Author: Pelgrom, Els
Title: Het Verloren Paspoort
Description: Amsterdam. Kosmos. 1982. First edition. Duodecimo. Softcover. Near fine: small stain to outer top corners, els fine. 64 Pages. Dutch text. A very rare copy of this Dutch childrens book formed as a passport. In 1982, the author was asked to write a childrens story for the national Kinderboekenweek (week of the childrens book). Het Verloren Paspoort (The Lost Passport) is a story about a girl that loses her travelling document and the book was designed as a passport. The resemblance to real travel documents, however, was so striking that after some children tried to withdraw money from a bank using the book as identification, Dutch authorities banned the book and the complete stock was seized! Only a few copies made there way to the open market on the first day before the stock was taken and destroyed. The idea was, that children could fill in their own details and own their own passport. After the detail pages, the story begins with a few pages of stamps and visa. Although the resembance to a real passport of the time is remarkable, it was marked as "Passport of the Kingdom of the Cosmopolitans". Extremely rare and good fun!.

Keywords: Het Verloren Paspoort els pelgrom forbidden book childrens kinderboekenweek kinderboekenweekgeschenk