Dear Mr. Boerishbwoy,

I am writing in response to your recent letter regarding my children’s work entitled “Fuzzy Rabbit Visits the Doctor.” I do take a lot of pride in the work that I produce, so thank you for your very thorough critique. However, I would like to point out that the intended audience for this book is much younger than you. In fact, I was rather surprised by the heated tone of your criticism.

If I may, I would like to address some of the more harsh aspersions you have cast on the book. First of all, Fuzzy Rabbit is in no way representative of the young people of North America nor is the doctor representative of the “single-minded Soviet Communism that is secreting its dark influences into the impressionable minds of our youth” Fuzzy Rabbit is just a small rabbit who needs to be vaccinated, and the doctor is just that, a doctor. Moreover, the USSR collapsed in December of 1991, nearly sixteen years before my book was even written. The idea that Leonid Brezhnev, who was entirely dead at least twenty-six years before my book came into existence (and two months before I was even born), actively sought me out in order to have me act as “a propagandistic stooge for totalitarian ideals” is absolutely ridiculous.

Secondly, children’s books often utilize repetition as young children enjoy this and it’s helpful for their reading skills. It is not, as you so fervently argued, “yet another jack-booted attempt by the soul-crushing forces of socialism to hypnotize young people through the use of mind-numbing chants.” Also, I would hardly label the words “hippity-hippity hop, hippity-hippity hop” a call for “the proletariats to violently overthrow their governments with bloody and treasonous intent.”

Finally, my illustrator can vouch that the red substance on Fuzzy Rabbit’s mouth near the end of the book is, in fact, raspberry jam and not “the blood of the bourgeoisie.” Please do not write to me again.

Sincerely,

Debbie R. Burrows