in and of itself. And while the story is simplified and caricatural, the truth of it is painted plainly and without remorse.

Colonisation is a violent effort. It is enacted on the basis of greed, power and a sense of superiority that holds no basis in reality. These facts are clear in the first book, but even more once the point of view turns from the colonised to the coloniser in the latter two.

The inhabitants of this new Greenland, on the other hand, are depicted as a loving people, who respect nature and each other, and abhor violence. That is the caricature. Yet when this threat appears on their horizon, they find they are called to defend themselves, and even as they try to do so without taking any lives, they use violence when they must. It is an act of necessity, a measure they must take to defend their way of life. And even when the protagonist of the books is from the side of the coloniser, it is evident that we, as readers, cannot blame the colonised for having to choose this path.

I don't know where I want to go with this, except that rereading these books now, with the rising awareness, worldwide, of the continuous violence of colonisation enacted today, it is clear to me how important stories and books are when we are kids. Even if 12-year-old me thought that what was happening in these books was not of today, the message was unmistakable. I have been thinking often, lately, of the stories that I loved as a child and how they helped make me into the person that I am.

And it was all thanks to libraries.

[zoueriemandzijnopmars]

If you've never been to Kampen (for your resolution post), I can highly recommend Kerst in Oud Kampen. It's a mix of theater and other art forms throughout the inner city during Christmas. I haven't been in a few years bc of covid and moving elsewhere, but it was always a lot of fun!

Ohhh that sounds fun.

I just went back to my post like: Did I talk about wanting to go to Kampen? (Because I do) Because I didn’t remember, but no I did not, so this is quite coincidental because Kampen is actually in like my top 3 candidates for place in NL I haven’t been to

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

you wanted non-english books? please consider this offer:

Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek (1973, Thea Beckman)

De Gouden Dolk (1982, Thea Beckman)

Hasse Simonsdochter (1983, Thea Beckman)

Kinderen van Moeder Aarde (1985, Thea Beckman, first of a triology)

Sans Famille (1878, Hector Malot)

some of these might be stretching the definition of fantasy a bit, but i would say they count

hello! I’ve been looking through blurbs and reviews for these and I’m not sure about these as fantasy.

De Gouden Dolk and Hasse Simonsdochter seem to me to just be historical fiction (there are some reviews of the latter in particular that praise Beckman for seamlessly blending her fictional protagonist with real historical events).

Sans famille looks to just be realist (though sentimental/romanticized and a bit picaresque) 19th-century fiction.

meanwhile, Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek — since Dolf is transported to the 13th century by a time machine — and Kinderen van Moeder Aarde — since it’s set after the Third World War and I don’t see any mention of supernatural elements in the blurb or in reviews — both look to me like science fiction. (given these sci-fi elements, I would definitely accept both for the sci-fi blog even if they do also have fantasy elements.)

could you, or someone else who’s read any of these, elaborate on what makes these fantasy?

[simmyfrobby]

9 people you’d like to get to know better

thanks for the tag @captainbradmarchand <3

List 3 ships you like: flowerdeweys, marcheron, sidflowertanger

First ship ever: something from one tree hill probably. brooke davis w literally anyone. i was desperately in love w her.

Last song you heard: ok jeg lover, ramon

Favorite childhood book: kruistocht in spijkerbroek, thea beckman

Currently reading: the end of everything, katie mack

Currently watching: some old louis theroux documentary

Currently consuming: sparkling water

Currently craving: COFFEE

tagging: @jonassiegenthighler @mikathemad @lemondropbois @folie-a-dewey @songsandswords @alavenderleaf @yabagofmilfs @girlfriendline @genosigned

[relnicht]

doe maar even lief stemmen en rebloggen dan lees ik wel een verhaaltje voor, goed?

sorry als die van jou er niet bij staat

[hilliska]

ˏˋ°*♡➷ get to know me ༊*·˚

I was tagged by @grapehyasynth (hiiii!!!) and I am very sorry it took me a few days, my head just wasn't feeling it

rule: name 1 of your favorite movie, character, animal, drink, song, season, book, color, hobby

So L-R&T-B: Rent, Lito Rodriguez (Sense8), iguana, elderberry syrup, Unholy (Sam Smith & Kim Petras), spring, the Thule trilogy (Thea Beckman), yellow, and dancing!!! (that's my dance teacher btw I love her sm)

like this was so hard it's unfair there's so much stuff to love!!!

tagging @theonelucille @bluedalahorse @andthatisnotfake @earlgrey-lateatnight @darktwistedgenderplural

[rudjedet]

do you have a favorite dutch fiction author?

