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Show Tit tae ony : August 24, 1999 © Sometimes Simpler is Your Hungry, Your Poor; Just That Much Better eer ey) Plain and Simple takes reader back tl turn them into a coloring book and © make ret Give Me Your Tired, i bi WASATCH COUNTY COURIER a bundle Review by Val Chin, Books & Beyond Opinion by Jean Croasmun, Courier staff ductions, centering around the tragedy’s destruction and carnage. Big-eyed children covered in creepy butterflies, crying in the corn-fields, praying for a herd of wild house-cats to come to'town to the brightly-colored ying I’ll use color film. EES I got the idea from one of the Sak Lake newspapers. I logged on to their web site maybe a minute or two, okay a few days, after the recent tornado to find them selling a 112-page . coffee-table - book on the destruction caused by one thought And | no one here drank coffee. Salt hake City’s ado of 99” screams the headlines of the book.. “Produced by the award winning staff. . .it includes 90 ‘pages of remarkable photos, with text _ The most remarkable part might be that ‘the book, sure to be on everyone’s Christmas list. this year, preceded that day’s headlines. For allI know, O. J. Simpson might have started dating Kathy Lee Gifford and is shopping for George Bush’s septum might have finally deviated and now he really © can’t say “no.” Or, yikes, that plague of biblical proportions I’ve been planning to cash in on might have hit and | could be losing precious time. : I’ve already got everything worked out, starting with my marketing plan. First, I publish a 150-page picture book, Bug Invasion 99, with big glossy prints of those deadly butterflies on every page and maybe a few choice words here and there. Then after a week or two, I put out the second edition of Bug Invasion 99, because the first edition will already be sold out. This edition brings in SIMPLE Sue Bender is an ex-New Yorker living most of her time in Berkeley, California. She is a wife, a mother of two sons, a ceramic artist, a therapist with two graduate degrees, one from Harvard and one from Berkeley. She was brought up to believe the more choices the better. — “Never having enough. time, | wanted it = | all, a glutton for new experiences. Excited, attracted, distracted, tempted in all directions. I thought I was lucky ‘to have so many choices and | naively A believed I could live them all.” “This Womans quote is from page six which also has a copy of her “things to do list”. When I Journey really looked closely at this list I laughed to: out loud. There was my day and most of through the picture book. the ‘ my friends days and it was so obvious that no one could ever get all of those Amish Then [ll spin off my publishing empire. — things done in a week, much less a day. ~ : Photographers, ‘like the ones at -wed‘And why do we ‘think we have to? How dings and Six Flags, will be on hand to often do we stop to| ask “what really ‘catch the looks on the faces of every matters?” car-wreck victim to make quick picture books of the events. Scanners at mortSue Bender was pulled to the Amish gage companies will produce stills, and country and its people because of the : electric blue Nikes under their long brokers can be the writers/reporters, serenity of their quilts and their faceless | recounting the harsh reality of the black dresses, the democratic selection dolls. Bender was on a quest to answer of a minister by drawing lots, and a no- © moment when the customer’s credit was some age-old questions, one being “ is holds waterfight among the nine Beiler - denied for Over-extended 2000. there another way to lead a good life?”_ children. With the Amish women as her She was allowed to experience a culture For the children, tragedy turns into a mentors, Bender questions the obvious that rarely opens its doors to outsiders learning tool. Fido run over? It’s the limits of their domain as well as her own and the reader of her book is the richer Dead Dog Reader. Christmas not. as frenzied pace. Her experiences taught for her experience. : fruitful as hoped? My Parents Went to ~ her about simplicity, commitment and In 1982 the journey began in Brimfield, Toys-R-Us and All They Got Me Was This the contentment that comes from Towa where Bender started her extended _ Stupid Coloring Book. The whole family accepting who you are. stay with two different Amish commucan get in on the fun. Walking to town one hot sunny day, nities. She immersed herself in their Sue Bender calls out to the horse-drawn And of course, just like the Salt Lake seemingly timeless world in a landscape buggies, “Am I on the right road?” It’s a paper, I’ll make sure a little of the cash of immense inner quiet. She relishes the question we should all ask ourselves. goes back to the victims, even if my uppredictability of the daily routines. front costs to produce a glossy 100+ By Sue Bender There are glimpses into Amish life: the page book that no one wants to purPp. 152 wagon built to carry benches to weekly chase would help the victims much $15.00 home prayers, teenage girls who wear more. Se : SUE BENDER taken from staff reports. . . .” Wow. gloves. and Eight years ago| tooka “journey” with Sue Bender to the Amish country and it changed my life. By that time, I’ll have a little money saved up and I can start work on my next book. Why2-K? slated for release January 2, 2000. I'll work a deal with Mattel for “Computer Nerd Ken,” and “Food Storage Francie.” Nestle pitches in with gummy candies shaped like crashing hard drives and inept ATM machines. Modern day pictures. of scenes like the one in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” where the townspeople beg for their money at the bank. And survivors can relive all the glorious moments, anytime they want to, from the comfort of their own couch just by thumbing insects. ereat big weather phenomenon.. me. rie li ae i a quick buck off of. My idea is to market picture books, big, glossy coffee-table pro- eat starts to | good tragedy that I can make Then, when the snow ae iy Barbie.” fly, a “Countdown to the Next Invasion” calendar, complete with stickers and catchy phrases to mark off each passing day before the critters return. eee iin to anyone mg i I don’t care if ill-will comes because of it. All I care about is a damn- por eT ene it is, my camera’s loaded. I’m ready. AOI TOT caterpillars, crickets, butterflies, whatever repeat customers because I include pictures never before seen. A few more weeks and the commemorative Pez dispensers premier at Smiths, along with the action figures and “Butterfly-swattin’ | ' Where’s that plague of biblical proportions | I was promised? Locusts, grasshoppers, Perhaps it was the cover of this special “little” book that first attracted my . attention. The simple, orderly pattern of the Amish quilt was calming in some way. The year: 1991, my life: chaotic! So the title, Plain and Simple was especially appealing. The author, Sue Bender, seemed to be talking directly to DINING & TOURISM DIRECTORY Don Pedro’s Mexican Restau rant 42 W. Main, Midway 654-0805 Don Pedro’s Mexican Restaurant: 657-0600 1050 S. Main, Heber City 375 Rainbow Lane, a | 79 E. 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