Toon Tellegen

Antonius Otto Hermannus (Toon) Tellegen (born 18 November 1941) is a Dutch writer, poet, and physician, known for children's books, especially those featuring anthropomorphised ants and squirrels. His writings are also enjoyed by adults, due to the amusing, bizarre situations that Tellegen creates, as well as their dealings with philosophical subjects.

For his lasting contribution as a children's writer, Tellegen was a finalist for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2006.

Tellegen was born in Brielle. He studied medicine at the University of Utrecht, and worked as a general practitioner in Amsterdam. After writing for many years mainly for adults, Tellegen switched to children's stories. His first children's book, written in 1984, was Er ging geen dag voorbij: negenenveertig verhalen over de eekhoorn en de andere dieren (English: Not A Day Went By: forty-nine tales of the squirrel and other animals). In these stories, the ant and the squirrel often play the lead role, and many of his stories touch on philosophical concepts.

Tellegen still writes today.

Boxer Books Ltd of London has published in Britain, and distributed in America, several collections of Tellegen's animal stories illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg and translated by Martin Cleaver. For the first, Cleaver won the biennial Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation in 2011.

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