Meet book designer Marijke Friesen. Marijke designs incredible looking books for publishers. When we decided to make a book for our fairy tale-themed mystery, The Enchanted Slumber, Marijke gamely agreed to help us with the project.
We didn’t know how to make a book. We had the story, so that was a good start. We knew we wanted the book to be hard-cover and we really wanted details like gold embossing, a ribbon bookmark and envelopes hidden inside so we could enclose messages sealed with wax. A wonderful artist by the name of Joy Broadbent painted the illustrations for us. And Marijke took all of these elements and brought them together to create a book that’s not just beautiful, it’s magical.
Marijke also worked with us on our espionage-themed mystery Spies, Lies and Serious Bad Guys. She designed the “SHOE Guide for Spies,” the passport sized spy handbook that is essential for any junior agent in training.
The handbook is small but mighty, packed full of spy history, how-to tips, clues and illustrations. Marijke put all of that information together and made it into something fun, cool, useful and awesome.
“I love working on Mail Order Mystery projects,” says Marijke. “The mysteries and the elements that go with them are so creative and unusual. I get to design stuff I would otherwise never get to do. I loved working on the book for the princess and the dragon because the illustrations are gorgeous and the story is lovely.”
My granddaughter loved it… along with “grandma” finished it up ahead of schedule as they were having so much fun! The only complaint is the secret gift whoopie cushion popped immediately… I think we got a faulty one. We will do this again!
This is the second time I've purchased a Mail Order Mystery for my granddaughter. They are fun & she really looks forward it. I do feel they are a little pricey but they give me inspiration and then I add things to it to prolong the fun.
