When TV violence frightens your children, grab this book and read.
0:28 AM 4/20/04
William R. Wineke Wisconsin State Journal

If watching the evening news on television doesn't scare the bejeebers out of your children, they must not be paying attention. <

UW-Madison Emeritus Professor Joanne Cantor is an internationally acclaimed expert on television violence and its effect on children. So, since the tragedy of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, Cantor has been besieged by requests for information about how to protect children from the true facts of modern life. <

Is there some book parents can give their children to help them deal with life? <

"I've always replied that what parents really have to do is to give their kids calm, warm attention," Cantor says. "When children are scared, they don't need a book. They need parents." <

Nevertheless, Cantor just published a children's book, "Teddy's TV Troubles" (Goblin Fern Press: $16.95), that deals precisely with children who are scared by what they see on the tube. <

Did Cantor change her mind? <

No. <

"But it did dawn on me one day that it is parents who need this book," she explained. "I wrote this book to give parents something to do when their children become scared. They can read this book together with the children." <

"Teddy's TV Troubles" tells the story of Teddy Bear. The first two pages announce: <

"Teddy Bear was scared. <

"Something he had seen on TV left him jittery and jumpy. <

"He didn't want to be alone. <

"He needed a hug!" <

Teddy's mother goes on to hold her little bear on her lap, draw pictures with him of what is scary and to hunt under his bed for anything that might be frightening. <

Nothing in the book explains what it is that scared Teddy in the first place and there is no representation of anything frightening. That's on purpose, Cantor explained. <

"One thing all the research on children and violence shows is that it is easier to make a kid more scared than it is to make him less scared," she said. <

Cantor's book is illustrated by Verona artist Tom Lowes. <

"One reason I wanted to publish the book locally - rather than in New York - is that I wanted control over the visuals," she said. "Tom created this wonderful character who expresses feelings beautifully but who isn't at all scary himself." <

Writing a children's book was a new experience for Cantor, a retired English professor who has written more than 80 academic articles - "where you have to footnote every word you say," she notes - on television and children. <

"I've never written a children's book before. So I went to the library and checked out books on writing for children. Then I went to Heritage Elementary School in Waunakee and asked the fourth-grade class to draw pictures illustrating the book," she said. <

"I took those pictures to a kindergarten at Heritage and then to the children at Woodland Montessori School and tested the story on the children. A little change occurred on every page from the feedback I received." <

Cantor's national reputation stems from a 1998 book, "Mommy, I'm Scared: How TV and Movies Frighten Children and What We Can Do to Protect Them." <

"Teddy's TV Troubles" should be available in Madison bookstores this week. It is also available through Cantor's Web site at www.tvtroubles.com. <

Reach William R. Wineke at bwineke@madison.com or at 252-6146.