How should we teach the events of 9/11 to small children? Wayne Bell, the publisher of Really Big Coloring Books Inc. has an answer:

A "graphic coloring novel" called We Shall Never Forget 9/11: The Kids' Book of Freedom. The 36-page coloring book depicts the Twin Towers smoldering, survivors mourning the tragedy's victims, and a Navy SEAL shooting Osama bin Laden, who is (inaccurately) cowering behind a woman in a Muslim hijab. (See the image below.) Bell nevertheless claims it's "a very clean, honest read that does not shy away from the facts" about 9/11.

What do you think? Is it appropriate? Should 9/11 be memorialized in crayons? Link

(YouTube Link)

The Lowrider Coloring Book by Dokument Press celebrates the lowriding culture that originated in the 1930s, peaked in Southwestern Latino neighborhoods in the 1950s and experienced an urban culture renaissance in the 1990s. The term “low rider” comes from the goal of lowering the vehicle as close to the pavement as possible. Cars were also reupholstered and given bright paint jobs, new chrome and rims. The illustrations in this coloring book are based on conversions by some of the biggest names in the culture.

Link – Via Lilsnob

California-based artist Justin White (Jublin) made a coloring page so that kids can enjoy the unnatural wonders of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. He colored it in here, if you’d like to see one completed version.

Link via Super Punch | Artist’s Website | Previously: When Coloring Books Go Bad

It’s often difficult to help children cope with crises and disasters, so FEMA came up with this idea (brilliant or silly? Your call): a children’s coloring book of disasters. Now, the coloring book has been yanked from FEMA’s website after some people complained:

The coloring book, titled “A Scary Thing Happened,” was created after the tornadoes in Glenville as a tool for children to use with a responsible parent or adult to help cope with the disaster, said Rose Olmsted, coordinator of the Freeborn County Crisis Response Team, on Wednesday. It has since been widely distributed across the country to aid children in other disasters.

Olmsted said she has not received a clear explanation from FEMA about why the coloring book is being taken down from the FEMA Web site, other than that the organization is redesigning its Web site and that there was a complaint from a parent about some of the images in the book. The cover features an image of the Twin Towers, with one tower already on fire and a plane approaching the other tower. A similar image is inside the book for children to color.

Sarah Stultz of Abert Lea Tribune has the story: Link – via On Deadline