Ot en Sien is a Dutch children's book series, written by Hindericus Scheepstra, a teacher in Drenthe, the Netherlands. It centers around two little children, a boy named Ot and a girl named Sien. It was the start of a new method of writing children's books and had profound influence on Dutch elementary education in the first half of the twentieth century The authors Ot and Sien are the main characters in a series of Dutch children's tales that were very popular in the first half of the twentieth century. The first series titled ('Close to home'), appeared in 1902. The second series ('Still with mother'), followed in 1904. The author of the stories was Hindericus Scheepstra. However, he acted on the inspiration of Jan Ligthart, who had the intention to expose young people to what he considered a healthy daily family life. The illustrations were made by . After WWII the stories of Ot and Sien gradually went out of fashion and they were often ridiculed for the unrealistic picture they gave of life in the province. A century after their appearance there is a revival in the interest for the publications and in 2004 an exposition was held, focusing mostly on the artwork by Jetses. The characters Ot (short for Otto) and Sien (short for e.g. Francine) are two next door neighbors, a boy and a girl. Their illustrations were based on two children that actually lived in Jetses' neighborhood. The stories are situated in Drenthe that was at the time the most impoverished province of the Netherlands where quite a few people were still living in dwellings constructed of peat and sods. The surrounding poverty is nowhere to be seen in the stories that depict a very idealized version of reality. Ligthart's philosophy What Ligthart intended was to give a description of the daily family interactions of the main characters as a means to set an idealized example "where from an early age Father and Mother relate to each other and to the children, where a civilized and wellwilling tone is dominant, where the parents give a living example of friendliness, adaptability and sacrifice on a daily basis, not only towards each other and the children, but also towards the servants and the guests" Influence on education Ligthart's philosophy was followed by many teachers in elementary schools in the Netherlands and the "Ot en Sien" books became