Contemporary Authors

• The Happiest Kids in the World: Bringing up Children the Dutch Way - 2017 Doubleday, New York, NY

• Amazon -

  I grew up in the UK and moved to Amsterdam in 2004. Most of my career has been spent in the publishing industry where I worked as an editor for a number of years. I've translated around twenty Dutch books into English and one French book, and when I'm not translating I'm blogging for www.FindingDutchland.com. Together with Rina Mae Acosta, Im the author of THE HAPPIEST KIDS IN THE WORLD: What We Can Learn From Dutch Parents.

• From Publisher -

  Michele Hutchison worked in publishing in Britain before moving to Amsterdam in 2004. She is now a prominent translator of Dutch literature and lives in a traditional Dutch house with her husband and two children.

• Penguin -

  Michele Hutchison is an editor, translator and blogger. She was born in Solihull, grew up in Lincolnshire and studied at the universities of East Anglia, Cambridge and Lyon. She worked in British publishing before moving to Amsterdam, heavily-pregnant, in 2004. There she worked as an editor and became a prominent translator of Dutch literature. She lives in a leaky, old dyke house with her Dutch husband and two children.

• Words without Borders - https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/contributor/michele-hutchison

  Michele Hutchison

  Michele Hutchison was born in the UK and has lived in Amsterdam since 2004. She was educated at UEA, Cambridge, and Lyon universities. She translates literary fiction and nonfiction, poetry, graphic novels, and children’s books. Recent translations include novels by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Esther Gerritsen, Sander Kollaard and Tom Lanoye, plus The American Princess by Annejet van der Zijl (forthcoming from AmazonCrossing in 2018). She is also co-author of the successful parenting book The Happiest Kids in the World. 

• Finding Dutchland - http://www.findingdutchland.com/about/

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• Ploughshares at Emerson College Website - http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/compensation-and-nuance-an-interview-with-michele-hutchison/

