I'd Be Leery of Terry Deary

Have you heard about this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/13/libraries-horrible-histories-terry-deary

I had not heard about it until my friend, Laura, posted the article for me to read. While I read the article yesterday, I decided to mull it over in my mind. You  know, be reasonable and not call this guy...well, any number of descriptions come to mind - none of them are pleasant. I think it adds insult to injury that he is an author of children's books. I'm sorry, do children have jobs and earn money to buy his books? Is he aware HOW many children have NO books at home because their parents can't afford them? 

Help me out here, please. Is this man (and society, in general) really unaware of how many poor people there are out there? They don't live in the deepest jungles of third world countries either. They live right here. By "here" I mean in and around the edges of "middle-class" America. Everybody doesn't come home to warm milk and cookies from a mom who read them bedtime stories when they were little and who also spent all night standing in line for them at a bookstore to buy them the latest copy of whatever children's book is making some author very rich (that author is obviously not Mr. Deary, whose money whining makes me weary).

You would be shocked if I told you how many children in my own area do not grow up with books in their homes, whose parents can't afford books, and whose only resource is our little public library (and, yes, it really is little, but quite cozy...and the ladies are very kind and helpful. You know, something else children need to encourage them to read.)

To hear Mr. Deary (whose money woes make him teary), people who utilize the public library are nothing more than moochers. Freeloaders. I mean, come on, you can understand how he feels - right? This guy has poured his blood, sweat, and tears into becoming a writer of children's books so he wouldn't have to get a regular job like the working stiffs whose incomes the author wants spent on his books. Hmmm, interesting, don't you think?

Perhaps, just perhaps, if Mr. Deary (who should be renamed "Dreary") spent more time writing interesting, action-packed, original children's books instead of just hitching a ride on the writing trail by regurgitating history in a form that children will swallow,...maybe, juuuust maybe,...he might get all the money those rich parents used to spend on the Harry Potter series. Annnnnd, maybe,...just maybe...he might get a movie deal and become a big deal like J.K. Rowling (who, by the way, was once a single parent who had to live out of her car...and was one of those people who would have needed a public library to read a book or let her daughter read a book).

So, Mr. Deary (whose foresight must be bleary), here's my advice. Either become a better writer or get a working stiff's job like the rest of us. Maybe, if you're lucky, there will be an opening at a public library...

for a janitor.

Jerk.

(A very special thanks goes out to Dr. Seuss for my rhyming skills. I must also thank my mom, who introduced me to Dr. Seuss. She seldom had time to read to me because she was so busy being the single-parent of three children and a "working stiff" (and I use the term fondly),...BUT she always made sure I had books. She bought them on a payment plan where one came in the mail now and then, but I eventually had the whole Dr. Seuss collection. I loved that collection with all my heart. I don't know how many times I re-read those books over the years. I can still quote almost every book. My mom also made sure we had encyclopedias in our home - also bought on a payment plan. She gave me something else special that added to my love of reading when I was a child, but that is a story for another day...)