crooked house

Beckett's Fail Better

Although this is the finished print, if I were still teaching the first grade, I think I'd make up similar work sheets for my class to complete. They'd make a fun display. (See also Beckett for Babies, one of my own failure, of which there are many.)

Parodies of Children's Books: Pat the Zombie

WARNING! Do not watch this book trailer with very small and/or easily frightened children! (I'm thinking, for example, of you, Kerry and Harriet. If you want to know why, read this old post about the time three-year-old Luke and I searched for mazes online and got rather more than we bargained for.)

Pat the Zombie is a parody for adults of the classic Pat the Bunny, which both our children have enjoyed. They've enjoyed it so much that we've gone on to buy Pat the Cat, Pat the Puppy and Bunny's Bath Time and we've read them all repeatedly. (I'll admit that in a moment of weakness I even purchased a different parody of the series called Pat the Husband, as a gag gift for David one Christmas, although I never gave it to him as bits of it turned out to be rather insulting.) And now Luke has put in a request for Pat the Zombie after watching the book trailer above, even though -- or perhaps especially because -- it terrified him. He is now six and fond of zombies. I think that bloodthirsty boys who remember reading the original are probably the best audience for this book. You can see some of the pages in the following video.

Now that I'm thinking of it, leave a comment if you want our copy of Pat the Husband. I'll choose a winner randomly if there's more than one.

Parodies of Children's Books is going to be a new feature here, randomly updated. As someone with her own idea for a parody kids' book (see my post Beckett for Babies), my interest was sparked again recently by the phenomenal success of Go the Fuck to Sleep.

Let's compare: Right now, Pat the Zombie is ranked #5,108 in Books on the Amazon Bestseller list while Go the Fuck to Sleep is currently #1. 490 people like PTZ on facebook while 9,783 like GTFTS. PTZ received a favourable review on boingboing.net as did, of course, GTFTS.