Dutch Literary Characters: Bob Evers


Figure 1.--Here you'll find the cover of Bob Eversbook nr. 28 "Bombarie om een bunker". That translates in English as "TroubleH/ullabaloo about a Bunker". It might be clear who is to be seen on it. Arie Roos is just returning from the grocer. About the story: it is the second book out of three where the boys find in Germany - deep in a forest - an abandoned bunker, full of art and paintings, stolen by the NAZIs during World War II.

Bob Evers is not a Dutch boy, he is American. But he is an American boy living in the Netherlands. He has two Dutch friends, Jan Prins and Arie Roos. They live in Amsterdam. Arie is a fat boy (always hungry) with ginger hair - he is also the genius who often figures out the solution for a problem. Jan Prins (and that is very interesting) is a boy who is almost similar to our friend Nip (Brian) Challons from the English Jim Starling series. He is concerned about both food and clothes. Another hilarious fact about Jan Prins is his fear about spending one penny to much for something. Bob (and especially Arie) do not have this fear. Sometimes Jan is talking to his two friends: "I tell you both.... you will die totally broken" Arie just raises his shoulders and says something like: "Well, what is so bad about that? Should somebody be more happy when he dies as a rich man, after a life full of scraping pennies?. We have fun with our money, you just trouble. The point is: you don't own money; the money owns YOU". And Jan reacts like: "you know very well what I mean". What makes a grinning Arie en Bob say: "Yeah, maybe TO well". A Dutch reader suggests that we should add Bob Evers to our Dutch list. "About Bob Evers. It is a good idea to pay some attention to it. You have to know there is a mailing list about it in Holland where a lot of discussions take place, concerning the advenures, the caracters and the author who had the habit to give excisting people and (often hidden) really happend incidents a role or a place in the stories. You could compare the popularity of Bob Evers in Holland (especcially in the 1950s) with Jennings or Biggles in England. There was really a regular chaos when a new Bob Evers-title came out. Children were running to the bookstore to be sure they won't come out with empty hands. I have not seen it myself, for I am born in 1957 but this all is often written in newspapers and magazines. The same image was later to be seen in libraries. My mother spoke with a female librarian who sighed desperatly: "Only Santa Claus is able to make MORE children coming in action". Generally speaking, today reading books has become less of course, propbaly due to the fact there is Internet now, DVD and so on... What Bob Evers is concerning about, there are still "diehards", aged between 35 and 60 (and sometimes older) and a new (smaller) young generation. This last group is reading the Bob Evers-stories only because they became very curious why their fathers are speaking so enthusiastically about this series. And sometimes there is a reporter who writes an article like: "Do you remember Bob Evers?" (Between 1949 and 1993 there were 5 million books published).

Author

The author of "Bob Evers" was: Willy van der Heide (1915-85).

Characters

Bob Evers is not a Dutch boy, he is American. But he is an American boy living in the Netherlands. He has two Dutch friends, Jan Prins and Arie Roos. They live in Amsterdam. Arie is a fat boy (always hungry) with ginger hair - he is also the genius who often figures out the solution for a problem. Jan Prins (and that is very interesting) is a boy who is almost similar to our friend Nip (Brian) Challons from the English Jim Starling series. He is concerned about both food and clothes. Another hilarious fact about Jan Prins is his fear about spending one penny to much for something. Bob (and especially Arie) do not have this fear. Sometimes Jan is talking to his two friends: "I tell you both.... you will die totally broken" Arie just raises his shoulders and says something like: "Well, what is so bad about that? Should somebody be more happy when he dies as a rich man, after a life full of scraping pennies?. We have fun with our money, you just trouble. The point is: you don't own money; the money owns YOU". And Jan reacts like: "you know very well what I mean". What makes a grinning Arie en Bob say: "Yeah, maybe TO well".

Series

Here you'll find the cover of Bob Eversbook nr. 28 "Bombarie om een bunker". That translates in English as "Trouble about a bunker". A Dutch reader suggests a little better translation is "Hullabaloo about a bunker". It might be ovious who is pictured here on the cover. Arie Roos is just returning from the grocer. About the story: it is the second book out of three where the boys find in Germany - deep in a forest - an abandoned bunker, full of art and paintings, stolen by the NAZIs during World War II. The story is set in 1958. About the other books. 27: "Kunstgrepen met kunstschatten" (Art with arts = the boys find out there is a smuggling of paintings, disappeared in World War II) 28: "Bombarie om een bunker" (Trouble about a bunker = the boys find out about the bunker). 29 "Ali Roos als Arie Baba" (Ali Roos as Arie Baba = the boys do really find this bunker. When Arie gets in at first, he is speaking the historical words: "Here I am; Ali Roos as Arie Baba").

Popularity

A Dutch reader suggests that we should add Bob Evers to our Dutch list. "About Bob Evers. It is a good idea to pay some attention to it. You have to know there is a mailing list about it in Holland where a lot of discussions take place, concerning the advenures, the caracters and the author who had the habit to give excisting people and (often hidden) really happend incidents a role or a place in the stories. You could compare the popularity of Bob Evers in Holland (especcially in the 1950s) with Jennings or Biggles in England. There was really a regular chaos when a new Bob Evers-title came out. Children were running to the bookstore to be sure they won't come out with empty hands. I have not seen it myself, for I am born in 1957 but this all is often written in newspapers and magazines. The same image was later to be seen in libraries. My mother spoke with a female librarian who sighed desperatly: "Only Santa Claus is able to make MORE children coming in action". Generally speaking, today reading books has become less of course, propbaly due to the fact there is Internet now, DVD and so on... What Bob Evers is concerning about, there are still "diehards", aged between 35 and 60 (and sometimes older) and a new (smaller) young generation. This last group is reading the Bob Evers-stories only because they became very curious why their fathers are speaking so enthusiastically about this series. And sometimes there is a reporter who writes an article like: "Do you remember Bob Evers?" (Between 1949 and 1993 there were 5 million books published).








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Created: 6:43 PM 4/18/2005
Last updated: 6:08 AM 4/19/2005