Robert van Gulik, author of the Rechter Tie (Judge Dee) series from the 1950s. It's a historical detective in the style of Chinese Gong'an novels where the protagonist is a magistrate solving crimes (Van Gulik himself was a Sinologist). In case of Rechter Tie, the premise and main cast were based on the Dee Gong'an, so it's centred around the fictional counterpart of Di Renjie, a T'ang dynasty magistrate (though the society, fashion and mores presented are, in keeping with the Gong'an genre, those of the Ming dynasty). I reread the 17-book series every other year, that's how much I love it lmao. My favourite in the series is The Chinese Maze Murders (Labyrint in Lan-fang in Dutch), and I would murder for Tsjiao Tai, tbh.

Other notables are Jan Terlouw, Thea Beckman and Simone van der Vlugt, whose children's books I devoured (mostly fantasy/sf and historical). On the literature end, Arthur Japin and Hella S. Haasse have both written books I've enjoyed. There's probably more, but those are the first that come to mind.

[krejong]

Thank you for the tag @except4bunnies! This was a lot of fun :)

rules: list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard - they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you

Fair warning: a lot of these are books I read/were read to me as a child because those just hit different (and also I remember those better for some reason)

Wiet Waterlanders en de kleine Caroluscode - Mark Tijsmans (Mark Tijsmans writes amazing stuff, and my mum read me this book and it was so good I re-read it like half a dozen times; also recommend from him Het geheim van te veel torens, de ridders van de ronde (keuken)tafel and de Kronieken van Sooi Molenwieken)

La passe-miroir series - Christelle Dabos (yes I’m cheating. Again. This series taught me the true depths of disappointment. I just have no words for the let-down that were the last 50 pages of that fourth book. But the first two were just masterpieces.)

Het diner - Herman Koch (had to read this for school. Mostly remember that nobody else read it. Truly filled with characters that made me go WTF out loud)

The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien (my love for fantasy started with my dad trying to read me The Hobbit in French when I was distinctly too young for it. I read these on my own much later and I adore them)

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics - Olivia Waite (my first time reading an explicitly wlw romance in book form! The descriptions were really beautiful)

De boekendief - Markus Zusak (this was a real eye-opener for tween me, who had always learned about the Second World War from the perspective of a country that won it)

Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek - Thea Beckman (TIME TRAVEL! Also re-read this one multiple times)

The Complete Call the Midwife Stories - Jennifer Worth (The love is always palpable in these stories. Some characters like sister Monica Joan stay with you for the rest of your life)

Koning van Katoren - Jan Terlouw (I was obsessed with this book as a kid)

Jaspers vlinders - Johan Vandevelde (One of the books that made me realize my sexuality. Also a lot softer than that Dirk Bracke book about lesbian girls, which really was not suitable for a twelve-year old).

No-pressure tagging: @weidli @charlotteflorentine and @punchandspade

[wearingaberetinparis]

Hi Mary,

Hope you're doing well!!! I love your writing so much ❤️❤️❤️

What are some of your all-time favorite books to read and those books that have inspired you to write?

Hi sweetheart! Thank you so much! Finding this message in my asks is an absolute joy. You are honestly making my day already and it's only just started.

Thank you for the question about my favourite books! It's a very long list and I continue to discover more new ones every year, so... I am bound to have forgotten about a million of them...

Obviously, the Harry Potter Series is very close to my heart and I love reading it over and over again, but I haven't included that in this list, because I thought it rather obvious.

Classics

Emma, Jane Austen

Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen

Persuasion, Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys

North & South, Elizabeth Gaskell

Paradise Lost, John Milton

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

Atonement, Ian McEwan

Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

More Recent Reads

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid

Daisy Jones & The Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Wolf Den, Elodie Harper

Normal People, Sally Rooney

Beautiful World, Where Are You, Sally Rooney

Wish You Were Here, Jodi Picoult

Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus

Poetry Any and all recommendations are welcome. I don't nearly read enough poetry.

