Pluk van de Petteflet
Hardcover, 1995
|
|
| Author | Annie M.G. Schmidt |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Fiep Westendorp |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Language | Dutch |
| Publisher | Querido |
|
Publication date
|
1971 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 167 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 65557528 |
Tow-Truck Pluck is a children's book by Dutch writer Annie M.G. Schmidt. First published in 1971, it remains in print and is one of the most popular Dutch books for children, and the second most popular book by Schmidt (after Jip and Janneke). A radio drama based on the book was produced in 2002, and a movie in 2004; Tow Truck Pluck ranked No. 10 on the list of most popular Dutch movies between 1996 and 2005 and was awarded platinum status early in January 2005. The cover of Pluk (all drawings are by Schmidt's regular illustrator, Fiep Westendorp) is used to illustrate the article about Schmidt on the website of the "Canon of the Netherlands," and Pluk got his own stamp in 1999.
Schmidt and Westendorp began Pluk as a weekly illustrated feuilleton for , a ladies' magazine, in 1968 and 1969. They were first printed in book form in 1971, and have remained in print ever since. The 1995 printing was the 18th, and brought the total printed copies to 495,000. Indications of the book's lasting popularity are that 75,000 copies were printed in 1991, twenty years after its first publication; the 1992 printing was the third-bestselling book for children age 6–10 in the month of June, the best-selling book in that category in August, and the second-bestselling book in that category in June 1995.
Eleven unpublished chapters were found in 2001, a kind of prequel to the stories in the book. These were organized with the help of Fiep Westendorp (Schmidt had died already), and were then published as Pluk Redt de Dieren (Pluk Saves the Animals). That book was published in 2004 and sold 150,000 copies, making it the best-selling Dutch children's book of the year.
The book, like Schmidt's other children's novels, has a "realistic, modern setting"—Pluk drives a little truck and has a difficult time finding a place to live—but his world is full of fairy-tale creatures, such as, in this case, talking cockroaches, pigeons, and seagulls; horses of record-length; extinct fantastical birds; and a werewolf who operates a ferry. In its combining reality and magic, Pluk is often mentioned alongside Roald Dahl's The BFG.
...
Wikipedia