  Compensation and Nuance: An Interview with Michele Hutchison
  Author: Graham Oliver |
  Mar
  28
  2016
  Posted in Interviews
  Michele Hutchison is an editor, blogger, and translator of both Dutch and French living in Amsterdam. For this interview, we’re talking about one of her latest projects, La Superba, a novel written by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer recently published in the US by Deep Vellum. Pfeijffer is known in the Netherlands for both his prose and his poetry, and this is the second novel of his that Hutchison has translated. La Superba is a semi-autobiographical account of a Dutch poet living in Genoa. The novel has won multiple awards, including the Libris Literatuur Prijs and the Tzum Prize for most beautiful sentence.
  Graham Oliver: Tell me about that Tzum Prize. Did that add some weight when translating? Did you seek out those sentences first, or did you try to keep yourself unaware of which sentences they were?
  Michele Hutchison: Yes, I did worry about those sentences and to be honest, I think other sentences in the translation worked out better. So if you were going to look for a Tzum contender in the English edition, I think you’d choose something different. Translation’s always like that—you try to pick up elsewhere what you’ve dropped along the way. To be more explicit, I’m talking about compensation, often discussed in translation circles. I try to compensate by imitating the author’s style where possible. For example, if he’s used alliteration in a passage, I might not be able to replicate it at that exact same point, but I hope to get it in somewhere.
  GO: In the book, the protagonist mentions how he’s frequently approached when in his home country of the Netherlands when he’s out in public by people who recognize him. Do you have a sense of how true this is? While we have a few iconic writers in America, I can’t imagine there are many who worry about being recognized every time they go out in public.
  MH: Remember that the protagonist is an unreliable narrator who lives in a fantasy world, so everything should be taken with a pinch of salt. That said, it’s actually true that Ilja is a very famous figure in the Netherlands and does frequently get approached in public. He’s a large, striking-looking man so it’s easy to recognize him. Actually, he was primarily known as a poet before he broke out as a novelist with La Superba which won a major prize. It’s hard to imagine, but poetry is a major art form in the Netherlands. Poets are famous here and poetry is well-respected. Ilja has won a lot of prizes for his poetry including a recent grand slam of three awards in a row for his latest collection, Idylls. Add to that a writer who has an amazing stage presence and is a great performer and yes, you’ve got a national celebrity.
  I’d like to add that in real life he is quite modest. I’m concerned about Americans not getting the dry Dutch sense of humour in the book. The Dutch are quite self-deprecating and don’t mind having a laugh at their own expense.
  GO: A lot of this book is exploring the difference between the southern, Italian way of life that the protagonist is trying to assimilate into, and the northern, Dutch way of life that he comes from. One of my favorite distinctions drawn is that in the Netherlands they drink beer while watching football and at some point the beer becomes more important than the football, whereas in Italy they drink coffee while watching and become almost fanatical. He simultaneously mocks/loves parts of both cultures. As Americans looking in, we might miss some of the nuance presented. What should we pay attention to?
  MH: I think Americans tend to lump everything European into a big mixed bag called “Europe” which means history and quaintness and tradition and old buildings. Americans often think the Netherlands is part of Scandinavia, getting it confused with Denmark, but I guess the cultures are similar so we shouldn’t find it as laughable as we do. Northern Europe is cold and wet and dark and it’s a very typical thing to long for a place in the sun—hence the dream of moving to Italy. Italy is to the Netherlands what Spain is to the UK, so we get that sense of longing to move somewhere that is warm and romantic. The USA is so massive you’ve got all those things in the same country.
  GO: I have to ask, did it bother you at all that part of this semi-autobiographical novel involves the poet’s German translator throwing herself at him?
