Screen entertainment is great - but in moderation!
The illustrations
The Media Diet for Kids has been brought to life with great pictures by illustrator Mat Pilbeam. The illustrations make the book fun and easy to read – and are already proving to be a great hit with the kids. So, share the book and have fun looking at the illustrations with your kids.
About Mat:
Mat was inspired to become an illustrator by the work of Victor Ambrus, Gerald Scarfe, Trogg, Moebius, Robert Crumb, Don Martin and Jack Davis to name but a few.
He graduated with a HND in Commercial Art from Bulawayo Technical college, Zimbabwe in 1987. After graduating he found work as a visualiser in various adverting agencies within Zimbabwe's two major cities.
In 1997 he started his own design studio and was invited to contribute a weekly political cartoon for the national broadsheet Zimbabwe Independent Newspaper. In 1999 the editor of the newspaper's weekend edition was abducted and tortured by the Mugabe government. Mat quickly decided to shut up shop and leave Zimbabwe at the end of that same year.
Since moving to the UK, Mat has pursued a successful career as an illustrator with a wide range of different clients.
A message from Mat:
’Why I wanted to become involved with The Media Diet for Kids’
My first thoughts on being asked to illustrate The Media Diet for Kids was “what a fantastic idea, I should of thought of it.”
It had only been a matter of weeks since my wife and I had relented and turned the telly back on after nearly a year of living in a ‘telly free’ household.
During that year arguments with our 11 year old daughter and 6 year old son about what to watch were simply replaced with further arguments about “why can't we watch...?”
We switched it off because it was on too long each day and the sort of programmes the kids wanted to watch were so poor. I think it was during an episode of ‘Braniac’ (where the pseudo scientists on the programme tried to work out which foods produced the smelliest farts) that I, in a fit of self-righteous rage, turned the telly off and cancelled my TV license direct debit.
A visit to a restaurant with friends-with-kids-too, where these two bright and energetic children had each got new Gameboys and sat in silence for the entire meal hypnotised. I watched with smug satisfaction as my own kids tore up the place and misbehaved. I thought that at least they were alive, interacting and burning up energy. My resolve was strengthened further to keep the box at bay.
Later in the year my daughter started secondary school and soon began to complain about not knowing what the other kids in her class were talking about when they discussed what was on telly the night before. Her classmates found it just plain weird not to be allowed to watch telly. This finally made me question my resolve… and the fact that work colleagues would make up fantastical plot twists in Eastenders to tempt me to turn it back on.
“...TV could also help us get through the tail end of winter” said my wife. Soon, I couldn't remember what all the fuss was about and the telly was back on. Oh I remember now, most of it is rubbish… and we're lovin' it. Hypocrite, I know now but I didn't know then.
We don't watch nearly as much TV as we did, so in my mind we all won the TV war of 2004. I know my children are convinced that they were completely and utterly victorious.
I guess the moral of my story is: everything in moderation, even moderation itself and this is what I believe The Media Diet for Kids is all about.
More information about Mat:
For more information about Mat Pilbeam, please visit his website.
Right Content
Quick Tips
Get your child to plan their viewing with the help of TV guides - it cuts down screen time, and makes it quality time.
