Latawnya The Naughty Horse, Says 'NO' To Drugs

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Written by author Sylvia Scott Gibson in 1991, Latawnya, The Naughty Horse, Says "NO" to Drugs, is directed towards children, warning them about the dangers of drugs. Published in 1990 by vanity press publisher Vantage Press^[1], this anti-drug children's book is unusual in the fact that it uses horses instead of humans as characters.

The self-published book sells out almost anytime a copy becomes available on Amazon.^[2]

[edit] Plot

The plot mainly deals with the title character, Latawnya, the youngest horse in her family. While out playing with her sisters Latoya and Daisy, come across some other girl horses, Chrystal, Jackie and Angie. They ask Latawnya if she wants to engage in "smoking games" and "drinking games". Latawnya realizes that they want to smoke pot and drink alcohol, and she joins in. Her sisters catch her with the three "bad" horses and proceed to criticize her for "smoking drugs and drinking", something that their parents tell them not to do. Although Latawnya begs Latoya and Daisy not to tell their parents, they tell on her anyway, resulting in a rather uncomfortable confrontation with them, as they are disappointed in her experimenting with smoking drugs and drinking. After a rather intense lecture from her parents, Latawnya realizes the error of her ways and promises never to engage in "smoking games" and "drinking games" again.

http://badgas.co.uk/latawnya/Read the book

[edit] Reaction

Hardly a best seller at the time of its release, within the past few months of 2007, the book has earned a cult following, mainly by online bloggers who find the book so poorly written, making it unintentionally hilarious. For example, one wonders how would a horse get a bottle of whisky up to its mouth (or drugs for smoking) when it only has hooves and no hands?