(Updated: ok, it wasn’t April’s Fool’s Joke but it WAS a hoax. See my recent post)
If today was April 1st, I’d be convinced an article I read recently was someone’s idea of an April Fools’ Joke. Apparently some woman in the UK is spearheading a national campaign to put a stop to children’s books that don’t have a happy ending.
As part of the Happy Endings Foundation’s campaign, letters have been sent out to school libraries asking them to remove Lemony Snicket books from the shelves and the HEF are also organizing Bad Book Bonfires (I kid you not), where they encourage people to burn their “bad books.”
The Bad Book list includes: Villette by Charlotte Bronte, The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jeah Rhys, The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson and Shockheaded Peter by Heinrich Hoffman.
According to the Happy Endings Foundation’s site, their goals are:
* To eradicate sad thoughts from all literature
* To make people smile a little more often
* To encourage authors to write more uplifting books for children
* To highlight the dangers of reading sad books
* To unite parents of a similar thinking and create a force with which to be reckoned
* To protect the next generation of readers.
* And, above all, to ensure the longevity of HAPPY ENDINGS (that means “to make sure happy endings are around for a long time”)
For more info, see this article in Evenings News 24.
6 responses so far ↓
Criss // Oct 5, 2007 at 11:10 am
For cryin’ out loud…
“IMPORTANT: Ongoing…
As many of you are aware, the first three Lemony Snicket books have been made into a film which is also available on DVD. If you find someone you know has a copy of the DVD, try explaining your concerns to them. If they seem unaffected by what you have to say, then simply hide the DVD where they are unlikely to find it for sometime.”
(Don’t we call that stealing? Oh, well… if it makes somebody happy…)
Well, then again, I can see their point. Children should have happy lives. Right? So, if there are children out there who are NOT having happy lives, then we should burn those children. Throw them right into the bonfire with hre undesirable books. Children should not be sad.
Dave Weingart // Oct 5, 2007 at 12:02 pm
o_O
Sal // Oct 5, 2007 at 12:15 pm
As a world-renowned (snrch) Web sleuth, I can tell you, not to worry.
It’s pretty suspicious that all the Web hits for a seven-year-old organization seem to be from events occurring in October or slightly earlier =and= the only books specifically mentioned are Lemony Snicket’s.
So I hightailed off to godaddy.com and found that the Web site was registered in July and belongs to artscience.net. Over at artscience.net, I found that ArtScience is a clever advertising firm that has A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS as one of its clients.
You’ve been Handler’d.
Inkygirl // Oct 5, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Dear lord. Talk about subtle marketing! This news was on the radio as well as on other news sites. Thanks for the clarification, Sal!
linda // Oct 5, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Wow. Can you smell the desperation? I understand reading levels are down, but there’s no reason to go this far.
Criss // Oct 5, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Oh, no, Lemony - say it isn’t so!
Now I feel cheated. And a little disgusted.
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