Why did a book deal fall apart over this drawing?
The English-language edition of Spiegel reports that Boyds Mill Press cancelled a proposed multi-volume book deal with German children’s book author/illustrator Rotraut Susanne Berner when she refused to remove two elements from the above drawing. You probably spotted the female nude at the left, but can you guess the other reason? No wonder there’s a blush on that woman’s cheeks!
And so the deal’s off—which means that, for now at least, the U.S. won’t be added to the 13 nations in which Berner’s series is already flourishing.