04 May 2012

"These are your kids on books"


Via My Ear-Trumpet Has Been Struck By Lightning.

19 comments:

  1. I love this! It also makes me a little sad since in the library where I work (rural Missouri) some of the most engaging books for young minds are also the ones challenged the most.

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  2. What a lovely little blog. It brought on quite a substantial smile! Have you seen the website for the organization yet?

    www.burningthroughpages.org

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  3. Stan, this I just don't comprehend. I had to look at it several times and very closely - and then I came away with my mind blown that anyone could think this would do what it says it is intended to do.

    I hate to say this, but those lower figures are A.) Unclear, at best, what they represent, and B.) Conjure up in my mind a lynch mob or villagers with torches, like in "Frankenstein".

    3rd figure: WHY is a woman carrying a SWORD? And HELMETED????

    1st figure: WHAT in God's heaven is suggested by the cross?

    4th figure: What is the meaning of the dunce's cap/wizard's hat, an WHAT does the stick signify?

    2nd figure: Is that supposed to be a farmer? If so, what connection is there between farming and reading? (Not dissing farmers, but it is apples and oranges - just not connected.)

    I wholly support what seems to be the intent of the poster - but WTF are they doing with THIS poster?

    If I were a kid still, this poster would scare the heebie-jeebies out of me.

    It does NOT help that the figures are all in black.

    Who in the WORLD okayed this poster?

    Please, someone enlighten me how THIS poster is supposed to get kids to want to read.

    And the catch phrase - "Burning Through Pages" - does NO ONE see the reference to Nazis burning books?

    There is NOTHING about this poster except the small text that gives me any impression at all besides ignorant people lynching, burning, maiming and scaring the bejeezus out of kids. THIS is supposed to get kids to read? In what National Socialist society?

    Steve Garcia

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    1. Step... away... from... your.... Wheaties.

      Someone peed in them!

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    2. That's the first time I've ever heard the phrase "pee on your Wheaties." I had to Google it. Is it regional, or does it come from a TV show I haven't seen or something?

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    3. @Minnesotastan,
      This is very common phrase in my area S.E. Ohio, and can very to include whatever breakfast cereal comes to mind. Number one can and is substituted with number two in the phrase for very bad instances "Who pooped in your Cap'n'Crunch?". The Phrase commonly used in the same context as woke up on the wrong side of the bed to signify someone is being crabby.

      Caleb

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  4. BTW, the cross in the middle of the head of the 1st female? That is the symbol for being DEAD.

    It looks like a female Kenny from South Park. ("Ohmgod! They've killed Kenny!")

    Steve Garcia

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  5. Steve,

    Not sure if you're serious, but I'm game.

    Figure 1 looks like she has on an old-fashioned diver's helmet.
    Figure 2 looks like he is a cowboy/figure in an Wild West book.
    Figure 3 looks like she is a knight at the Round Table.
    Figure 4 looks like Harry Potter.

    I'm not sure if it's regional or not, but in North Carolina we use the phrase "Burning through..." as a way to say you're doing something fast.

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    1. The fourth figure seems to be a wizard. Perhaps it is Gandalf.

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    2. The figure with the sword is a knight in chain mail, not a dress. The wizard is likely a reference to the Harry Potter series. Agree with the cowboy and with the diver (Remember Jules Verne and 20,000 Leagues under the sea, although the characters in the book were male).

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    3. The figure with the sword may very well be a female. Remember Joan of Arc? I was a tomboy, and would much rather have had the life of the knight with all the freedom than the princess in a tower, asleep for years, etc. I was in bed for most of my first grade year with rheumatic fever, and books took me to the past, to the future, to other countries, to places that existed only in the imagination. That was the only "life" I had for seven months.

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    4. Anonymous at 11:40,

      I used the feminine pronoun for Figure 3 based on the original picture. The figures were alternated male and female, and in my explanation I kept the same pattern as the original picture.

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    5. I did not comment on whether the figure with the sword was male or female, just commented that I thought the outfit was chain mail rather than a dress. Agree that females can be knights, see Bradamante

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  6. Either TraverlerDiogenes is trying to be funny/sarcastic or he would make the perfect poster boy for the next one in this series

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  7. lol. was Traveler being serious? Great poster. Shows that we can become anything we want to when we read. Imagination. Something Traveler needs.

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  8. I love the images surely the haters are channeling nonreaders. I've always loved fantasy myself but, have never understood satire.....

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  9. Books will change my children into deep-sea diving Christians, cattle-rustling gamblers, murderous dark age warriors and wielders of dark magic and this is pro-reading ?

    ;-)

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