Emily Dickinson

Rupi Kaur

Amanda Gorman

Seamus Heaney

Carol Ann Duffy

Drama

The Crucible, Arthur Miller

A Doll's House, Henrik Ibsen

The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

My best friend also recently got me the script of Fleabag, which is one of my favourite series ever made and I love reading it to death.

Childhood Favourites

Anne M.G. Schmidt

Roald Dahl

A.A. Milne

Thea Beckman

Philip Pullman

Finally... which works inspire me? All of them, I think. Every story I read, I take something away from.

I have a few odd buns in the oven inspired by my favourite works, which I'm not actively working on, but that is on my list of works for 2023.

Emma-inspired Jily AU

Fleabag-inspired Jily AU

[lezenmetisa]

Leesautobiografie

De ontwikkelde lezer

Ik vond het boeken lezen prima. Het was niet super erg. Ik lees nu wel meer dan op de basisschool. In de eerste drie jaar van de middelbare las ik Zwijg van Mel Wallis de Vries, Wat jij niet ziet van M.J. Arlidge, Zomertijd van Suzanne Vermeer, Het geheim van Mories Besjoer van Anke de Vries, #Laatstevlog van Carry slee, De Kloof van Jan Terlouw en Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek van Thea Beckman. Ik kan niet alle boeken herinneren, maar ik weet nog dat ik De Kloof van Jan Terlouw echt een leuk boek vond. #Laatstevlog van Carry Slee had ik nog een keer gelezen en Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek is heel bekend en dat was echt een boek die ik lastig kon wegleggen.

[bookwyvrn]

Hoi Soetkin! I hope you're having a good day 🥰🌻🌷 Can you recommend a book by a belgian author?

oh totally forgot to answer this one eons ago!

I think I was indeed having a good day! thanks for the message!

mh, i'm not very fond of most belgian and dutch authors. I don't like our style of writing novels, nor most subjects of the stories. They're often either very harsh or very melancholic or just plain, like i don't know what else to call it: bland or colorless perhaps?

but lemme think:

for children's books I absolutely adore everything written van Marc De Bel, he's the true hero of Flemish children literature! LIKE ABSOLUTELY GODLIKE THAT GUY. He also lives in the same town my husband lived in during his teen years.

for adult books the choice is harder as it's like picking either pest or cholera... but uhm no one, honestly, those books mostly make me feel bored out of my mind. And I need books that take me on a rollercoaster of emotions. Good or bad, ugly or pretty; i don't care, but write with emotions, make me feel passion.

Other children authors i really love are:

Thea Beckman, she was the hero of historical fiction for kids, like whoaaa!

Bart Moeyaert writes beautiful books about emotions and trauma

Jan Terlouw, a Dutch author, who writes fantasy and historical fiction alike, loved his books a lot growing up!

another author that gets an honorable mention is Dirk Bracke, his writing wasn't brilliant, but he made a lot of themes discussable, such a LGBT+, lover boys and forced prostitution, child soldiers in africa, drugs and addiction, etc, and that was great to talk about in school, like start with one of his books and then continue the lecture and discussion from there. He also lived in the same town I grew up and his book were really important to me when i was about 13-14

Thanks for asking! I loved writing this answer :D

[zoueriemandzijnopmars]

Het is Kinderboekenweek! En nu ben ik benieuwd:

Pin me hier niet op vast, maar volgens mij zijn dit ze allemaal

Keesje Kruimel, Hans Dijkhuis

Viermaal J en Janus, Hans Andreus

De blauwe boekanier, Tonke Dragt

Het kleinste sprookjesboek , Annie M. G. Schmidt, Mies Bouhuys, Eleanor Farjeon, Pieter de Zeeuw, Hans Christian Andersen en de Gebroeders Grimm[12]

Arthur en de lettervreter, Henk van Kerkwijk

2 is te veel, Henk Barnard

Ogen op steeltjes, Jan Wartena van Staatsbosbeheer

Het verdwenen plakboek,?Het Schrijverscollectief, bestaanden uit: Jan Riem, Ries Moonen, Arie Rampen, Fetze Pijlman, Hans Dorrestijn, Karel Eykman en Willem Wilmink

