From Thursday 24th February to Tuesday 31st May 2005, the miniature city of Madurodam is celebrating the fiftieth birthday of miffy, writer and illustrator Dick Bruna’s most famous creation. For half a century now, miffy has been a well-known character all over the world. Since the fifties, Bruna achieved international sales of almost 85 million copies of stories involving miffy and other children's characters.

His small books have been translated into more than forty languages.The Madurodam exposition shows miffy's story through the years, based on many books, drawings and other materials. Children are encouraged to draw Bruna’s characters and can play with them. The exhibition also focuses on Bruna’s life story. During the exhibition period, Madurodam is open every day. No extra charges apply for the exhibition.

MIFFY
miffy was born in Egmond aan Zee on the Dutch coast, where Dick Bruna used to tell bedtime stories to his son about a rabbit. The first miffy book was called ‘miffy at the seaside’. When Dick Bruna drew miffy for the first time, it was not entirely clear whether the character would be a boy or a girl, but in 1955, when Bruna wrote the first book, she wore a dress. From then onwards, miffy would go through life as a girl. miffy is about as old as the children for whom the books are intended, which are zero to six-year-olds. Her exact age depends on the story. Sometimes she is two, sometimes four.

DICK BRUNA
Dick Bruna prepared, wrote and illustrated almost 100 books. His drawings are simple and they only show the major characteristics of a subject or animal. They actually look just like pictograms. He only draws in full face, not in profile. The books are always small (15.5 x 15.5 cm), so it is easy for small hands to handle them. The structure of all the books is the same: twelve illustrations on the right pages and four-line poems on the left pages. Dick Bruna always uses the same colours: red, blue, yellow, white and green and he finds inspiration for his pictures in the work of Mondriaan and Matisse.

MADURODAM
The Alkmaar cheese market, the Peace Palace of The Hague, the Royal Palace on Dam Square and canal houses of Amsterdam, the Cathedral Tower of Utrecht and parts of the world famous Delta works. Everything you expect to find in Holland and much more has been replicated to the smallest detail. And it’s all in full movement too! Windmills turn, aeroplanes land at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, sightseeing boats move down canals and modern trains travel from city to city on the world’s largest miniature railway.

The two restaurants offer spectacular panoramic views, especially when the evening falls and more than 50,000 lights create an enchanting atmosphere.

Set in beautiful flower gardens, a visit to Madurodam is truly a great day out for young and old alike!