Vociferous unanimity was the keynote when this superb example of equality in the collaboration between editors, designers and publisher was added to the selection.
Obviously there was much laughter during the discussion of this seemingly gridless yet still highly coherent ‘more serious’ book from De Harmonie about puberty and sexuality. Clearly much thought had gone into all the fold-outs, not to mention the pop-up.
The whole thing has the nostalgic air of the VPRO broadcasting company in its cheeky young days, when without warning this subject could come off the rails in hilarious fashion. In short, this is a bold book aimed squarely at the target audience. Even the included goodies such as the explicit ‘nude memory game’ don’t shy away from any aspect of puberty and sexuality. The final touch is a brilliant reversible dust jacket, a piece of sheer genius which if desired can be used to conceal the cover proper – an agreeable integral (‘Dutch binding’) example – from the outside world.
Panel members did find themselves wondering who would actually buy this book. However, it was noted that those with teenage offspring wasted no time in buying a copy to take home.