First, the Spiders…
Q: Isn’t this a little scary for kids?
A: We’ve tested it on kids, and they haven’t seemed scared. We’re not psychologists, we’re storytellers. A good story has to have something at stake. Kids aren’t that interested in the complex interpersonal relationships that might form the conflict in an adult novel. Visceral, immediate threats provide these stakes in most of the kids stories throughout history.
Q: Won’t this give them the wrong idea about spiders?
A: Kids have a well-developed sense of what’s real and what’s not. We don’t believe they’re going to come out of Onion Breath thinking spiders have human eyes or mouths, or that they need to worry about them.
Q: But why do you have to be so weird?
A: We love slightly macabre stories! All the most memorable kids’ stories have an element of quirkiness and danger in them. Kids are attracted to this. Think about your favorites. The Wizard of Oz? James and the Giant Peach? Alice and Wonderland? Peter Pan? Not to mention the real fairy tales like Red Riding Hood, Snow White, The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast. We think these were classics because they were so unusual and so far from kids’ day-to-day experience. Before they were Disney-fied.
Q: What’s wrong with Disney?
A: Aside from the commercialism? At a basic, STORY level, they took the bite out of a lot of the tales they made into movies. Kids have to grow up and live in the real world. So they need to be exposed to conflict. A little at a time, in terms they can understand and deal with. The real world isn’t Barney or Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Q: So you’re saying kids are too sheltered?
A: We’re saying that’s a decision for individual parents. Onion Breath is a different kind of story. More like the old fairy tales. It’s an antidote to the constant diet of bland sweetness that’s mainstream kids’ media. Anyway, we think Shmirna is MUCH cuter than Barney! More like Willy Wonka. And the kids who’ve seen the book haven’t been scared. They’ve loved the color and the funny story.
Now, the Atheism…
Q: It’s such a delightful story! Why’d you have to ruin it with the mention of atheism on page 34?
A: Why does that ruin it for you?
Q: Don’t you think this will give people the wrong idea about what an atheist is?
A: An atheist is simply someone who isn’t religious. Because we’re freethinkers, we may be even more diverse than people who are, say, Christian. There are scientists who are atheists. There are also artists, janitors, teachers, nurses, mothers, storytellers and children…
Q: But aren’t atheists committed to truth and rationality? How can you tell this clearly false story to your kids? Isn’t that lying?
A: No, it would be lying if we told our kids that spiders would attack them if they didn’t eat onions. But we trust that our kids, even at a very young age, can tell the difference between the make-believe world of fairy-tales and reality. And we’re certainly there to help them with that, if they have any questions.
Q: But the kids in the story are atheists? Doesn’t that rule out frivolous make-believe?
A: That means they aren’t religious. It doesn’t mean they aren’t characters in a fairy-tale! But seriously, part of the point is that is that these are regular people in a fun story. They can be atheists without ever wanting to wear white lab coats and stand in front of Bunsen burners.
Q: So you’re saying that aside from not being religious, these people are no different from anyone else?
A: Exactly. There are 40,000,000 non-religious people in North America. That’s about one in every ten people. So don’t assume atheists are all just like the vocal minority who are so visible in the press and on the web right now.
Q: One in ten?
A: That’s right. So somebody you work with, or one of your kid’s teachers, or the people in the next row at the ball-game or movie, are atheists. The way it surprised you on page 34 is the way it is in the real world. You don’t expect to hear people say they’re atheists. That’s why we left it in. So people can get used to hearing it, and saying it.
