Archive for the ‘children's health’ Category
Houston Artist, Texas Tim, Creates Anti-smoking Coloring Book
Houston Artist Creates Anti-Smoking Coloring Book for Children
Houston, TX – January 7, 2008 – Freelance artist and poet, Tim Webb, a Spring resident, also known as Texas Tim, announced today that he has created an anti-smoking coloring book to reach young children with the message that cigarette smoking is harmful to their health through cartoon illustrations and poems.
Webb’s goal is to provide a means for parents to teach their children in the tender years to refrain from cigarette smoking or, as he puts it, “to dodge the smoking bullet.”
According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), “cigarettes kill more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined.” The ACS strongly recommends that ‘parents start talking about tobacco use when their children are 5 or 6 years old and to continue through their high school years’ as a preventative measure.
One helpful tool that parents can use to introduce anti-smoking messages to their Pre-K and early elementary school age children is the new coloring book, “Smoke in Your Eye Makes You Cry,” written and illustrated by Texas Tim, which includes imaginative jokes, puns and play on word poetry with original caricature art that is sure to attract young children while teaching them that smoking cigarettes is a poor choice.
Using the term Sickerettes (c) to describe cigarettes, the coloring book features characters such as “Ollie Owl” who can fly for miles because smoking is not his style or “Freddy Frog” who tells his young audience that there is “no room for an ash tray on my lily pad.” The sensible frog adds, “A fisherman offered me a Sickerette (c) / Certainly as a joke/ What, me use tobacco/ You think I want to croak?”
Experts agree that parents are the primary factor in a child’s choice to abstain from smoking. Dr. Denton A. Cooley, M.D., founder, president and surgeon-in-chief of the Texas Heart Institute, prescribes in the foreword that “this book belongs in every child’s ‘Survival Kit.’ The knowledge will serve them from childhood through adulthood into their parenthood.”
“Texas Tim” Webb, (http://www.texastim.com/), freelance artist and poet, wants to work with schools, health organizations and interested private parties and businesses to spread the anti-smoking message in a delightful, easy to understand way to children. The coloring books are available for purchase for only $5.00 each at http://www.texastim.com/.
Contact:
Candace Runaas
Runaas Resources PR
281.257.4431
