Dikkie Dik

Dikkie Dik book cover

Dikkie Dik is a Dutch series of children's picture books, starring the eponymous red tomcat Dikkie Dik. The books are drawn by author Jet Boeke, and feature short, concise texts by Arthur van Norden. The series started in 1978 as part of the Dutch version of the children's TV show Sesame Street, but soon the stories appeared in book stores.

On Sesame Street the stories were read aloud by Piet Hendriks, with recurring characters like Tommie, Pino or Troel listening. In the early 1980s the stories in Sesame Street were told by Rudy Kuhn, with some children as an audience, and in 1985 Frank Groothof took over.

In 2000 Boeke received the Kiekeboekprijs for her book Waar is Dikkie Dik?, as the best book for toddlers of the year.

Issues

• 1991 - Dikkie Dik gaat buiten spelen.
• 1998 - Het blauwe blokboekje
• 1998 - Het groene blokboekje
• 1998 - Dikkie Dik Voorleesboek 2
• 1998 - Dikkie Dik naar het strand
• 1998 - Het rode blokboekje
• 1999 - Het gele blokboekje
• 1999 - Het geblokte blokboekje
• 1999 - Het roze blokboekje
• 1999 - Het witte blokboekje
• 1999 - Het oranje blokboekje
• 1999 - Het dikkerdandikke avonturenboek
• 2000 - De ballon
• 2001 - Dikkie Dik gaat in bad
• 2003 - Dikkie Dik jarig!
• 2004 - Dikkie Dik Kiekeboekje
• 2005 - Het vier verhalen boek
• 2005 - Dikkie Dik viert Sinterklaas
• 2005 - Dikkie Dik viert Kerstmis
• 2006 - Dikkie Dik telt voor tien
• 2007 - Welterusten Dikkie Dik
• 2008 - Het dikke verjaardagsboek
• 2008 - Dikkie Dik knisperboekje
• 2010 - Puzzelboek Dikkie Dik viert feest
• 2011 - Het dubbeldikke voorleesboek van Dikkie Dik

Satire

The theatershow Sex of the Dutch theater group De Vliegende Panters contains a persiflage on Dikkie Dik (in fact it's a parody of the narrator of Surinamese origin Rudy Kuhn, who read in the program Sesame Street from Dikkie Dik in the eighties), in which he stole a car radio and put a shot. The theatershow Sex was performed in 1996. At that time Rudy Kuhn hadn't been on Sesame Street for 10 years.