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A Political Children’s Book With Universal Appeal
The political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow has written his first children’s book about a penguin who gets a town to stop blindly following their mayor’s “very silly ideas.” Once Sparky the Penguin starts speaking out against the insanity of forcing all the town’s residents to, for instance, paint their houses green and purple, the whole town gradually admits that they were just going along with the mayor because they didn’t want to be laughed at.
I love Tomorrow’s witty, incisive cartoons, so I expected to enjoy The Very Silly Mayor, a picture book aimed at kids four to eight years-old. What I didn’t expect was that it was actually written for four-year-olds. While adults could certainly draw some parallels between The Very Silly Mayor and the political climate of the last eight years, young kids could just as easily fall in love with the book without ever thinking it’s about anything more than a funny mayor and a cool penguin.
Sure, you could substitute George W. Bush for the “very silly mayor,” but you could also substitute anybody who people blindly follow: the school bully, a hypocritical preacher. The penguin’s calm, commonsense approach to righting wrongs teaches kids that it’s much easier to speak their minds than they may think. And the mayor’s “silly ideas”–such as fighting fires with peanut butter and making police officers wear clown suits–are sure to have kids laughing out loud.
If you’re still concerned that the book will be too political to captivate kids, take a look at this video, in which a young reader summarizes the plot. There’s lots of mention of penguins, firetrucks, and “nice dogs,” but, oddly enough, no allusion to Dubya.
The Very Silly Mayor from Tom Hoffman on Vimeo.
Photo: verysillymayor.com
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0 Comments
Amanda B. commented on Oct 28 09 at 2:47 pmSo, people “blindly” followed Bush, but not Obama, Mr. Cult of Personality himself? That’s hilarious.
edgar mevers commented on Oct 29 09 at 8:36 amI’m your average liberal democrat, so I’m clearly on the poster’s “team,” but the potshots at Bush are lame. Bad leadership is all over the place.
Eric commented on Oct 29 09 at 10:50 amWell I’m not on the poster’s “team” and I haven’t read the book; but, teaching kids that the government can do some terribly stupid things and that you need to call them on it sounds like a good thing to me.
Dad commented on Oct 29 09 at 11:05 ammost of the liberal slamming obama for not pushing the public option harder don’t seem to be blindly following him.
Hannah Tennant-Moore commented on Oct 29 09 at 2:40 pmI agree, Dad, and there’s many examples like that. Also, though, Tom Tomorrow is a left wing political writer, so the references to Bush are a reference to Tomorrow’s typical satire.
patricia commented on Oct 29 09 at 3:48 pmJust because some of the president’s supporters aren’t blindly following him on everything doesn’t mean that there aren’t also supporters who DO blindly follow him on everything, so I really thought Dad’s point was completely misplaced. The real point that Amanda B. and edgar mevers were making is that most popular politicians have blind followers, so to single Bush out for especial criticism like this post seemed to, is disingenuous. However, I know Tomorrow’s work, and assumed that is why there were so many otehrwise-gratuitous references to Bush in the post.
Dad commented on Oct 29 09 at 8:50 pmthanks for setting me completely straight, Patricia. Don’t know what I’d do without your help…
patricia commented on Oct 31 09 at 11:41 amDad, you are always welcome! ;)
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