"One State, Two State, Red State, Blue State": Bringing Partisan Politics to Picturebooks in Katharine DeBrecht's Help! Mom! Series

Abstract

"One State, Two State, Red State, Blue State":Bringing Partisan Politics to Picturebooks in Katharine DeBrecht's Help! Mom! Series Michelle Ann Abate (bio) In 2005, after one of the most divisive presidential elections in U.S. history, a small California-based publishing company called World Ahead released the first title in its new line of children's books: Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed! Written by Katharine DeBrecht and illustrated by Jim Hummel, the story follows the adventures of two young boys who decide to open a lemonade stand to earn money for a much-desired swing set. That night, both boys dream that their stand is a tremendous success until a series of well-known and thinly-disguised liberals appear and stymie their efforts. First, Mayor Leach (a Ted Kennedy look-alike) levies taxes so heavy that they eradicate the boys' profit margin. Then, Mr. Fussman, a sallow-faced lawyer from the "LCLU" (that is, the "Liberaland Civil Liberties Union"), demands that the boys remove the "offensive" picture of Jesus atop their stand and replace it with one of a big toe. Finally, Congresswoman Clunkton (a.k.a. Hillary Clinton) mandates that the pair reduce the amount of sugar in their lemonade and also serve a floret of broccoli with each glass. As even this brief overview indicates, with its over-the-top characterizations, tongue-in-cheek humor, and rigid "good versus bad" dichotomy, Liberals seems more like a playful satire for adults than a serious narrative for young readers. Offering support for this viewpoint, the "About the Author" section in the back of the book reveals that Katharine DeBrecht is the pseudonym of a former freelance journalist (DeBrecht 53).1 Likewise, the drawings that accompany Liberals are not the work of an established children's book illustrator, but a multi-award-winning newspaper cartoonist.2 [End Page 77] In spite of such seemingly strong evidence for viewing Liberals as an amusing book for adults that is simply written in the style of a picturebook for children, both the narrative's author and its publisher adamantly object to this classification. In numerous interviews, articles, and press releases, DeBrecht presents herself as a sincere suburban homemaker who wrote the story out of a concern for what she felt were the increasingly liberal messages that her three young sons were receiving in contemporary picturebooks. "I have seen children's books representing the left for several years" (Mapes A1), she asserted in a remark that echoes the attitudes of many other conservative parents. Citing books like Heather Has Two Mommies (a 1989 picturebook that features same-sex parents), Rainbow Fish (a fable-like narrative from 1992 about the importance of sharing that has been criticized for promoting socialism), and King and King (an illustrated fairy tale that was published in 2002 and features a young prince who wishes to marry another prince), DeBrecht lamented that there hasn't been an accompanying spike in books for young readers that possess conservative messages. As a result, she felt that her book was not simply a new narrative for young readers but a necessary one. As she told a reporter soon after Liberals was released, "On the children's level, there really wasn't something out there to teach the traditional values" (Mapes A1). Eric Jackson, the president of World Ahead and the founder of its new Kids Ahead line that released Liberals, reinforces DeBrecht's claims. He has explained that the mission of his imprint is "to provide 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" (Cottle, par. 2). Demonstrating the way in which Liberals is meant as a conservative response and even antidote to the perceived recent spike in left-leaning children's books, the promotional plug for the narrative provided by World Ahead publishing on Barnes and Noble.com reads: Would you let your child read blatantly liberal stories with titles such as King & King; No, George, No; or It's Just a Plant? Unless you live in Haight-Ashbury or write for the New York Times, probably...