A childrens book... about Beer?!

Amazon.com: B Is for Beer: Tom Robbins: Books


From the subversive mind of novelist Tom Robbins comes a children’s book about... beer? Yes, it’s a bedtime story with burping.

In typical fashion, Tom Robbins hid behind sunglasses at the book party for his new work, B Is for Beer, held—where else?—at Brooklyn Brewery. Fans waiting in the line for beer tickets didn’t appear to notice the unassuming author. He shied away from a reporter’s interview request, but admitted that although he was about to speak briefly to the assembled audience, he didn’t yet know what he’d say.

“There’s no such thing as a bad beer, but there are bad beer drinkers,” Robbins said...


Tom Robbins Meets the Beer Fairy - Page 1 - The Daily Beast


Gonna have to pick up a copy of this, even though I got bored with Robbins right around the end of college...

Funny as hell Q&A on Amazon's site:

Questions for Tom Robbins

Q: So, Tom Robbins, you’ve gone and written a children’s book about an alcoholic beverage. First, why the ode to beer?

A: Why not? As ode fodder, its got to have at least as much potential as nightingales and Grecian urns.

Beer is so universally beloved that 36 billion gallons of it are sold each year worldwide. Moreover, it’s been popular for thousands of years, with origins dating back to ancient Egypt and Sumer. It has deep connections to the earth -- and possibly to outer space, as well (I explain this in the book). Bittersweet, like much of life itself, it’s exceptionally thirst-quenching and enormously refreshing; it’s cheerful, accessible, affordable, lovely in color, and somewhat nourishing, being one of our few neutral foods: perfectly balanced between acidic and alkaline, between yin and yang. Best of all perhaps, beer makes us tipsy. What’s not to ode?

Q: Okay, but what’s the angle with children?

A: Children see beer commercials every time they watch a sporting event on TV. In the supermarket, they pass shelves and coolers overflowing with the stuff. Neon beer signs wink at them as they’re driven to school, to church or the mall. And, if their own parents and older siblings aren’t enjoying beer, then the parents and siblings of their friends surely are.

Kids are constantly exposed to beer, it’s everywhere; yet, aside from wagging a warning finger and growling -- true enough as far as it goes -- “Beer is for grownups,” how many parents actually engage their youngsters on the subject? As a topic for detailed family discussion, it’s generally as taboo as sex.

It’s a kind of largely unpremeditated side-stepping, and part of the reason is that most parents are themselves uninformed. Even if mommy and daddy have more than a clue about beer’s ingredients and how it’s brewed, they know nothing of its history, let alone the rich psychological, philosophical, and mythic associations bubbling beneath the surface of its wide appeal.

Q: So, children need to know the “meaning” of beer?

A: Well, at the very least they need a clearer understanding of why their dad keeps a second refrigerator in the garage, and why he stays up late out there on school nights with his shirt off, listening to Aerosmith.

Q: Of course. How would you compare B Is for Beer to your previous nine books of fiction?

A: At 126 pages, it’s shorter. It’s illustrated. And it’s less complex, although considerably more complicated than Poopie the Pukey Puppy.

Q: What will you possibly do for an encore?

A: Not my problem. I’ve decided to take advantage of outsourcing. My next novel will be written by a couple of guys in Bangalore.

Tom Robbins said:

Well, at the very least they need a clearer understanding of why their dad keeps a second refrigerator in the garage, and why he stays up late out there on school nights with his shirt off, listening to Aerosmith.

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This quote from the interview cracked me up. I'd love to read this book just for the hell of it.

McKBrew - as the guy described there, that quote sold me.

ORDERED!!! (For my 8 week old daughter!)

I have always enjoyed Tom Robbins, and now I have to go add to my collection.

chumprock said:

Q: What will you possibly do for an encore?

A: Not my problem. I’ve decided to take advantage of outsourcing. My next novel will be written by a couple of guys in Bangalore.

Click to expand...

Hahaha "Not my problem"... thats freakin awesome.

This guy sounds interesting. Why not be different? Perhaps I'll check the usual online sources and see what I can find.

Nope. No B is for beer.

But I did find a few other interesting books about beer and beer history, and I grabbed another Robbins book.

After I saw this I went and bought the only copy a local bookstore had on lunch.