Comments on: Well, The Appeal Is Obvious

By: booksquare

booksquare — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 05:10:48 +0000

It’s sort of embarrassing, but I have no clue from the Gotti family tree (I do have a funny story involving me and a seventy-year old man pretending he was tired because people from California can’t walk more than a block…). I think there are multiple Gotti’s in jail. Maybe a junior or two. How sad is it that I don’t know my Mafia?

My sense is that if you’re not reading “Where The Wild Things Are”, you’re not doing the kid any favors.

By: Susan Gable

Susan Gable — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 23:48:22 +0000

LOL – Maybe they write better dead. Gives new meaning to the term “ghost writer.” LOL!

By: David Thayer

David Thayer — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 20:57:00 +0000

I thought John Gotti was dead. Not that death is a deterrent to a writing career. His daughter writes novels.
His best friend was a guy named The Chin; maybe he’s dead too.

By: Susan Gable

Susan Gable — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 20:13:56 +0000

Ugh! I thought Madonna penning a kids’ book was the lowest, but if John Gotti is doing one… shaking head I’d like to see the marketing plan on that one.

Still, I think it’s the parents we need to slap upside the head, for buying this trash.

In the article it said:
“A first-time book by a celebrity gets more attention than a comparable book by a first-time author, and that helps the book sell into stores,” Gale says. “However, if it’s not a good book, it won’t sell to the customers.”

Excuse me while I cough. I’m wondering how many of these parents actually read the book before they buy it. And even if they do, have they compared it with the quality stuff? Call up a children’s librarian and ask for some recommendations. Good grief, ask a teacher!

This annoys because I LOVE children’s books. Loved the good stuff as a kid (Judy Bloom, Beverly Cleary, Maruice Sendak – the Encyclopedia Brown books, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Trixie Beldon, Charlotte’s Web, The Chronicles of Narnia…) and as a teacher (add Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, add books like Love You Forever, Stone Fox…) Good books hooks kids for life.

I wonder how many children’s books Madonna read before she decided there were “like, no books with any, like, lessons in them.” I also wonder if any of the young girls in her books wear their underwear outside their clothes. G

The problem is the celebrity ego. They think they can do it all, and do it better, and should make more money while doing it. The best answer would be for parents to stop buying them – but they can’t resist the magnetic attraction of the STAR.