Oops! (Mack)

A cute new book for author Mack, the author or A Hundred Kisses Before Bedtime & A Little Bite For You about trying new things

Baby animals are ready to try all sorts of new things. But . . . oops! What do they do when they fall down? They get up and try again!

A cute little book about taking first steps. For risk-takers ages 12 months and up, with a focus on the child's world.

At Clavis, our focus is on what's best for children. We believe that books play an important role in each new phase in life. Our toddler books are tailored for every stage from 0 to 3 and focus on the five most important themes in their life: daily life, skills, emotions, the world, and language development. The age range and theme of every book in our toddler series can be found on the back cover in the form of a colored train.

Mack (1960, the Netherlands) is a graphic designer and illustrator from The Netherlands. He was educated at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. During his education he made funny and educational cartoons about, among others, penguins and whales. These cartoons were later bought by the ‘Diergaarde Blijdorp’-zoo in Rotterdam. By now Mack is a regular illustrator at this animal park and he is the author of several children’s books, in which animals often are the lead characters.

Mack has a primitive way of drawing. He gets inspired by African art and the paintings of the Australian aboriginals. Both create an immense power by simplifying shapes. Mack wants to combine that powerful simplification with a subtle sense of humour.

“In my books I try to teach children something in a funny way,” Mack says. “If I draw a penguin, it doesn’t matter to me that much how pretty he is or how good of an swimmer he is. What I want to show the most is how baggy he stands on the ice and how funny his walk is. That funny bagginess is what I try to catch in a couple of lines. Only when children can laugh about it, I think to myself: ‘Yes, I did it’.”