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A Scary Thing Happened - A FEMA Book By: PoisonRamune, the Apathetic Lizardman In 2003, FEMA had hired some crazy lady to make a coloring book that was meant to teach children with Post traumatic stress disorder on how to cope with disaster. The result was a 25 page colroing book filled with disturbing images and shoddy writing. Towards the end of April 2009, FEMA finally gave into the public's criticism and pulled the book from the "kids portion of their website." Because of such recent controversy, I decided to find a copy of this coloring book and do a commentary article on it. Here’s the entire book in full 8.5" x 11" size, as I've shrunk these article pages down for load time purposes.
Looking at this cover, you immediately know how bad this book is going to... I don't think I could have done a better job at being insensitive and offensive. Actually, I might have.
Oddly enough I never thought of earthquakes, fires, flooding, etc as disasters. I always used to call them acts of God like on warranty paperwork. I always considered disasters stuff like: losing my keys while drunk, peeing on myself during a date, or getting a ticket right after I realize I have absolutely no money.
I'm not an androgynous kid with curly hair... Are they implying I'll look like that after the disaster? Well, I guess it's better than looking like that stoned kid with the lazy eye and the fair ribbon (man, that kid is drawn really ugly).
I honestly want to know why this is even a coloring book? Everything on these 2 pages are miniscule... I don't know how the tip of a crayola is going to get into some of these tight spaces or how you're expected to color in rain drops.
The phrases and pictures on these 2 pages are outright disturbing. While it probably wasn't the author and illustrator's intention, but they're basically telling you "you're screwed" during an emergency. And that's not the least bit true.
Talk about insensitive... At this point why not just draw pictures of the Holocaust and say "People hurt others in the past, they're going to do it again!!"
While it is very sad when someone dies... There are many instances of people getting hurt that I've found extremely hilarious. I also like how page 14 gives you a template of a face, so you can look like one of these stupidly drawn kids too.
Again, how are you supposed to color in this stuff? And why would I even want to? Actually, I do want to color in that kid that looks like Kirby with "needle" power.
For being sick and feeling malaise this kid looks really stinking happy. And judging by the way that girl's face matures as she becomes happy makes me think that you won't be feeling better about the situation for a few years.
That kid looks pretty cracked out... Talking to an adult may be the last thing he wants to do. I'd like to know what kind of dated parallel universe this illustrator lives in, since I've only seen a booth like that in the old Peanuts cartoons.
That's the biggest piece of advice this coloring book had to offer?! "You'll find personal healing in being kind to others?!" As much as I hate to say it, the creators of this book really need to lay off the weed.
I'm an idiot... I didn't realize Albert Lea is the name of a town, I was just like "This guy seemingly has his hand in everything."
I really like that silhouette at the bottom of the page, it's pretty cool... I might want to draw on that one later.
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