Bartje Bartels is the main character in a series of Dutch books written by Anne de Vries from 1935 on. Bartje is a boy who lives with his poor family in the countryside of

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Jan ...

. His parents want him to become a farmer like his father, but Bartje has other ideas. He initially works as an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in ...

, but when his mother dies, he has to look after his younger brothers and sisters. There is a statue of Bartje in the city of

Assen Assen () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital (politics), capital of the province of Drenthe. It received City rights in ...

which has been vandalized several times.

Famous quotation

The most famous quotation from Bartje's books appears in a story in which the family is sitting at the table to eat brown beans. Bartje, who hates brown beans, pushes his plate away when his mother is about to give him some. He refuses to say

grace Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uni ...

(a prayer to thank God for the food they are about to eat) and says: ''Ik bid nie veur bruune boon'n '' (in modern Dutch: ''Ik bid niet voor bruine bonen'', meaning: ''I won’t thank God for brown beans''). His parents react with shock and he gets into big trouble.

Television series

Bartje's stories were adapted into a television series by

Willy van Hemert Willem Catharinus (Willy) van Hemert (29 March 1912 – 26 June 1993) was a Dutch actor and theatre and television director, but is best known as a songwriter who penned two winning Dutch songs for the Eurovision Song Contest. Biography Van Hem ...

. It aired in 1972 and again in 2004 and used Standard Dutch subtitles because the actors speak in a Drèents dialect.

References

Dutch children's books Dutch novels 1935 novels Fictional Dutch people Novels set in the Netherlands Child characters in literature Male characters in literature Dutch novels adapted into television shows 1972 Dutch television series debuts 1973 Dutch television series endings 2004 Dutch television series debuts 2004 Dutch television series endings Dutch children's television series Dutch drama television series Literary characters introduced in 1935 Culture of Drenthe {{novel-char-stub