Against the Odds

Kiki lives with her mother, father, and repulsive old dog. Life is good except that her father, a doctor, feels compelled to constantly embark on humanitarian missions to dangerous places. No matter how persuasive her arguments, Kiki can't convince him to stay home. Her mother explains the odds there’s very little chance her father will die because, after all, how many of her friends' fathers have died? Unconvinced, Kiki dreams up ways to bolster those odds. If it’s unlikely that a girl would lose her father, wouldn't it be twice as unlikely that she'd lose a father and a pet? When her father actually does go missing, and her mother becomes increasingly distraught, Kiki feels she really must do something but can she live with the consequences of committing such a terrible, irrevocable act? This perceptive and compelling novel deals with serious moral issues in a funny, deeply human way.

Children's Books

Hof, Marjolijn

Growing Up & Facts of Life

GROUNDWOOD BOOKS *

Kiki lives with her mother, father, and repulsive old dog. Life is good except that her father, a doctor, feels compelled to constantly embark on humanitarian missions to dangerous places. No matter how persuasive her arguments, Kiki can't convince him to stay home. Her mother explains the odds there’s very little chance her father will die because, after all, how many of her friends' fathers have died? Unconvinced, Kiki dreams up ways to bolster those odds. If it’s unlikely that a girl would lose her father, wouldn't it be twice as unlikely that she'd lose a father and a pet? When her father actually does go missing, and her mother becomes increasingly distraught, Kiki feels she really must do something but can she live with the consequences of committing such a terrible, irrevocable act? This perceptive and compelling novel deals with serious moral issues in a funny, deeply human way.

Mother Number Zero

No one in Fay's family looks like anyone else, because Fay and his sister, Bing, were adopted. Fay only knows that his birth mother escaped the war in Bosnia, and that he arrived in his new home with nothing more than a squeaky toy and a few clothes. But when Fay meets Maud, the new girl in town, she's curious about his birth mother and about what it's like to be adopted. And on top of that, she says smack in the middle of the street that she likes him.Suddenly Fay is full of questions — mother questions and Maud questions. Who is his birth mother, or mother number zero, as he calls her? Why did she give him away? Is it bad to want to find her? And what should he do about Maud? Could he be in love without realizing it? With his parents' help, Fay begins to look for mother number zero, and as the search unfolds, he finds some surprising answers to his questions.Award-winning author Marjolijn Hof's gift for telling a story from a child's perspective has created a bittersweet rendering of what it's like to be adopted, and to feel the first stirrings of love.

Two twins, separated since birth by a terrible prophecy . . . until now! Since birth, Silke and her twin brother Janis have been separated. For a terrible prophecy, made to their parents by the mysterious Madame Petrova, predicted that the twins would one day be the cause of each other's demise. So, Janis was sent away to be brought up among the mountains, while Silke remained in the family home . . . until now. Silke and Janis's parents have died, and their devious cousins have brought them back together to carry out the prophecy so they can inherit the family home. But the twins are determined not to let that happen -- and so they decide to run away. Faking their own death, they flee into the forest wilderness, meeting poachers, a harsh winter, a dancing bear, a mysterious medium, and . . . Madame Petrova. Can the two siblings stick together and unravel the prophecy before it manifests? Set in a charming blend of fairy-tale setting and historical Europe, The Curse of Madame Petrova bewitches and builds to a crescendo that feels genuinely unexpected and movingly shocking.

The Curse of Madame Petrova

Literature & Fiction

Levine Querido

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hof, Marjolijn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hof, Marjolijn

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hof, Marjolijn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Against the Odds

Against the Odds

Mother Number Zero

The Curse of Madame Petrova