Vriendenboek (A Friends’ Book)

I'm super proud to announce a little project I've been working on with my friend Julie Marabelle (the super talented lady behind the well known brand Famille Summerbelle) and Snor, the coolest publishers here in the Netherlands: we made a Friends' Book!

Now, if you're not Dutch (or Belgian, or German) you probably have no idea what a Friends' Book is... Our 'Vriendenboek' (Friends’ Book) consists of 31 double pages with pre-printed questions -- one to be filled out by the owner of the book (the 'This is me' section), the rest is meant for 30 friends and/or classmates.

There are passport-like questions (like name, address, length, hobbies, sort hair, favourite school subject, etc), but also more creative questions such as 'What is the nicest thing you and I did together', 'Draw your dream house' or 'This is what my bed looks like'. There's  space for a photo, which is carried by a character in underwear that can be dressed with the cool clothes stickers that come with the book.

The book is typically aimed at children of the age of 4 to 12 (primary school age), and the idea is that it's a record of a specific year in your childhood, a record of your friends, but also of the zeitgeist of a specific era. My dad just emptied out his basement and he dropped of some boxes of stuff my mum had kept for me, and coincidentally I found my own friends' book from 1984/85. It's just brilliant reading the answers!

Some examples: best film: Annie, E.T., Ghost Busters, First Blood (!). Best pop group: Wham, Duran Duran, UB40. What I want to be: Farmer, Housewife, Truckdriver, Horse Stall Cleaner. And goes on. So good! I wonder what has become of all of those childhood friends. I hope they are living their dreams! : )

Julie and I have been brainstorming and designing to come up with a modern, cool and good-looking friendship book filled with fun and interesting questions, and it is finally here. And I'm so happy with how it turned out! The way the paper feels, the way the colours turned out, the quality of the stickers in the back -- it's all beautiful!

At the moment, the Friends' Book is only available in Dutch... You can find it in my shop!

xxx Esther

(All photo credits: Yvonne Eijkenduijn of Yvestown)