Finding English Books for Children in the Netherlands

April 2022

My older daughter is a voracious reader. To give you an idea of just how voracious: we have a house rule of no more than 1 new book a day. We were frequent fliers at our local library back in California, and I've had to figure out how to keep up with her appetite now that we live in Amsterdam. We are members of the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam (OBA, the Amsterdam Public Library) here, but I still needed to find a way to keep her well-supplied with books in English as well. In this post I will document all the ways in which we access English books, in ascending order of cost - from free to €€€.

Free: Libby and (optionally) a Kindle

Libby is an app that allows you to borrow ebooks from a library. Link it to your U.S. library card and ta-da! you have access to all the digital books in your library's collection.

Libby lets you search by author, title, etc. You can read in-app with Libby, or have the book you borrowed sent to your Kindle. If you want to read on your Kindle or Kindle app, you can set your preferences for Libby to only show you books that can be read on the Kindle.

You can borrow books or place them on hold. My library allows for 10 ebooks to be borrowed at a time.

Once you borrow a book you are given the option of reading it on your Kindle. If you choose that option you will be redirected to Amazon to sign in and have the book sent to your Kindle or Kindle app.

If you don't have a U.S. library card, you might be able to purchase one from one of the U.S. library systems that allow non-residents to apply for library cards online, or borrow one from U.S.-resident friends or family.

€1: Borrow from the OBA

The OBA (Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam) is Amsterdam's public library system. Membership is free for children (also, no late fines for children). The main branch near the Central Station has a few shelves worth of English books for children, but our local branch has zero. The good news is that you can reserve a book from OBA's online catalogue. Set your taal to Engels and search the catalog. When you find the book you want click on the Reserveer button.

And for a fee of €1, you can have that book delivered to your local library for you to borrow.

OBA's English language collection is modest, so don't plan to treat this as your main source of books.

€: JojoBelle Children's Books

This is a Facebook shop run by Gaby Petzl, a local mother of two. Gaby is a wizard. I can find no other explanation for how she manages to conjure up the books she does at the prices she offers. Her shop does not have a website. You follow her Facebook page and then you will see the posts that Gaby makes when she has books available. She sells new books. Her posts describe the book's genre, the recommended reading age range, how many she has available and at what price. A typical post looks like this:

accompanied by lots of lovely pictures:

If you want to buy something you send her a message on FB messenger. She offers pickup from Amstelveen (no extra costs) or you can pay for postage. She responds promptly and sends the books out in a day or two. If you opt for the postage option she sends you a tikkie request for payment and the tracking information for your books.

The only downside? Unlike a traditional book store you can't shop for what you want - you choose from what is available. However Gaby has a continuous supply of books and you should have no trouble finding something that suits your children.

And did I mention her prices? Here is one example of what I've paid: €23 for 1 David Walliams book and 3 magic treehouse books (and that includes postage!). Fantastic!

€€: Better World Books

Better World Books is an online bookstore for new and used books. Every time you order a book from them, they donate one book to charity. Shipping is free.

I've given them a €€ designation for their used books. Their new books are typically pricier than some of the €€€ options listed below.

€€€: Other Stores

There are a number of physical book stores located in Amsterdam that have a pretty decent selection of children's books in English, and some of them have even more available in their online catalogs.

• The American Book Center is an independent book store. They also have branches in Den Haag and Leidschendam.
• Waterstones. You can browse their extensive online catalog and ask for books to be delivered for pickup at their Amsterdam store.
• Scheltema has been around since 1853 and is the largest bookstore in Amsterdam. It is super fun for kids in person (they have a pirate ship, amongst other things).
• Athenaeum, another independent store with a modest online collection of children's books in English. The Van Rossum branch has a cute English section for kids in-store.
• The Little Bookshop is a family-owned shop in Wassenaar that specializes in English books for children. I've never visited the store, but you can order online as well and they charge the standard PostNL rate of €7.25 for packages up to 10 kgs.

In the online space, offering worldwide free shipping we have The Book Depository. It has the biggest collection, but also tends to be the priciest.

For reference, I've compared the price of 'The Midnight Gang' at these bookstores:

Scheltema did not have the paperback version of 'The Midnight Gang' available for comparison, but they do have other books by David Walliams for €9.95. The Little Bookshop website does not have a search function, so I did not include it in the comparison - in general the prices seem to be in line with the other stores mentioned here.