Wie je droomt ben je zelf, Paul Biegel

De tram is geel het gras is groen, Gertie Evenhuis

De klepel of de klok, Mies Bouhuys

Spook tussen spoken, Willem Wilmink (1980)

Je eigen tijd, Hans Dorrestijn, Alet Schouten en Willem Wilmink

Retourtje ver weg

Mijnheer van Dale en juffrouw Scholten, Kees Fens

Een tijdje later, Willem Wilmink en Paul Biegel

Houden beren echt van honing?, Midas Dekkers

De zaak Jan Steen, Karel Eykman

Die van hiernaast en van de overkant. Kinderen en boeken in Europa, Marja Baeten en Paul Arnoldussen

Duizend dingen achter deuren, Joke van Leeuwen

Het eiland daarginds, Paul Biegel

Jorrie en Snorrie, Annie M. G. Schmidt

Het wonder van Frieswijck, Thea Beckman

Het raadsel van de Regenboog, Jacques Vriens

Het weer en de tijd, Joke van Leeuwen

Fausto Koppie, Anke de Vries

Bombaaj!, Els Pelgrom

De huiveringwekkende mythe van Perseus, Imme Dros

LYC-DROP, Paul van Loon

Mijn avonturen door V. Swchwrm, Toon Tellegen

Bikkels, Carry Slee

Eiber!, Sjoerd Kuyper (2000)

Ik ben Polleke hoor!, Guus Kuijer

Boris en het woeste water, Rindert Kromhout

Het Zwanenmeer (maar dan anders), Francine Oomen

Swing, Paul Biegel

Wat rijmt er op puree?, Edward van de Vendel

Laika tussen de sterren , Bibi Dumon Tak

Kaloeha Dzong, Lydia Rood

Vlammen, Hans Hagen

De wraak van het spruitje, Jan Paul Schutten

Mees Kees - In de Gloria, Mirjam Oldenhave

Bert en Bart redden de wereld, Tjibbe Veldkamp

Het Akropolis Genootschap & De slag om bladzijde 37, Tosca Menten

Je bent super... Jan!, Harmen van Straaten

Zestig spiegels, Harm de Jonge

Per ongelukt!, Simon van der Geest

Oorlog en vriendschap, Dolf Verroen

Kattensoep, Janneke Schotveld

De eilandenruzie, Jozua Douglas

Haaientanden, Anna Woltz

De diamant van Banjarmasin, Arend van Dam (2020)

Tiril en de Toverdrank, Bette Westera

Waanzinnige boomhut verhalen, Andy Griffiths

Ravi en de Laatste Magie, Sanne Rooseboom

[avetruth]

Wij zijn wegwerpkinderen : Beckman, Thea

Wij zijn wegwerpkinderen : Beckman, Thea https://www.avetruthbooks.com/2022/04/wij-zijn-wegwerpkinderen-beckman-thea.html?feed_id=7651

[artprincess16]

New AO3 fic

I have decided to translate one of my all time favourite childhood stories into english. It's a book by an author named Thea Beckman and it was written in the 80s. The book -Kinderen van Moeder Aarde/or Children of Mother Earth in English- was never translated from dutch to english, and I really just want to share it with a more international audience. It was translated into german at one point, so if there are any german out there I would definately recommend you pick it up (kinder der mutter erde). (Also apparently hungarian according to the internet) I post under the name daiyu4yu. Disclaimer: I obviously do not own this story or the characters, I am simply making a translation for my own enjoyment and for the enjoyment of an audience that would not be able to otherwise. I'm not profiting off of this and all rights belong to the publisher Lemniscaat Rotterdam and the author Thea Beckman (even though she died in 2004).

I would probably recommend any of Beckman's books, but only crusade in jeans is translated to English (which is definately also a great read, a boy time travels and lands in the middle of a childrens crusade and has to find his way back while trying to save as many kids as possible from sickness and starvation and slavetrade). Look on this website for any other translations of her books(mostly german but also several in bulgarian, catalan, danish, finnish, galician, greek, hungarian, icelandic, japanese, polish, portuguese, russian, slovenian and spanish).

