"No more crumbs. We want all the cookies!"
Above is a quote from Celeste Christie and Steve Damewood's children's book, "If You Give a Gay Mouse a Cookie," which the two describe as a "A Fable About Mice, Baked Goods, and Civil Rights." A story hasn't so wonderfully mixed adorable mice and important progressive issues since Fievel came to New York City in "An American Tail."
Basing their plot on a quote from 1968 protests in Paris, "with the eating, comes the hunger," Christie and Damewood, who go by "Art for a Democratic Society," create a moving story about how achieving even minor social change can inspire a positive revolution.
So far the duo has received great reviews for the project, with a five-star average rating out of 433 reviews on their Etsy page. The Huffington Post reached out to the artists to see what sort of personal response they've received on their unique idea.
"Feedback for the Gay Mouse zine has been overwhelmingly positive," they said. "We've done some zine fairs and had people stand in front of us and read it cover-to-cover, laughing. We were most touched when a local couple asked us to make copies to give out as favors for their wedding."
Below is a preview of a few key pages from various parts of the book, which is currently only $3. Be sure to check it out!
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
The Huffington Post also reached out to the artists to see if they have any more children's books coming in the future.
"We've joked about doing a series of similar books on other themes, such as 'If You Give a Hedgehog Health Care,' 'If You Give an Armadillo Amnesty,' and 'If You Give a Unicorn a Union.' We'll probably stick with the Gay Mouse zine for now. Our next zine will be about zombies, we hear they're popular."