Kurt Browning, champion figure skater and author of A Is for Axel: An Ice-Skating Alphabet, has another laurel to add to his wreath: the Canadian Children’s Book Centre has named him its inaugural Canadian Children’s Book Centre Idol, to coincide with TD Canadian Children’s Book Week. From the Children’s Book Centre press release:

This year, the theme for Canada’s largest national literary event celebrating Canadian books for children and teens is Gold Medal Reading in honour of the 2010 Winter Olympics being held on home snow and ice.  Kurt Browning, a three-time Olympic team member, will launch the event by participating in the annual TD Grade One Book Giveaway Program, one of the highlights of Book Week. Over 500,000 Grade One children across Canada will receive a copy of this year’s selection, Let’s Go! The Story of Getting from There to Here, by Lizann Flatt and illustrated by Scot Ritchie.  Browning will make an appearance at a Toronto school during Book Week to hand out the books to a Grade One class. Browning’s eldest child is a grade one student this year.

No word yet about any possible collaboration between Canadian Book Centre Idol Browning and Canadian Idol Theo Tams, although that’s something Quillblog would pay money t0 see.

Meanwhile, down south, another public figure has found her way into the kidlit spotlight, although in a context that is not quite so complimentary. A new book by Katharine DeBrecht called Help! Mom! Radicals Are Ruining My Country! portrays Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. Democratic Speaker of the House, as a Marie Antoinette-like villain out of touch with everyday Americans.

DeBrecht, whom you may (or may not) remember as the author of Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed!, says of the Pelosi character in the new book:

When Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House all we heard was how wonderful it was that a mother and grandmother rose through the ranks to such a position. In reality, that mother and grandmother has played an enormous role in ensuring that our children and grandchildren are shackled with debt for decades to come.

DeBrecht’s story involves two children, Tommy and Lou, who attempt to sell swing sets, only to have a couple of congressmen tell them that all children must have swing sets, whether they can afford them or not:

But we can’t just give these away, Lou told the radicals. We have to sell them so we
can pay the people who work for us.

Watercress sandwiches! Senator Dudd thumbed through his thick address book.

I know some very nice loan companies that will loan money to commoners to buy swingsets. They make some sweetheart deals, let me tell you, he stroked the lapel of his expensive suit.

Tommy and Lou knew how long they saved and hard they worked for their swingset and did not feel right about selling swingsets to people who could not afford them. But, under the radicals’ new law, they were forced to do so anyway.

A press release for the book describes the “Pelosi-like” character, Speaker Queenosi, upbraiding the boys: “Little common people are entitled to a swingset just like the rest of you commoners.”

While DeBrecht is making a name for herself (or not, as the case may be) as the Ann Coulter of the trike and t-ball set, Quillblog wonders when a suitable candidate from the left (other than Tom Tomorrow) will appear to pen rejoinders. We’re thinking maybe a story about children harassed for keeping WMD in their toy chests, and the tormentors who discover that none are there. Call it Help! Mom! I’m Being Held in Gitmo! Any takers?