No need to exploit the gerbils!

[callmemadam]

It is October, isn't it, and not April Fools'? Only this story in the Daily Mail says that the Happy Ending Foundation is encouraging parents to burn 'bad' books or feed them to gerbils. I thought the HEF sounded pretty sinister but when I looked at their website I decided they must be either fictional or very stupid. People who can't tell the difference between 'sad' and 'morbid' are not people who should be making decisions about what children read. People who burn books, though, are very worrying indeed. Any candidates for the bonfire, folks?

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Goodbye Mog, obviously!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Good one. Their gerbils are cute, aren't they?

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

It must be a joke. It MUST be. "Sadly, this situation worsened substantially, as her daughter subsequently read all 13 books in the series." That's got to be a joke.

If it's not, I'd like to see how a newspaper that covers news stories in a happy way would cover Darfur, Burma, the flooding in Africa, the current African Ebola outbreak...

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

Aha - click on the disclaimer. It's definitely a parody.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Aha! Well spotted. Print too small for me to see it at first. Phew.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

True, but the fules at the Mail haven't spotted it :D

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

They were going to discuss this on the Jeremy Vine Show today. I wonder if any listener put them right?