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Come closer, children, and let me tell you the story of my magical vest

Would you let Perez Hilton read your children a bedtime story?

The provocative celebrity blogger hopes so; he's coming out with a children's book next fall. "The Boy With Pink Hair," which promises to celebrate individuality and acceptance, will represent a change of pace for Hilton, who rose to fame by decorating pictures of celebrities with crude anatomical drawings on his blog.

Really, now? Jamie Lee Curtis's series of well-received children's books are lovely; Kristi Yamaguchi's recent kids' book about an ice-skating pig is charming; celebrity author Madonna at least has kids; but a snarky, foul-mouthed gossip blogger penning children's books?

AP

Some people who take children's literature seriously are not amused by the whole celebrity author trend.

Anita Silvey, author of "100 Best Books for Children," told a deeply disapproving Guardian of London writer, "Celebrity books are one of the great negative features of children's publishing in the 21st century. If I were still a publisher, as I used to be, none of these manuscripts would make it past my slush pile."

Parents, do these books make it past your slush pile? Will you be purchasing Perez Hilton's children's book? On a more positive note, what celebrity-written kids' books do you really like?

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By Karen Ballum for BlogHer

Did you know that you can self-publish on Amazon? You can, and that's kind of cool. What's not cool is that it means that anyone can self-publish on Amazon -- people like Phillip R Greaves II, who self-published an ebook called The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure. Yes, you read that right.

The book description:

This is my attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them, by establishing certain rules for these adults to follow. I hope to achieve this by appealing to the better nature of pedosexuals, with hope that their doing so will result in less hatred and perhaps liter [sic] sentences should they ever be caught.

My Twitter stream exploded with tweets about this today. Some called for a boycott of Amazon until the book is removed. Others encouraged people to post trigger warning with the link. One thing that was the same about all the tweets I saw was the outrage that people felt.

Twitter pointed me to a discussion about the book in a MobileReads forum that stated Amazon replied to the complaints on an Amazon.com forum. I found the forum but the response from Amazon wasn't exactly there ...Amazon.com allegedly replied to a complaint about the book via email by stating it is censorship not to sell certain titles. The alleged response to the complaint was pasted into the forum and contains the following:

Let me assure you that Amazon.com does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts; we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.

Amazon.com believes it is censorship not to sell certain titles because we believe their message is objectionable. Therefore, we'll continue to make controversial works available in the United States and everywhere else, except where they're prohibited by law. We also allow readers, authors, and publishers to express their views freely about these titles and other products we offer on our website. However, Amazon.com doesn't endorse opinions expressed by individual authors, musical artists, or filmmakers.

But this response seems to be in conflict with Amazon's own Content Guidelines, which state:

Offensive Material

What we deem offensive is probably about what you would expect. Amazon Digital Services, Inc. reserves the right to determine the appropriateness of Titles sold on our site.

Illegal Items

Titles sold through the Digital Text Platform Program must adhere to all applicable laws. Some Titles that may not be sold include any Titles which may lead to the production of an illegal item or illegal activity.

Pedophilia is illegal and therefore a self-proclaimed guide to pedophilia would fall under those guidelines, don't you think? The author's comments on the book's page do nothing to help the situation. In the comments section of the book's listing page on Amazon.com, he replies to the protestations about the books' content by stating that pedophiles "share sexual pleasure" with children and pedophiles only rape children in the "statutory sense of the word."

I haven't read the book. I certainly don't want to. It seems to me, and again I'm not a legal expert, that this book violates Amazon's content guidelines. Hopefully the public outcry in response to the book will mean that it is removed, but only Amazon can make that decision.

But if they don't remove it, I know this -- I will not buy anything from a company that sells this material. I would not shop in a physical store that would display that on the shelf, and why should it be any different online? The holidays are the on the horizon. I have a lot of shopping to do. If Amazon continues to sell this book, I know that they will not get a single penny of my money, nor will any of the companies they own. I'll take my money somewhere else.

More #amazonfail:

Amazon pulls Macmillan books then puts them back

Amazon's GLBTQ "glitch"

Do you have the right to keep your book purchases private?

Will you shop Kindle while this book is being sold?

Contributing Editor Karen Ballum also blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

Reaching more than 20 million women each month, BlogHer is the leading participatory news, entertainment and information network for women online with a publishing network of more than 2,500 blogs. BlogHer adds unique voices of women bloggers to the TODAY community. Read more at www.blogher.com -- and sign up for our newsletters to get the best of BlogHer in your inbox.

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Random House

Ever notice how many kids' books encourage 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds to stick it to the man? From "Madeline" to "The Lorax," there is a bevy of children's classics with subversive themes, some subtle, some unmistakable. The stars of these books vary in nature and temperament -- from a curious monkey to a determined train engine to misbehaving boys and girls -- but one common theme is they all encourage little ones to think for themselves. Read more: 9 most subversive books ever written

Do you have your own favorite books in this vein — either modern-day works or classics, or even books for older kids? If so, please share them here! 

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