Death & Taxes Poster – Cool Tools

Visual Media

Death & Taxes Poster

Revealing our collective priorities

I’m a chart hound. I love the way one large intelligently designed single image can open up a world. My studio walls are covered with such portals. (For previously-reviewed cool charts see the Histomap of World History and A Correlated History of Earth). Recently I’ve add to my walls the 2009 “Death & Taxes” poster. In one large sheet this chart shows how your federal (US) taxes are currently divvied up among various agencies and programs. No matter what we claim our values are, how we spend our hard earned money speaks a thousand times louder and more truthfully about our real priorities. The immensity of military spending is made plain in this chart; the paucity of science funding equally vivid. But there are lots of other surprises: The size of health related spending, and highway funding. The numerous large sums for things you’ve never heard of.

A democracy needs informed citizens. This chart can quickly educate you about your government in a new way, a way in which a long list of incomprehensible budget numbers can not. The brilliance of this chart is Tuftian way it diagrams quick sense out of the complexity of a superpower’s government and yet rewards close scrutiny.

You can scroll through this chart at close quarters via the online version, but you’ll miss the punch of the big picture. Before you vote this election, spend some time with this guide to see how our national priorities shape up.

-- KK 11/11/08

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Hole in the Heart / Hattie & Hudson

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

A MOVING AND REFRESHINGLY HONEST LOOK AT RAISING A CHILD WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Hole in the Heart: Bringing Up Beth
by Octavia E. Butler (Author), Damian Duffy (Adapter), John Jennings (Illustrator)
Penn State University Press
2016, 288 pages, 6.8 x 0.8 x 9.5 inches, Paperback

This isn’t an easy read, but it’s an important and memorable one. Hole in the Heart, a memoir about giving birth to a child with Down syndrome, expresses anger, frustration, guilt, and many other parenting emotions. The book is moving and feels searingly honest, for instance when it explores Beaumont’s ambivalence about the outcome of her daughter Beth’s heart surgery. She struggles with the thought that it might not be such a terrible thing if Beth doesn’t make it.

The colors are starkly monochromatic, but Beaumont does expressive, figurative things with them that communicate emotional depths. This includes crying fat tears that threaten to drown her, or showing differences in moods using shadows.

Parents are under such pressure to be perfect, including saying all the right things. It’s brave of Beaumont to give voice to such complicated and difficult feelings in Hole in the Heart.

– Christine Ro

A LITTLE GIRL AND HER COLOSSAL FRIEND TEACH A MONSTER-SIZE LESSON ABOUT PREJUDGING OTHERS

Hattie & Hudson
by Chris Van Dusen
Candlewick Press
2017, 40 pages, 10.1 x 0.4 x 11.7 inches, Hardcover

Hattie & Hudson is a beautiful book in every way. When Hattie McFadden paddles out on the lake one summer morning for her daily dose of exploring, she is so happy, she begins to sing. “So come with me ‘cause there’s room for two, / We’ll be together, you and I. / Out on the lake in my little canoe, / Paddle, just a paddlin’ by.” Her calm, sweet song unexpectedly charms “a monster” at the bottom of the lake who can’t help but respond to the invitation. Though Hattie can see Hudson for who he really is, the townspeople are not so welcoming.

This story is a great in for getting kids talking about everything from persistence to profiling. Concepts of home and belonging, of loud, angry grownups acting out of fear, of power and voice all make it a book that works for many kids, on many levels.

Visually, Hattie & Hudson rivals Chris Van Dusen’s 2009 release, The Circus Ship, in its breathtakingly gorgeous Maine-inspired landscapes and achingly expressive Rockwell-meets-Pixar characters. But where The Circus Ship is silly and bouncy and quick, Hattie & Hudson uses the time (and space) needed to tell the story of a quietly righteous little girl and the power of friendship.

– Mk Smith Despres

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