I’ve been quiet for a while as behind the scenes myself and the US team have been busy getting to the bottom of the Great American Paper Caper…

Here’s what we’ve discovered…

1. Printing Errors. Very unfortunately some copies of the US edition of Rooms of Wonder have a printing error. I’m so incredibly sorry. We work hard to try and bring you a wonderful book each time we publish a new title, so to have this go wrong at the printers is so upsetting. We’re speaking to our printers to find out exactly why this happened and avoid it ever happening again.

2. Wrinkles. We have learned that delicate wrinkles near the edge of the page are sometimes made by clamps. This is apparently common, but the thicker colouring book paper makes it more obvious. Personally, I don’t want those wrinkles there, so we’re looking at ways to minimize or avoid this in the future. More to come on that soon.

3. New Paper. A few months ago, we had to switch to a new paper because my original US printer decommissioned the press, and no other US printers could print on the original thick paper. I want to keep my books affordable and accessible, so we switched the paper. I spoke about this change in interviews and live videos, but didn’t write this information down anywhere, so it came as a surprise to many of you when you discovered that Rooms of Wonder in the US was printed on a new, white paper. I’m sorry folks – I should have communicated this this in writing as well, and I sincerely apologise for the frustration

4. Paper Queries. I shared that after extensive testing, I chose the same paper as Kerby Rosane’s uses in the US. I’d seen incredible colouring in his books, so I knew it was a great foundation for your colouring. Some colourists were concerned that their books were printed on a different paper to the Kerby books, so we had a selection of these books shipped back to the Penguin HQ to be examined. Thankfully, we found they were all printed on the Kerby paper, phew! I think it’s helpful to keep in mind that paper is a natural resource, so slight differences between batches is normal – no 2 trees are identical, so we’d always expect small variations between papers.

I can’t lie, this has been a tricky chapter for myself and the US team. We were so sad and frustrated that our beautiful new book didn’t reach many of you perfectly and took every message and email seriously. We’ve had some tough conversations and asked everyone involved how we can put this right. We’re making good progress here. Thank you all for your understanding and patience as we pieced this together and know that the work is still on-going.

Much love,

Johanna x