Martijn van der Linden won a zilveren penseel (the Dutch literature prize that is awarded to the best illustrated children’s books of the past year) for his illustrations in the book: Wat je moet doen als je over een nijlpaard struikelt, a collection of poems written by the great Edward van de Vendel. In 2017 he also won this award for his picture book Tangram Cat, which he turned into gold later.