  MH: That’s a good question. I found it rather hilarious to be honest and laughed out loud as I translated those sections. As you say it’s a semi-autobiographical novel, so part based on actual experiences, part based on fantasy. Where some characters are directly drawn from real life like Don, whom I met when I was there, others are not. The character isn’t a particularly realistic portrayal of a translator, is she? I doubt any translators I know would make such social faux pas as she does when out with Ilja’s Italian friends. We tend to be a little quieter and more observant. So she must be at least part fantasy, right? Part of her function in the story is for her big, blonde Germanic physicality to clash with the dark, elegant fragility of Italian women. The use of dichotomies and the carnivalesque are typical stylistic devices in Ilja’s work. Almost everything is larger than life.
  GO: Who else should we be reading from Dutch literature?
  MH: I’d like to recommend the wealth of Dutch poetry available in English language translation. Plenty can be found on the English-language website run by Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam.
  In terms of recent collections, David Colmer’s fine rendering of Hugo Claus’ poetry in Even Now is a gem (published by Archipelago Books). The same translator has just finished Paul van Ostaijen’s Bezette Stad (Occupied City) which is one of my all-time favourites. It’s a groundbreaking work of Flemish expressionism written in 1921 and has amazing typography. Smokestack Books will be publishing in October 2016.
  Dutch children’s literature is world class. Pushkin Press in the UK are doing an excellent job of rediscovering Dutch classics by Annie MG Schmidt and Tonke Dragt. Laura Watkinson’s translation of The Letter for the King by the latter has been picking up a lot of prizes.
  And in terms of contemporary Dutch literature, well, I’m afraid Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer is hard to beat. He’s really my writer of choice.

• Scary Mommy - http://www.scarymommy.com/author/acosta-hutchison/

  Rina Mae Acosta and Michele Hutchison are the co-authors of The Happiest Kids in the World. Rina Mae Acosta is a writer from California currently living in the Netherlands with her Dutch husband and two young sons. She founded the successful parenting blog Finding Dutchland. Michele Hutchison worked in publishing in Britain before moving to Amsterdam in 2004. She is now a prominent translator of Dutch literature and lives in a traditional Dutch house with her husband and two children.

Acosta, Rina Mae & Michele Hutchison. The Happiest Kids in the World: How Dutch Parents Help Their Kids (and Themselves) by Doing Less

Meaghan Darling
(May 19, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Acosta, Rina Mae & Michele Hutchison. The Happiest Kids in the World: How Dutch Parents Help Their Kids (and Themselves) by Doing Less. Experiment. Apr. 2017. 245p. notes. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781615193905. pap. $15.95; ebk. ISBN 9781615193912. CHILD REARING
Inspired by a 2013 UNICEF report rating Dutch children as the happiest in the world, debut authors Acosta (FindingDutchland.com) and Hutchison, both expats living in the Netherlands, investigate the reasons behind this finding. Drawing on a variety of sources, from philosophers and historians to case studies and interviews they conducted, the authors get to the heart of the relaxed Dutch culture and parenting style, as compared to their American and British counterparts who focus on competition and perfection from an early age. With more freedom that allows for unsupervised play, cycling to school, taking time to explore hobbies, and an educational system that emphasizes motivation and noncompetitive grading, Dutch children develop a strong foundation from which to pursue their interests and also have fun. While each author draws on her own experiences, observations, and research, with Acosta concentrating on elementary ages and up and Hutchison on children five and under, both contribute equally to the work, ensuring a wide range of perspective.
Verdict A must-read for all parents looking to adopt a more relaxed parenting style and create a less stressful environment for their children.--Meaghan Darling, Long Hill Twp. PL., Gillette, NJ
Source Citation   (MLA 8th Edition)
Darling, Meaghan. "Acosta, Rina Mae & Michele Hutchison. The Happiest Kids in the World: How Dutch Parents Help Their Kids (and Themselves) by Doing Less." Xpress Reviews, 19 May 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA498199952&it=r&asid=721905675c8f4cd861f93722212777c4. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A498199952

