a ubiquitous teaching tool for reading in elementary schools. This phenomenon lasted until late in the 1950s and is one of the most remarkable developments in education in the country. Generations of children in the ever more urbanizing and suburbanizing society grew up with an idyllic and rather unrealistic view of what family life should be like and apparently was like in the country side of Drenthe. Few city kids ever experienced that and their parents certainly did not have a servant in the house. Knowing this, one is also aware that small-town life is usually less expensive. Still in the 1980s, Ot en Sien were very present in the lives of the children that grew up in Drenthe; their stories are a classic and loved both by young and old. They have left a strong impression on those who had the luck of having a simple and perhaps a somewhat naíve childhood, growing up in this province. Monuments In the Hague a statue of Ot and Sien was erected in 1930. The text was to read "In memory of Jan Ligthart" but his widow Marie Lion Cachet objected to this because she knew that her husband had not actually written the stories, although he had given his friend Scheepstra continuous advice. Scheepstra had the advantage that he was a Drenthe native and so could add a measure of local color to the stories. The inscription therefore was amended to "In memory of Jan Ligthart and H. Scheepstra". Later the town of Roden in Drenthe also dedicated a monument to Ot and Sien and their creators. Dutch expressions , ('like Ot and Sien'): childishly simple. , ('From the time of Ot and Sien'): from the good old days, from olden days. Literature Jan A. Niemeijer (1997) Kijk, Ot en Sien, een klassieker in de Nederlandse jeugdliteratuur. 2e druk Baarn, Uitgeverij Callenbach. (in Dutch) Dutch children's books 1902 children's books Literary duos Fictional Dutch people Child characters in literature Male characters in literature Female characters in literature Literary characters introduced in 1902