'De Avonturen van Lena Lena'.
Harriët van Reek is a Dutch illustrator and author. She was born in Voorschoten in 1957 as the daughter of 'Wipperoen' co-creator Jan van Reek. She studied to become a drawing teacher in Amsterdam and subsequently worked as a social-cultural worker in Rotterdam for a while. After traveling through Africa, Japan and Ireland, she focused on a career in Fine Arts. Her first children's picture book, the absurd 'De Avonturen van Lena Lena', was published by Querido in March 1986. It consisted of naïvely drawn comic segments and accompanying texts about a fantasizing child who plays with simple objects and animals. The book won the Gouden Griffel in 1987.
Van Reek's next books are also characterized for their absurdism and imagination: 'Het Bergje Spek' (1989), 'Henkelman, ons Henkelmannetje' (1996), 'Bokje' (2001), 'Letterdromen met Do' (2007), 'Edith en Egon Schiele' (2013) and 'Lettersoep' (2015). She is also a teacher in Visual Communiation at ArtEZ in Zwolle, and has worked with illustrator Geerten Ten Bosch on children's theater productions for the Rotterdamse Schouwburg (1991-2004) and a series of short children's films for VPRO and AVRO television (1990).