Book World: The key to raising happy kids? The latest trend says do as the Dutch do

Vicky Hallett
(Apr. 6, 2017): News:
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Byline: Vicky Hallett
The Happiest Kids in the World: How Dutch Parents Help Their Kids by Doing Less
By Rina Mae Acosta and Michele Hutchison
The Experiment. 256 pp. Paperback, $15.95
---
What's wrong with the American way of parenting?
Pretty much everything, according to an outpouring of child-rearing wisdom from our compatriots abroad. We're a nation of helicoptering sanctimommies blinded by flashcards and Pinterest projects - and in desperate need of help. The 2012 best-seller "Bringing Up Bebe" touted the "wisdom of French parenting," such as serving kids multi-course meals and letting them curse with an age-appropriate word. Then it was all about "The Danish Way of Parenting," which promised to show us "what the happiest people in the world know about raising confident, capable kids." (In short, get cozy and don't yell.)
Now, apparently, it's time to go Dutch. In their new book, "The Happiest Kids in the World," two expat moms want to share what they've discovered about the Netherlands: "Childhood over here consists of lots of freedom, plenty of play and little academic stress. As a result, Dutch kids are pleasant to be around." Moreover, co-authors Rina Mae Acosta and Michele Hutchison add, "a UNICEF report rated Dutch children the happiest in the world." Take that, Denmark!
Acosta, an American, and Hutchison, a Brit, are both married to Dutch men; each couple is raising two children in the Netherlands. The authors have come to embrace the Dutch lifestyle, largely because of how the culture and government policies help create laid-back parents and self-assured children. By compiling expert interviews and sharing (and, at times, oversharing) their personal stories, the duo promises to reveal "what it is that the Dutch know and their British and American counterparts have forgotten or overlooked."
Early on, "The Happiest Kids in the World" introduces readers to the Dutch expression "Rust, Regelmaat en Reinheid." The idea is that babies need these three R's ("rest, regularity and cleanliness"). And to make sure they get them, the government's consultatiebureau - which monitors kids' growth and development - hands out a parent instruction manual. Some key takeaways: Give babies a predictable routine, limit outings to just once a day and prevent outside distractions, such as TV.
Staying home and doing the exact same thing all the time - and not even getting to binge-watch "Scandal"? That sounds like a total snooze. Because that's the point, Acosta and Hutchison explain. According to a study that compared child-rearing practices in the United States and the Netherlands, Dutch 6-month-olds slept two hours more each day than their American counterparts. Plus, the authors add, "the idea of the parent-infant 'sleep struggle,' ubiquitous among both Americans and the British, was not an issue for the Dutch."
Digging deeper into this magic, a Dutch pediatrician offers an intriguing view on rest. He describes a common scenario: Your child wakes up with a fever at the crack of dawn, you need to get to work, and everyone in the family is on edge. How about instead, "you decide to take a sick day and go with the flow"? The baby "will be much calmer," the doctor says. "You can just pick up your child, take her into bed with you and stay relaxed until her temperature goes down. If the mother is stressed, the child will be stressed, and that will make matters worse."
True enough, but what if you're out of sick leave and can't take the day off?
Such concerns just aren't very Dutch. As Acosta and Hutchison point out, nearly half of the country's population works part-time, and even people in full-time jobs are at the office only 36 hours per week. A telling anecdote comes from the American professors behind that two-hour sleep-gap study. When they were collecting data in the Netherlands, they realized they needed a few extra interviews with Dutch families. But their Dutch research assistants refused to help them with any additional tasks: They had no more time allotted for work.
It's this work-life balance that seems more responsible for the country's happiness than any specific parenting technique. It's how men are able to schedule a regular papadag (or "daddy day") to spend quality time with their kids. It's why it's not a struggle to get the entire family together for both breakfast and dinner. It's what allows for relaxed, extended vacations.
After a few chapters, it becomes clear that it's not really moms and dads who need to adopt "the Dutch way." The conclusion (titled "Let's Start a Revolution") lays much of the responsibility on "the state itself." Want to instill Dutch-style independence? Build a vast network of safe bike lanes. Wish kids were less anxious about grades? Overhaul the school system to make it less competitive.
Reading this, American parents should probably just acknowledge that we will not be raising Dutch children - no matter how many cargo bicycles we own - unless we move to the Netherlands.
But Acosta and Hutchison won't let us off the hook entirely. There are tip boxes with bullet-pointed suggestions such as "set ground rules" and "praise good behavior." There's a collection of low-key Dutch birthday party ideas, including "a snow party." This involves waiting until it snows and then having a party. For breakfast, they endorse the Dutch tradition of serving toast "piled high" with butter and chocolate sprinkles.
It all sounds quite quaint - as the authors describe it, "a childhood from black-and-white photographs."
And perhaps therein is the key to our obsession with this genre: a yearning for simplicity. Add to that a dash of insecurity and guilt. Has modern American life somehow erased our parental instincts? Is our ignorance harming our children?
My husband and I didn't need a book to stir up such thoughts. When we moved from Washington to Florence, Italy, in the summer of 2015 with our 5-month-old, we had never considered our parenting style particularly American - whatever that means - until our plane landed.
Then, mamma mia! We bristled at the parade of random strangers tickling our daughter's feet. She apparently never wore enough clothes - one woman reprimanded us for not having her in a scarf in August. Our new pediatrician deemed her 8 p.m. bedtime way too early and suggested introducing solid food in the form of a veggie soup sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.
Slurping her delicious leftovers, it was hard not to wonder whether I had been doing this parenting thing all wrong.
I was beginning to toy with the idea of investing in a baby scarf collection when I struck up a conversation with a Norwegian mom at my daughter's day care. She complained that kids in Italy don't get to nap outside, which is standard practice in Norway, even in the snow. (Acosta and Hutchison report that some Dutch day-care centers are following this trend and are installing "special insulated outdoor cribs.")
What dawned on me in that moment - and what any reader will learn after country-hopping through enough of these books - is that there's an entire planet's worth of parenting wisdom. Following all of it would be like trying to hunt down every stray Lego in the house - impossible, and perhaps foolish.
Of course there's still value in learning about how things work in other countries. For instance, I'm now a believer in that multi-course meal trick from "Bringing Up Bebe": Serve cut-up fruit first at breakfast, and do the same with veggies for lunch and dinner. The healthy stuff ends up getting eaten instead of pushed aside. "The Danish Way of Parenting" has me practicing my ability to "reframe," which is apparently what Danes do whenever dealing with anything negative. (Like their weather.) The idea is to face the facts but give them the most optimistic spin possible. My Italian experience has taught me that although baby scarves may not be necessary - particularly in a Mediterranean climate - they're kind of adorable.
And from "The Happiest Kids in the World," I've picked up a Dutch mantra: "Doe maar gewoon dan doe je al gek genoeg." In other words, Acosta and Hutchison explain, "Just act normal, that's crazy enough," or "Calm down."
For American parents reading too many of these books, that may be the most important advice of all.
---
Hallett, a former Washington Post reporter, is a freelance writer in Florence, Italy.
Sign up for the TodayCOs WorldView Newsletter The Washington Post.
Source Citation   (MLA 8th Edition)
Hallett, Vicky. "Book World: The key to raising happy kids? The latest trend says do as the Dutch do." Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA488709181&it=r&asid=94a37212ec0ec0110d8f2a05833c7dd1. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A488709181

