Brooklyn judge authors children's book about unchecked immigration

December 5, 2006

A Brooklyn criminal court judge has written a children’s picture book that uses a horticultural metaphor to deplore the perils of unchecked immigration.

"The Hot House Flowers," was self-published by Judge John H. Wilson. It features an envious dandelion who releases her seeds into a hothouse, where they grow and eventually use up so much water and food that there's none left for the plants that were already there.

In the end, the master of the hothouse _ clearly standing for God _ removes the dandelions, and when the original dandelion tries to send more seeds in, the hothouse flowers trample the seeds so they can't grow.

"I didn't like a lot of the children's literature that I've seen," Wilson said Monday. "I really wanted to have something that discusses values that I think parents should want to convey to their children."

Tim Bueler, a spokesman for the volunteer Minuteman Project, said the book "gives a great insight to children and families on the issue of illegal immigration."

However, Norman Eng, a spokesman for the New York Immigration Coalition, disagreed. "I think it's irresponsible for someone to write a children's book like this - one that poisons the minds of impressionable young readers with the idea that immigrants are to blame for the world's ills. Children are not in a position to see through the bias conveyed in this story."

A Conservative Party member, Wilson was originally elected as a civil court judge in the Bronx in 2004. He said his own 4-year-old son likes the book. "He's getting the idea of the story, that you have to defend your home, you have to defend your country," Wilson said.

"The Hot House Flowers" has been on Amazon since Nov. 6, Wilson said. It is priced at $15.99.

Wilson said an unspecified portion of the proceeds from the book would benefit a scholarship fund set up at Pace University School of Law to honor Lance Cpl. Michael Glover, who was killed in Iraq in August while on leave from the school.