Maarten Vlaar

As a boy growing up in the Netherlands, Maarten Vlaar spent more time with his books than his friends. His earliest memories are of him wrapped tightly in his covers, falling asleep to his dad voice while he read to him. His parents were not rich, but never refused to by a book for him. A family tradition that Marteen has continued with his own young children. Maarten’s life changed while reading THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN at age thirteen. The novel made such an impression, he vowed to one day live in the United States. In high school, Maarten spent a year as an exchange student in Missouri, the land of Mark Twain. Marteen was disappointed not to find wooden rafts and steamboats chugging their way up and down the Mississippi, but was undeterred in his desire to become a U.S.