Darling, Meaghan. "Acosta, Rina Mae & Michele Hutchison. The Happiest Kids in the World: How Dutch Parents Help Their Kids (and Themselves) by Doing Less." Xpress Reviews, 19 May 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA498199952&asid=721905675c8f4cd861f93722212777c4. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017. Hallett, Vicky. "Book World: The key to raising happy kids? The latest trend says do as the Dutch do." Washington Post, 6 Apr. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA488709181&asid=94a37212ec0ec0110d8f2a05833c7dd1. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.

• Daily Mail
  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-4114466/More-chores-plus-risks-equals-happy-kids-Dutch-children-happiest-world.html
  Word count: 965

  More chores plus more risks equals happy kids: Why Dutch children are the happiest in the world
  A 2013 Unicef study found that Dutch children are ‘the happiest in the world’
  The Netherlands has a reputation for being a liberal country 
  There is a secret though: the Dutch are actually fairly conservative people
  By Helen Brown For The Daily Mail
  Published: 22:04 BST, 12 January 2017 | Updated: 01:20 BST, 13 January 2017

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  THE HAPPIEST KIDS IN THE WORLD
  by Rina Mae Acosta and Michele Hutchison (Doubleday £14.99)
  Considering 2016 was the year Brits embraced the cosy Danish concept of hygge, then 2017 may be the year in which we tire of candles and adopt the rougher and readier Dutch version: gezelligheid.
  For while hygge has been hijacked to flog cashmere blankets and luxury log burners, gezelligheid, according to Michele Hutchison, a British writer who moved to the Netherlands in 2004, is simply ‘a biscuit tin on a table and a mug of coffee. It’s hot chocolate or pea soup and the sound of lively chatter with anoraks drying in the hall’.
  She also thinks it’s the key to explaining why a 2013 Unicef study found that Dutch children are ‘the happiest in the world’. British kids came a lowly 16th.

  +2

  Joy of being Dutch: The freedom to play
  In this entertaining new book, co-written with another expat mum, Rina Mae Acosta, Hutchison says that: ‘The Netherlands has a reputation for being a liberal country with a tolerance of sex, drugs and alcohol, yet beneath this lies a closely guarded secret: the Dutch are actually fairly conservative people. At the heart of Dutch culture is a society of home-loving people who place the child firmly at the centre.
  ‘Parents have a healthy attitude towards their kids, seeing them as individuals rather than as extensions of themselves. They understand that achievement doesn’t necessarily lead to happiness, but that happiness can cultivate achievement.’
  The duo’s book on the joys of going Dutch will be a relief to any parents who felt shamed by Pamela Druckerman’s 2012 paean to formal Gallic childrearing, French Children Don’t Throw Food. There’s a very funny passage in which the authors cringe at the noisy, sprawling games their kids enjoy on a French beach while the local children all sit quietly on their towels. But they also pity those perfect French children raised as ‘mini adults’, who miss out on delights and empowering life lessons learned through free-range play.
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  I’m always taking my young children through the woods at dusk and across beaches in the snow. But this summer I was aggressively reprimanded by a local man for swimming with them in a river at a spot recommended by the UK’s Wild Swimming Society. He told me they were likely to die of Weil’s disease. I knew they stood more chance of being killed in a car accident.
  In Holland, kids swim and play outdoors unsupervised all the time. They are expected to make realistic risk assessments, and become hardy and independent; to get muddy, then do their own laundry.
  Lured to the Low Countries by their Dutch husbands, both authors admit that at first they struggled with the blunt earthiness of the culture and grey, wet weather. But then they discovered their own stress levels dropping in a society which expects them to speak their minds and bicycle everywhere in all weathers. No surprise this is also a recipe for relaxed, healthy kids.

  +2

  THE HAPPIEST KIDS IN THE WORLD by Rina Mae Acosta and Michele Hutchison (Doubleday £14.99)
  Much of this is common sense. We all know pushing kids too hard and suppressing individuality creates anxiety. Acosta herself knows this from personal experience. Born and bred in San Francisco, the child of self-sacrificing Filipino parents who worked 24/7 to give her an excellent education, she feels her childhood was ‘more endured than enjoyed’.
  Her friends back in the U.S. report that things are even worse these days as pre-schoolers battling for places at the ‘right’ nurseries are asked: ‘So, what have you done with the first 36 months of your life?’
  Things are not quite so bad in the UK but we also are guilty of piling on the pressure.
  Academic education doesn’t begin in Dutch schools until after kids turn six. Dutch kids are never pushed to be the best, they are constantly reassured that ‘a six out of ten is good enough’. Despite this apparent lack of aspiration, and the chocolate sprinkles that Dutch kids all eat for breakfast, Netherlanders do very well in the world. Holland boasts 21 Nobel Prize winners and Dutch inventors haven given the world the CD, the DVD, Bluetooth and wi-fi.
  Although the book was written before either author’s children hit puberty, both women are looking forward to relatively stress-free teenage years.
  The relaxed, but fully informed attitudes to sex, drugs and alcohol in Holland yields remarkably well-adjusted young people. Their low rates of teen pregnancy, drug abuse and binge drinking put us to shame.
  I would say all parents should read this book. But perhaps that’s just piling on unnecessary, Brit-style pressure. Maybe you should just go out for a bike ride with your kids in the rain then open the biscuits. Gezellig!

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