ABSTRACT

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“I think if the curriculum is too rigid it can be very dangerous. Reading, writing and arithmetic are necessary to get on in the world but can also be used as tools for creativity. Pupils should also be seen, not just as people who should absorb knowledge but also as creative beings. I was one of those kids who kept asking, ‘Why?’ Once I received some of the answers, I realized that those in authority were not always right, so I could not always go along with them.

“I always felt that there wasn’t literature that I identified with. So I started writing children’s literature by simply asking myself: ‘What would I have liked to read when I was young?’”