Dutch children’s book author Corien Oranje was born in 1963 in Delft in the Netherlands . Her mom was a journalist who also wrote children’s stories. Her dad was still in college when she was born. He became a scientist. Corien’s mom and dad wrote many newspaper articles together, to keep their young kids from starving.

Corien(right) and her brothers and sister

From the day Corien learned to read she knew that one day she would become a writer. She was always reading ór writing: lettres, diaries, books, poems, musicals. She must have read almost every book in the library. Her favourite authors: C.S. Lewis, Roald Dahl, Tonke Dragt, Astrid Lindgren.

After highschool Corien went to Kampen, a beautiful medieval city with two theological universities. She studied theology and met her future husband, the incredible handsome, sportive and tall Dick Mak. After they finished their studies Dick and Corien moved to Papua, where they teached at a theological seminary in the middle of the jungle and had the time of their life. They got four sons: Richard (1994) and the triplets Justin, Lennart and Joel (1997). The fact that they were all boys impressed their Papua friends and made them more than a little jealous.
Living in the jungle with three babies was quite exhausting, and after a while Dick and Corien & their sons moved back to the Netherlands, where Dick became a church minister, and Corien changed diapers and kept her kids from killing themselves and each other for almost 4 years.

When the kids all went to school on one glorious day Corien could finally start doing what she had want to day all her life: writing.
Corien’s first childrens’ novel was published in 2003, and up till now she has published 30 novels, a musical, poems, news paper articles and short stories, and won an award for ‘best christian book 2007’. ‘De dag van de golven’ (the day of the waves), a book she wrote about the tsunami in Aceh has been published in Indonesian.

De dag van de golven – The Day of the Waves: this is the story of Dewi and her friend Yensi, two Acehnese girls from Indonesia. On December 26th 2005 an earthquake hits the city and as houses collapse all around her, Dewi must run for her life.
Little does she know that something even more devastating will strike in the few minutes following the earthquake. When a gigantic wall of water rusheds toward Dewi, she must run yet again. Dewi finds herself lying in the burning sun on top of a house...

Chaos in mijn hoofd – Chaos in my Head: Sasha Lasonder is a Dutch girl, writing her fourth diary. She lives with her parents and triplet brothers in Jakarta. At first she only has the usual teenage problems: she has a boyfriend back in Holland, but then there is this interesting boy at school... But when her mother falls ill and has to be treated in a hospital in Singapore, Sasha feels she should do something to help. When her father and mother have left Jakarta for a longer treatment in Singapore, Sasha decides that she should follow them by plane to cheer her mom up... A gripping story for teenage girls.

Eiland aan de horizon – Island in the Distance: Inspired by the story of three children that were found on a remoste island in northern Australia, Corien Oranje did a lot of research about life on the Torres Strait Islands. She wrote a moving novel about three young kids, who after a shipwreck had to leave their parents and little cousin behind at the side of their upturned boat and swim to the small island far away in the distance...