Don’t judge a book by its cover! Mum accidentally buys X-rated book for son

The old saying goes, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’, but one Sydney mum was left red-faced this week after doing exactly that. Journalist Ariane Beeston made an embarrassing blunder after accidentally purchasing a rather graphic book for her eight-year-old son.

After trawling an online bookstore to find the perfect gift for her penguin-obsessed son, and browsing more than 400 titles, Beeston settled upon a book titled ‘Penguins’, which features a cute cover depicting small black and white cartoon penguins. However, what she didn’t realise at the time was, the book is actually intended for adults and features an array of X-rated comics, including one of an “exploding phallus”.

Beeston saw the funny side though and documented her hilarious mistake on social media. She also penned a tongue-in-cheek article post for site Essential Baby – where she works as a staff writer – in which she described her shock upon receiving the book. However, judging by what she found, it’s a good job she decided to have a flick through it herself first.

“I place my order and feel pretty pleased with myself – until it arrives, that is. It was not what I expected. And let me just say, it was mostly certainly graphic,” Beeston wrote.

“Instead of cute, comic, penguins, as I flicked through the increasingly odd (but cool!) drawings, there, between the pages, I found an exploding phallus. An. Exploding. Phallus.”

Well friends it arrived today. And I had a flick through and let me just say it’s not for nine year olds. pic.twitter.com/pLe0FK0To9

— Ariane Beeston (@ArianeBeeston) June 17, 2020

It’s easy to see where the confusion stemmed from though as the book’s description simply states: “Penguins is a series of interconnected short comic strips that, sans words or human characters, showcases the breadth of emotion we as humans experience. Black & white illustrations with some colour.”