Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under my Bed
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Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under my Bed! (ISBN 0-9767269-0-4) is a children's picture book that depicts caricatures of left-wing politicians such as Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy in order to advocate conservative values. It was written by Katharine DeBrecht and was published by World Ahead Publishing in 2005. DeBrecht told the media that she felt compelled to write the book because "children are inundated with (liberal) books like 'It's Just a Plant: A Children's Story of Marijuana' and 'No George, No: The Reparenting of George W. Bush.'"[1]
[edit] Background
The book set off a firestorm of controversy when US News & World Report announced it, calling it "a picture book for kid conservatives." [2] The website Democratic Underground named the author to its "Top 10 Conservative Idiots" list. [3] Blogger Andrew Sullivan said the book reminded him of Chairman Mao and even mistakenly claimed it contained nudity, a charge later mocked by the Wall Street Journal.[4]
Radio host Rush Limbaugh later chimed in and praised the book, [5] causing it to soar up the Amazon.com sales charts to the point where it trailed only the latest edition Harry Potter in children's books.[6] Foreign media in the UK[7], Australia[8], and India[9] amusingly covered this American brouhaha over a kid's book.
Responding to the media coverage, Philippe Reines, the press secretary for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton -- who is one of the book's cartoon villains -- fired back, “Can’t wait for the sequel, Help! Mom! I Can’t Read This Book Because Republicans Have Cut Literacy Programs!” [10] This caused author DeBrecht to reply: "It's ironic that Hillary's press secretary would call for more government intrusion into our lives while bashing my book...Evidently Hillary thinks it takes a village to teach a child to read!" Reines later responsed by claiming that sales of the book must have been poor, in spite of evidence to the contrary.[11]
At the end of 2005, the New York Times announced that the book was one of the most blogged about books of the year. [12] It was also profiled in Publishers Weekly.[13]
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/11/18/02122.shtml
- ^ http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/whispers/articles/050829/29whisplead_2.htm
- ^ http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/05/214.html
- ^ http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110007323
- ^ http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46451
- ^ http://www.americandaily.com/article/9433
- ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/09/wclin09.xml
- ^ http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/right-takes-on-left-to-make-hillary-a-villain/2005/10/09/1128796409971.html
- ^ http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051010/asp/foreign/story_5340568.asp
- ^ http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Features/CapitalLiving/101905_know.html
- ^ http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47198
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/blogged-books.html
- ^ http://publishersweekly.com/article/CA6277001.html?pubdate=10%2F24%2F2005&display=current
