Children's book 'De schippers van de Kameleon' and the anniversary

Seventy-five years ago, the first volume of the popular children's book series 'De Kameleon' by Hotze de Roos (1909 – 1991) was published. The book series (the most popular children's series in our country) is loved by young and old. For many, the joy of reading started with the Kameleon books back then! On Saturday, July 6, 2024, both twin brothers, Hielke and Sietse (played by two actors from Kameleondorp Terherne), surprised a representative of publisher Kluitman from Alkmaar with the 'Diamond Book' certificate during the presentation of the reissue of the first volume of the Kameleon series. This anniversary edition contains the original story, a complete title list with color covers, and more unique extras. One of the 5 children's stamps of the 2019 children's stamp issue (nvph 3786/90) with children's books. Twelve-year-old Hielke and Sietse from Friesland are the twins of blacksmith Klinkhamer and live in Lenten, a fictitious name for a village on a large lake. The boys often look longingly at all the beautiful boats sailing around. They would love to own a boat themselves, but unfortunately, that was not possible. Yet, one day, they unexpectedly became the owners of an old boat, though they can't do much with it. Then the village is struck by a tornado, causing their neighbor, the doctor, to end up in the ditch with his car. Fortunately, Sietse manages to save him. As a thank you, the twins are allowed to salvage the engine from the wreck and install it in their boat. Now Hielke and Sietse have their own boat with a powerful engine, with which they experience many adventures. One of the ten stamps from the 'Year of the Book' stamp sheet (3452/61) from 2016. The boat was christened Kameleon because of the doctor neighbor, who remarked that the boat's color kept changing and thus possessed the characteristics of a chameleon. When painting the boat, the brothers mixed leftover paint together. Perhaps the ship's title is more symbolic than author. But Roos anyone could ever have suspected. Each volume has a slightly different color, and yet it remains De Kameleon. To date, more than 400.000 copies of the first book have been sold. Author De Roos has written 60 Kameleon adventures, and more than 15 million copies have been sold. During a meeting in Terherne (1980), writer Hotse de Roos stated that the village on Lake Sneekermeer and its immediate surroundings strongly reminded him of the place Lenten from his books. Since 1997, Terherne has been nationally known as the Kameleon Village, an amusement park.

Biographical

Then, writer Hotze de Roos was born in rural Langezwaag (east of Heerenveen). A low-lying peat area with many ditches, tree-lined avenues, and marshy meadows. In his youth, he played and got up to mischief in the village with his brother. As an unemployed carpenter, he wrote short pieces for a newspaper made for and by the unemployed, through which he first demonstrated his writing talent. From 1935 (he was forced to leave Friesland), he worked until his retirement as a carpenter in the technical department of a weaving mill in Krommenie. On weekends (1949 – 1991), De Roos wrote his stories. Three themes play a dominant role in his autobiographical work: [1] the appeal of humor, [2] love of life, [3] the doom of poverty. De Roos grew up in southeast Friesland, which at the time was one of the poorest parts of the country, with unemployment and poverty among unskilled peat and agricultural workers. De Roos describes the idyllic life in the Frisian countryside with an atmosphere of freedom, camaraderie, and happiness. There is always time, it is always a holiday, and the sun usually shines. The heroic deeds of the twins are actually projections of those he himself would have liked to carry out. The 'original book' of the Kameleon contains numerous 'obsolete forgotten words' such as 'to play pranks', 'to give a beating', 'rascals', 'scoundrels', 'naughty boys', and 'naughty boys'. In the past, the Kameleon series greatly stimulated the pleasure of reading for many as a route to books with more depth and challenging language.