THE SECRET OF THE SEVEN TASTES (SMAAKSPOKEN)

Some experts from the childrens book THE SECRET OF THE SEVEN TASTES: A Flavorful Fairy Tale, an illustrated novel for children that connects the tastes on our tongues to universal emotions, sympathetic characters, and diverse cultures.

Swiftly moving, emotionally touching, THE SECRET OF THE SEVEN TASTES is the story of a young girl, Olivia, who dreams of becoming a skilled chef just like her father Chef Maro, the proprietor of a restaurant. Following the death of Olivia’s mom, the two of them live alone. Olivia misses her mom a great deal – and her dad is always working. She really wants to help him cook, but he thinks she’s too young. Being good at tasting, he says, is a skill you have to learn.

One evening, as Olivia shares her sorrows with her cat Umi, the first of seven flavors comes to visit her. Over the course of seven nights, she is taken on a journey to discover the seven fundamental flavors – salty, spicy, sour, fatty, umami, bitter and sweet – and perfect her tasting skills.These colorful phantoms carry Olivia away with them to their own worlds, where they teach her all about their unique strengths. Along the way, Olivia also learns about the bittersweet things in life — the final friendly phantom is her recently lost mother, whose encouraging words help her to achieve her dreams. Will Olivia at last learn enough about tasting to help Maro in the kitchen?

Our literary agent is Sebes & Bisseling and the book is published by Volt

In 2022 I won a "bronzen penseel" ( bronze brush) A prestigious children book prize for the illustration I made.

In 2022 our book also won the Jenny Smelik Ibby prize. The aim of the prize is to draw attention to books in which cultural diversity plays a natural role and in which the image of the different cultures is constructive rather than problematizing. With the Jenny Smelik-IBBY Prize, IBBY-Netherlands wants to encourage cultural diversity in children's literature and in this way promote an inclusive range of books in which every child can identify.

In 2024 the writer of the book Daan Faber and musician Gerson Main teamed up with many different artists to create seven song to accompany the seven tastes. The result is a perfect mix of different musical flavours and styles.You can listen to it here. One of the songs has even won the public "Willem Wilmink" prize for best children song in 2024!

Besides the music there's also a audio book version in wich the music has a big part. The audio book was stunningly read by Thekla Reuten

If you are interested in publishing our story in your country we can provide you with a very good English translation. Translated by the award winning Laura Watkinson! Just sent me an email.