I'm starting with this trilogy because I read these more recently than the other trilogy. And I wanted to try the series before the standalones. And I love this book. I'm putting pictures of the cover and map underneath this post.

The story is set 6 centuries after the third world war destroyed civilisation and the earth tilted. Due to this Greenland now has an amazing climate and the people there live peacefully and in touch with mother earth. The island is now called Thule and it is ruled by the Konega (a kind of queen) and the women's counsil. Men don't really get any positions of power since they were the ones who started the apocalypse. The story follows the Konega's son Christian, he is an only child, but he is a boy so he can't take the throne and must marry a girl from the royal bloodline. He is, however, in love with a girl named Thura, a commoner who is studying to be a shipcaptain. He himself is studying to be a kind of doctor. His father did not enjoy never having a say in anything and one day simply disappeared.

From the Badener Empire (in former Europe) an expedition ship arrives in Thule. The Badeners are very authoritatian, conservative and militaristic. They are looking for new resources and places to colonize for resources, since their lands have already been emptied. They don't understand the Thuleneans or their way of life, and certainly won't believe women could have all the power. They communicate using a language they both understand: the Badeners know Brits and the Thuleneans know Kanadeens. The Badeners "kidnap" Christian (he actually just comes with them because he is curious) because he is a "prince". They trek across Thule in search of riches and stumble across one danger after another.

The Thuleneans understand that if they let the Badeners leave, they will return with a large army, so they sabotage them and make them stay on the island.

In the second book an army arrives anyway, and is once again defeated by nature and sabotage.

In the third book it is about half a century later and the Badeners have occupied several coastal cities. The book follows four young girls who try to learn the language and eventually trek inland to find someone.

[blackbird7147]

The Crusade in Jeans - The Beckman

This book is one of my most favourite history novels. I added the Dutch cover here because I feel like it represents the original story more (Jenna, the girl on the English cover, doesn’t exist in the book, she’s a character invented for the movie). 

So, this book is about the Children’s Crusade in 13th century Europe. Rudolf Veda, a Dutch teenager, gets invited by a colleague of his dad to take a look at a time machine. At that moment, the time machine is not fully operative, yet Dolf can persuade the scientist to let him test the machine. 

Dolf chooses the time to where he wants to be send: a knight tournament in Montgivray, France on the 14th of June, 1212. 

At first everything seems to be working just fine. Dolf gets send off succesfully, and he arrives in what looks like the Middle Ages, close to a city. 

But then it turns out that something went wrong with the datum and locations: Dolf ended up in Germany, close to the city Speyer, and the day is the 24th, not the 14th. 

Dolf has 5 hours before he will be brought back, so he uses his time to look around in the Middle Ages. He meets the Italian student Leonardo, and they become friends fast. But when Dolf wants to go back to exact coordinates to get brought back to his century, he ends up in the middle of a Children’s crusade, and he doesn’t make it in time. 

Lost in the past, with no way of getting home, he decides to join the crusade together with Leonardo. With their help, the crusade changes from pure chaos to a well-working team. The children believe that their leader, the sheep shepherd Nicolas, will make the seas part once they have reached Genua, and then they will be able to walk to Jeruzalem and free the holy city. 

But Dolf understands that something is wrong: Genua and Jeruzalem are two completely different places, and his twentieth-century mind knows that the seas can’t part. On top of that, the children are neglected and lots of them die along the way. Soon, Dolf finds himself as the caretacker of the crusade, while trying to figure out what will really happen once they reach Genua. And how will he ever get back home? 

Thea Beckman is an amazing author when it comes to historical juvenile fiction. Before writing a book, she researched thoroughly and visited the countries she would be writing about. The Crusade in Jeans is a very useful book when you wan’t to compare the Middle Ages with how we live now, and it offers a lot if historical information. 

Thea Beckman has written a lot more historical novels, but only The Crusade in Jeans was translated into English. If you can read in Dutch though, she has a really interesting trilogy about the Hundred Years of War between France and Engeland (Geef me de ruimte! - Triomf van de verschroeide aarde - Het rad van fortuin), you should check them out if you have the chance. The series offer a whole lot of historically correct information, mixed with the intriguing story of 3 poeple throughout the 100 years.