Yesterday, the Federal Emergency Management department removed the PDF of a children’s coloring book, intended to help children cope with disasters, from its website, following criticism over its inclusion of drawings of the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The book, titled A Scary Thing Happened, included pictures of the burning World Trade Center, floods, and a child running screaming from a house, with the word “FIRE” written in what appeared to be flames above his head. Told of the criticism by the Smoking Gun, the illustrator, Marlys Jentoft, a 68-year-old grandmother of ten, said she didn’t feel the images were offensive or disturbing at all. “I feel like it was happening in the world and kids saw it,” she said. “It is life.” She has a point! And come to think of it, there are a few other topics Jentoft could tackle. We’ve done her the favor of coming up with some ideas for her next project…
• What Smoking Is Doing to Grandma
• What Happened When Jenny Got in the Van
• Handguns: From Automatic to Z-Force
• Let’s Go to the Slaughterhouse!
• How Fish Sticks Are Made
• The Pokey Puppy II: The Red Lipstick
• The Big Book of Bad Touching
• What If There’s No Heaven? A Bedtime Story
• Am I Autistic?
• I Heard It in Mommy and Daddy’s Bedroom: A See N’ Say
• Not Everybody Poops: How Your Friend in the Wheelchair Goes Potty
We think all of those can really help children. Perhaps you have some other ideas?
FEMA’s Scary Thing [Smoking Gun]
