Who are Ot and Sien?
Q: Who are Ot and Sien?
A: Ot and Sien are two little children who appear in a series of stories written in Dutch more than a hundred years ago.
Q: What is the origin of the stories?
A: The ideas for the stories were given to Hendricus Scheepstra by Jan Ligthart, while Cornelis Jetses made the illustrations.
Q: Where do the stories take place?
A: The stories are set in Drenthe, which is located in the north-eastern part of the Netherlands.
Q: How did Ot and Sien live?
A: Although Drenthe was a very poor part of the country, Ot and Sien lived in a nice house and were quite well-off. They often played with their toys such as a wooden horse on wheels and a doll in a dolly’s pushchair.
Q: What was the purpose of these stories?
A: The authors wrote these stories to show happy family life; everyone was friendly with each other, strangers helped them when they got lost, and they had a servant who helped around their house.
Q: When did people stop reading these books at school?
A: People stopped reading these books at school after World War II because they had become old-fashioned; no one dressed like characters from this book anymore or had servants working for them.
Q: How has this book been celebrated recently?
A: In 2004, one hundred years after it was first published, there was an exhibition about Ot and Sien held in The Hague where there is also now a statue dedicated to them that was made back in 1930.
