Picture-book author and illustrator Loes Riphagen’s (NL, 1983) books have become a favourite on young readers’ bookshelves. Her best-known book, Yes, Coco Can! (2019), was named the Picture Book of the Year 2021 and has since sold more than 350,000 copies. Her other books have also been hugely successful in the Netherlands and abroad. Animals are at the heart of all her books, along with her love of nature and the small surprises waiting to be discovered everywhere.
These small everyday surprises can inspire a new book or find their way into the background of Riphagen’s illustrations. Broken air vents in central Amsterdam inspired the entrances to the gnomes’ homes in The Gnome Book (2023). Lifting a stone in her garden led to The Biggest Journey Ever (De grootste reis ooit). Her favourite animal, the weevil, also pops up everywhere. Her books offer a glimpse into her vivid imagination, with detailed illustrations, private jokes and references to previous books.
Loes Riphagen’s vivid colours, humour and eye for detail are widely praised. But what matters most to her is that children can identify with her characters and begin to marvel at their own surroundings. ‘Look around you. There’s so much beauty to see, so don’t be in such a hurry!’
Loes Riphagen (NL, 1983) grew up surrounded by animals on a farm in Oene. She studied illustration at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. Her books have won many awards. Yes, Coco Can! was named Picture Book of the Year 2021, and in 2018 she received a Golden Pinwheel Award of Excellence and the prestigious Silver European Design Award for Got Your Nose (Bij de neus genomen). The Gnome Book won a Silver Brush in 2024.
