Michelle Cottle writing in The New Republic, tells the story about a new set of books for children.
Some days, modern parenthood feels like an ever-expanding spiral of anxiety. Is your child watching too much “Wiggles”? Will she be seduced by an Internet predator? Will video games inspire him to shoot up his preschool? As if this situation weren’t stressful enough, Eric Jackson, chairman and co-founder of World Ahead Publishing, wants conservative parents to contemplate one more nightmarish scenario: What if, God forbid, your indescribably precious offspring grows up to become … a liberal?With an eye to forestalling such heartbreak, last September, the Torrance, California-based press, which touts itself as “the West Coast’s leading conservative publisher,” launched its own children’s division, Kids Ahead. While the adult imprint focuses on titles addressing “serious and weighty matters” like Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine, Kids Ahead aims to bring the conservative message to the playdate set. The mission, explains Jackson, “is providing books for families who have traditional values, if you will, and who want to have books to use as a tool to pass on those values to their children.”
Thus far, the new imprint has only one writer in its stable: Katharine DeBrecht, the pen name of a mother of three whose authorial debut, Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed!, generated major buzz–and sold some 30,000 copies–after receiving an on-air plug from Rush Limbaugh. In the wake of DeBrecht’s success, Kids Ahead is moving forward with an entire Help! Mom! series. Help! Mom! Hollywood’s in My Hamper! hit stores in March, Help! Mom! The Ninth Circuit Nabbed the Nativity! will be out in time for Christmas, with Help! Mom! There Are Lawyers in My Lunchbox! to follow. Jackson, meanwhile, is wading through a flood of manuscripts from other would-be authors. “Over the past six to twelve months, the number of submissions to us has just soared,” he marvels.
I’ll bet they soared. After all, it is an easy market to make. The parents who buy these books are already hooked on the hate they spread, and the kids who listen to them don’t have a voice in the purchasing decision.
Here is the book on Amazon.
I find solace in the knowledge that kids are like watermelon seeds. Hit them too hard on the head and they take off for parts unfound. When parents try to force kids to accept stuff like this, it backfires.