Honey of a fable gives children a softer view of war with Saddam

Eric Leake

Friday, March 14, 2003 | 2:55 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: March 15, 2003

Think Saddam Hussein is a beast? Meet Soddy Bear.

The evil, low-down, dirty, vicious, bushy-eyebrowed, crazy bear is the title villain in Eliza Toussant's fable about the Persian Gulf War.

Toussant said she wrote the fable for children in 1991 at the request of a school librarian. With a second war on the horizon, she's taken the self-published book into a second printing.

"So many of the kids, they have no clue about what the war is about. They don't know why we're going back in after Saddam Hussein," she said. "They were too young for the Gulf War and they're afraid."

So Toussant tried to make war -- the most destructive and scariest of endeavors -- less scary. Scud missiles became killer bees, mustard gas is pollen gas and burning oil fields are gooey honey spills.

It's a book Toussant says children need to understand the war, without understanding too much about war.

Sitting in front of the chalkboard with students taking turns at her side, Toussant led Penny Fuller's fifth grade class in a recent reading of the book at Kermit Booker Elementary School.

She held the pictures out at arm's length and helped students with the hard words "Kuwait" and "Saudi Arabia."

"I think the kids really enjoyed it, I think I enlightened the children," she said.

The students listened attentively as Toussant read about megalomaniacal Soddy Bear's invasion of Kuwait for its millions of gallons of honey. They followed as a thinly veiled President Tush reluctantly went to war and kicked Soddy's butt.

Watching from her desk, the teacher was not altogether sure of her class' motivation.

"They're receptive," Fuller said. "But they also don't want to take the spelling test this week."

She said that the book might help kids understand something about the war by putting it on their level. She said they discuss current events in the classroom and it can be a tricky topic.

"It's a touchy subject," Fuller said. "I've been trying to explain this and keep myself out of it. I was raised in the military. I don't think we should go to war."

Like all fables, the book's simple message was clear. Soddy is pure evil. President Tush, if anything, is too kind and reluctant for war. The bad guy loses and everybody cheers.

But Toussant does not skimp on details. The key dates and players are there. Gorbo Bear enters from the Soviet Union and General Stormy Duke Bear leads the fighting bears across the desert. The world watches on BNN.

"If you follow my book it tells you what Saddam Hussein is doing, it follows to a tee," Toussant said. "I didn't leave anything out."

Children said they enjoyed the reading and history lesson.

"I think it's a good book because it shows things that kids have to understand better," student Marlene Arriola said.

The fable may sugarcoat and hide the details, but Marlene was not fooled. She knew Soddy Bear's true identity and that he was really after oil, not honey.

Marlene and classmate Jason Palafox especially enjoyed the pictures and cover art of a marching bear brigade backed by tanks and fighter jets. That does not mean they like war.

"I think it's a bad thing. It's not fair if we go over to Iraq and destroy the country," Marlene said, with a note of maturity beyond her 11 years. "We can't do that."

Now Toussant is planning a series of follow-up books. There is the "Soddy Bear" sequel and her take on Osama bin Laden with the "Bini Bear Fairy Tales." She wrote "The Cootie Dragons" in 1993 to inform kids about AIDS, and is working on a book about the dangers of cloning titled "Cloning Around."

By using animals instead of people, she makes tough topics easier for children, she said.

"You can't say a lot about a lot of killings going on. If you show bears being killed instead of humans, it takes the edge off," Toussant said.

It's a full-time job for the retired pediatric nurse and day-care operator. She collaborates with her granddaughter on the artwork. Her other six grandchildren make a reliable audience.

Toussant said more than 15,000 copies of "Soddy Bear" were printed in the first run. Kinko's donated materials to print a couple hundred more copies for the second.

Toussant is looking for corporate sponsors to help put the stories in classrooms.

The books are important, she said, because children need to be able to put a despotic bear face on what they see on television and in the papers.

"They think the war is just for adults," she said. "But it affects the children."