BTW I finally typed up an honest text post review of the colouring book.
It's going on here first.
The Genderific Colouring Book - an honest review.
So a while back, I got in contact with an indie artist named Sophie Labelle who runs a tumblr/Facebook webcomic called Assigned Male. Labelle was offering to mail out copies of a colouring book she had created FREE for bloggers and the like to review. I run a youtube channel where I post product reviews aimed at kids and teenagers so I thought “Hmm, this could be fun. I quite like this artist’s work and surely her colouring book can’t be that bad!”
Boy was I in for a shock.
Note that this is a critique, and I am including ways in which the artist could better this book should she choose to print a revised edition, which I sincerely hope she does. I have decided to write the review in the form of a text post because I can’t bring myself to state an honest opinion on youtube – it’s easier doing it by text.
The book itself is called the Genderific Colouring Book and was initially sold through Labelle’s Etsy. I can’t remember the exact price, but from what I remember it wasn’t an amount that I’d have paid for a book of this quality. At the time of writing, the book appears to have been taken off her Etsy page.
First off, the quality of the book, as well as the cover and back. The cover and back of the book are incredibly monotone, employing a murky grey/blue and white gradient for the background. The illustrations on the front are pretty dull, depicting two children wearing incredibly dull clothes. For a book for kids, it’s incredibly dull looking. Young children go for BRIGHT colours, not murky ones. At the time of writing this I am an aunt to a 3 month old baby, and I know for a fact babies and young kids LOVE bright colours. If Labelle prints a revised edition, she should re-do the cover. Some of her art that is posted on her Facebook is incredibly bright and stands out in order to make it appealing to children and young adults (Assigned Male’s target audience), so I know she is capable of making nice, bright, appealing art.
The book is printed on incredibly cheap, glossy paper as the artist chose to vanity publish the book herself rather than put it through an actual publisher. This sort of paper is near impossible to colour on with any material except for poster paints. Now I am all for vanity publishing if the person publishing the book, journal etc has access to the correct materials and can put it through a semi reliable printer, however the artist of this book doesn’t appear to have access to any of those things. If the artist was to make a revised edition, she should consider printing it on paper that is actually colourable and is of a better quality.
As the book is vanity published, there is no ISBN number on the back, nor is there a barcode. That’s only a minor point, and just something I figured I should point out. Colouring books don’t usually have ISBN numbers anyway.
Now, onto the content of the book itself. The content, in my opinion, would be more suited to a book aimed at tweens and teenagers, and not young children. Kids literally have no concept of gender roles or sexuality anyway, so in a way this book seems like it is trying to force them into trying to understand something they legitimately will not fully understand until they are older. If this is the way the artist was taught as she was growing up, then alright, fair enough, but if it was she is being a little bit hypocritical by trying to force her views upon others in the form of a propagandistic colouring book.
The artwork in the book is bold and interesting, using bigger shapes and friendly looking illustrations. This is probably the ONLY positive point I have to make about this book. The art is of a good quality for a children’s colouring book, as children love big bold shapes, especially in colouring books as they are much easier for younger kids to colour. This would all be OK if you could actually colour on the paper. However, you can’t.
In conclusion, the book is NOT worth the money the artist is selling it for on Etsy. She is only able to sell it for that price as it was vanity published. I can guarantee you that if this book were published through an agent or an actual company, it would retail for a LOT less. If you want to educate your YOUNG children on gender and sexuality, there are plenty of other resources available through other sites and various local health boards.
