17th-century Madrid is not a kind place for a dwarf like Bartolome, and his family has to keep him hidden in a small back room. His dream is to be able to read and write, and when he hears that a dwarf like himself works in the King's court, he is heartened, knowing that he could have the chance to make something of himself, too.

Then a plan goes awfully wrong, and the king's little daughter, the Infanta, sees Bartolome and wants to have him as her `human dog'. Life in the royal palace is scary and humiliating - until Bartolome discovers the artist's studio ...

Colourful, gripping, and written with real warmth, this is an inspiring story of courage and hope. Van Kooij's beautiful prose brings us into Bartolome's life and, through his eyes, writes about how being different ultimately makes an already strong boy even stronger.

Selected for IBBY's Outstanding Books for Young People With Disabilities catalogue 2013.

There are 208 pages in this book. This book was published 2012 by Little Island .

Siobhan Parkinson is one of Ireland's leading authors for children and teenagers, and she has won numerous awards for her writing. Siobhan lives in Dublin with her husband and grown-up son. Rachel van Kooij was born in the Dutch city of Wageningen in 1968. She moved to Austria at the age of 10, and later studied Special Needs Teaching at Vienna University. She now lives in Klosterneuburg near Vienna and works with handicapped people. The last time we talked to her she was up a tree (it was a mobile phone conversation), surrounded by a bunch of kids. She was teaching them tree-climbing (we think). She has written several children's books, for both younger kids and older ones. She says of herself: `I write about the things I like to read about. ' Her book Battolome is Little Island's most international book: written in German by a Dutch Austrian, set in Spain, translated into English and published in Ireland.