Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed!

Rating:
Summary: off-the-mark satire
Review: Author Katharine Debrecht apparently doesn't know what Liberalism is. Her children's book is a deliberate demonizing of the most popular political philosophy of the last 300 years of Western civilization. The liberalism of Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR and Martin Luther King deserves better. Political satire is a wonderful thing (check out The Onion's "Our Dumb Century"), but it only works when truth is at its core. Ms. Debrecht's liberals are not real liberals. They are imagined boogyman cobbled together from the prejudices of right-wing radio shock jocks and preachers. To whit: Liberals are not for higher taxes; they are for progressive taxes. Liberals are for free speech; against government establishment of religion. This is to say nothing of the fact that deregulated capitalism leads to worker exploitation, monopoly, and elimination of the middle class. Americans have worked hard in the last 100 years liberalizing this country. But evidently Ms. Debrecht would prefer that young people believe it would be better to go back to the slavery, child labor, robber barons, and men-only voting of the 19th century!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for both adults and children
Review: Help mom...An excellent book for both adults and children. It's a message of perserverence and hope for young children moving into the rules and realities that are incresingly affecting their lives at younger and younger ages. Ms. DeBrecht sends the message that there is an elite class of people who continually think that they know what's best for other children and constantly stand in their way of free expression and enterprise. It is wonderful for the new generation of parents to read to know what is facing their children in an age of creeping government intervention. In the end though, the two boys still have American Dream in their mindset and look forward to the day they can vote to make a difference. This is a good book for the children of new and rising democracies around the world and a healthy reminder of our own great experiment.



Rating:
Summary: superb!
Review: I am 8 years old and I read this book.
I really liked this book because the characters were funny.
I learned that good things happen when you work hard as long as government is fair.
I think you should buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Because I'm a 6 year old politician.
Review: I first saw this book and I said "Heh! Awesome! Satire in childrens' book form!" then I read it and realized that I was actually in the childrens' section. This book was WRITTEN FOR CHILDREN. What?! First of all, it's sad that people are trying to instill cynicism and hatred in their KIDS. They're supposed to be playing pretend outside and having fun with their friends while they still can, not worrying if their friend's parents are left-wingers.

It just screams "Help! Mom! There are People That You Don't Approve of and Therefore Refuse to Associate With Under My Bed!" to me. Concider this: replace the word "Liberal" with any term that applies to you and ask yourself if you would be offended. For instance Catholics, Gays, WASPs, Rabid Religious Types, etc.

All I'm saying is don't bite us and we won't bite you back, ok?
Cheers,
Little Planet

Rating:
Summary: Help Mom, There's are Liberals Under My Bed
Review: It's appalling what sells these days. There is so much good literature, meant to be enjoyed by imaginative children. I can't imagine anyone with an ounce of intelligence reading this to a child. It is trash, meant to warp innocent minds. Don't waste your money or your time. This book has no redeeming value, unless you need something to light your fireplace with. Why aren't we given the option of zero stars?

Rating:
Summary: Great idea, poor execution
Review: Many of the negative reviews here seem to be largely ideologically driven, so I wrote them off as more liberal intolerance and bought this book as a present for a friend this year. The idea of a satirical treatment of modern liberalism in kiddie-lit format seemed charming and fresh, and I was psyched to read it. Now that I have the book in hand, though, I'm sorry I spent money on it. The story is episodic and uninspired and the prose painful to read, peppered with misspellings that shouldn't have made it past the MS-Word stage of the project. The illustrations are tiny and fairly poorly rendered, as well. The treatment of liberal ideas (contrary to what you'll read in other reviews) is pretty accurate, but the satire is so ham-handed and overdone that most of the jokes fall flat.

Perhaps I'm expecting too much: it's possible that children might overlook the plodding prose and flat black-and-white characterization here, but I'm inclined to think that kids will want inventiveness and real humor in their stories, just as adults would. In the meantime, with so much unjust stereotyping of conservatives as illiterate and unsophisticated, the last thing we need is more books that actually fit the stereotype. Ms. DeBrecht's effort is well-meant, but I'd think twice before adding it to your children's bookshelf.

Rating:
Summary: A healthy antidote
Review: Since your kids will be subjected to state-sponsored liberal propaganda from the first day they enter school, books like this are a necessary and healthy antidote. Since the basic tenets of conservatism make much more sense than the feel-good puppydog ideas of the liberals, even kids pick up the difference quickly when it is presented so clearly and simply as in this book.
The outraged howling of the liberal reviewers regarding this book speaks volumes about the way they feel about anyone attempting to break their monopoly on the education of children: "Give us your children at school and they will be ours forever."
I've bought 5 copies to hand out as gifts.

Rating:
Summary: A curious book
Review: The author of this book exhibits a certain malevalent talent--writing hate literature on par with Mein Kampf...but for children. If you think I must be exaggerating, check this book out. Truly nauseating. Perhaps it was written as a gag and attempt to provoke "liberals". Because anyone who actually bought and read this to their children is not only politically brainwashed themselves, but (like the author) probably in desperate need of anti-psychotic medication.

2 stars purely because of its humor value and the proud liberal tradition of compassion for the mentally ill. A fellow American beseeches you to seek help, Ms. DeBrecht. We don't need to be indoctrinating our children to despise their fellow citizens. A true conservative would know that.

Rating:
Summary: Sad and misleading...
Review: The real sadness here is the necessity to indoctrinate conservatives at such a young age. Cons must brainwash their young early, or risk them using their own brains to think for themselves. Since people who think for themselves tend to become liberal, I guess this is a valid fear.

If conservatives ACTUALLY believed in no government and no taxes, I'd take them more seriously. But they are quite happy to use gov't and taxes for their own ends. So, they're teaching their kids to be hypocrites.

I rate this book one star because of its ridiculous propaganda and hate-mongering. Teaching kids that liberals are boogey-men prejudices those kids to be hateful of groups not themselves (like bigots towards minorities, etc).

Parents should teach their kids to do MORE thinking, not LESS.

Rating:
Summary: Comrades! Please do not be reading the subversive books!
Review: The text of this little tome is reprinted in Harper's this month. It's easy to laugh at and make fun of, with its surreal attempts at parodying the author's strange conceptions of liberal thought (and if *I* have trouble understanding what the hell she's trying to say, what chance an eight-year-old?), and its cloying, heavy-handed efforts to make right-wing propaganda accessible to children, but mostly, it's just really depressing. Is the conservative obsession with inserting their politics into EVERYTHING really so all-consuming that they must go so far as to try to crush the joy out of childhood itself? All art, including great childrens' books, have something to say, of course, but this is no more about entertaining children than a Chick tract is with providing an entertaining story--that is, it's only important insofar as it indoctrines its intended targets into its worldview. Dr. Seuss, for example, had plenty of things to say, but even at his most didactic--The Butter Battle Book, say--he was never as strident or obvious as this, and he supplemented his messages, such as they were, with really great artwork and fun rhymes. And kids don't feel as if they're being preached to because they aren't. Seuss knew everything about exhilaration and childhood wonder; Debrecht knows nothing. I weep for any child with parents grim and joyless enough to think that this is appropriate reading material.