Manton Clue: Are Children's Books Rigged, Too?

Donald Trump inspires a take-down piece in the form of a children's book?

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Sep 13, 2016, 08:53 ET

CHICAGO, Sept. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A book about bullying, manipulation and leadership for kids and adults to talk about, and discuss, and not yell about, or fret over.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160912/406602
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160912/406603

His six-year old asked, "Why does Donald Stump want to be President?" "I've never corrected her," says writer Tim Clue. "I was too busy scribbling on a napkin 'Donald Stump, an allegory in search of a law suit.'"

He called his writing partner, Spike Manton, and Patty and the Stump was born.

"Like so many others, I've been lost in this 'fog of Trump,'" says Manton. "We wanted to do something to help our country not choose the type of person we teach our children to avoid on the playground."

"Writing this story forced us to find a non-offensive way to explain to young minds that demagoguery and manipulation are not leadership," Clue explains.

Patty and the Stump, illustrated masterfully by Cleveland Artist Len Peralta, is an unapologetic tale set in a prairie and told through the eyes of future journalist, Patty the Prairie Dog. Patty resists peer pressure and the bullying of the egomaniacal Stump, who has turned the prairie animals against each other in a quest for power.

Manton offers, "Parents and kids are worried about the tone of our current discourse so we wondered if a prairie dog, a raccoon and a coyote might better explain the seeds of divisiveness and manipulation, in a thoughtful yet entertaining way."

It's truly a children's story. Clue chimes in, "Indeed, if you could find a child and a parent who had zero awareness over this current presidential campaign, the book still stands as a warm, funny, but firm look at misguided leaders and their followers."

So stay tuned. Perhaps a story about power hungry Stump wishing to seize control for control's sake, and a Prairie Dog standing her ground rather than jumping into her hole, has something to offer both kids and adults, and even provides some questions to prompt discussions with kids about leadership, bullying and manipulation.

The book is available online at Eckhartz Press (eckhartzpress.com) and both print book and ebook on Amazon.

Tim and Spike are local Chicago comics turned playwrights and public speakers living in Chicago. With a sigh they close by saying. "Look we never imagined writing a children's book, but we never imagined certain people running for president, either."

SOURCE Tim Clue & Spike Manton