The book, which currently ranks among Amazon’s top-sellers in the category of “Communism & Socialism,” was written by Bini Adamczak , a Berlin-based social theorist and artist. Predictably, it’s being excoriated by the likes of Breitbart News , which claims the book sugarcoats a pernicious political theory.

So say some conservatives about “Communism for Kids,” a book published by Cambridge-based MIT Press that seeks to present “political theory in the simple terms of a children’s story.”

A popular new book intended to teach children about communism is an example of academia out of control .

Wrote OneNewsNow, part of the Christian American Family News Network: “MIT Press — one of the most prominent university publishers in the US — is publishing the book titled ‘Communism for Kids’ that instructs American youth to shun the economic system that has made their country the most powerful economic force on the planet . . . and embrace a system that has resulted in poverty and millions of deaths worldwide over the past century.”


Um, not exactly, says MIT Press Director Amy Brand, who told Publishers Weekly that response is a reminder of the “polarizing power of ideas and words” and “the serious responsibility of being in a profession dedicated to protecting fundamental freedoms of expression.”

Brand was traveling Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.

The publisher’s website certainly makes “Communism for Kids” sound innocuous, saying it merely proposes a different kind of communism, “one that is true to its ideals and free from authoritarianism.” The story, featuring “jealous princesses, fancy swords, displaced peasants, mean bosses, and tired workers,” is accompanied by illustrations of “lovable little revolutionaries experiencing their political awakening.”