Controversial Coloring Book Features Terrorist Trading Cards
St. Louis-based Really Big Coloring Books, Inc. recently released a 9/11-themed coloring book intended to teach families about evil. In addition to graphic depictions of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the book comes packaged with trading cards depicting real-life terrorists. According to the New York Post, the coloring book was designed to inspire discussion between parents and their kids.
“We all know that terrorism is created to cause death, decline and destruction. In this book, we tell the truth, we tell it often, and we tell the children,” Really Big Coloring Books publisher Wayne Bell explained. “We know that America has to take care of our own.”
The book, which claims to be “indifferent of political correctness,” contains a wide assortment of terrorist trading cards. Included in the controversial collection are Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Arizona gunman Jared Loughner, Beltway sniper John Allen Muhammad, and several of the 9/11 masterminds. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and Theodore “Unabomber” Kaczynski also have cards.
Bell freely admits that this book isn’t intended for small children. Instead, it’s meant as an instructional tool that parents share with their kids. “This is not the type of book that you would give to a pre-Kindergarten child, to put in his backpack and send him off to school,” the publisher explained to Yahoo! Shine. “This is a teaching and learning tool that’s rated PG-13.”
Bell feels that children do not properly understand the depth and gravity of terrorism and terrorist activity. His coloring book, We Shall never Forget 9/11, Volume II: The True Faces of Evil-Terror, was designed to correct this problem.
“We’re giving people a teaching and learning tool,” Bell said. “It’s an unpleasant subject, make no mistake about it. A lot of people don’t want to talk about it. They want to forget it. But we make it because a lot of people want to read about it and buy it.”
For a look at the book and its cards, visit the New York Post website. Do you think it’s appropriate to release a 9/11 coloring book with terrorist trading cards?
