Fifty people packed into Boneshaker Books last night for the launch party of Fannie and Freddie, Occupy Homes MN's brand new picture book about corrupt banking practices.

This whimsical storybook tracks Fannie and Freddie, portrayed as mischievous, larger-than-life siblings, as they gamble away the savings of the people of Homeville, threatening to destroy the whole town--unless the people of Homeville stand up for what's right.

The book was written by Occupy Homes communications coordinator Becky Dernbach and collaboratively illustrated by Eva Rose Cohen, Connie Gretsch, Dan P. Moore, Kathleen Murphy-Andrus, Caylin Crawford, Cat Salonek, Mark R. Brown, Jillia Pessenda Bovino, and Bill Panks. Connie, who designed the backdrop of Homeville, and Caylin, who drew miscellaneous characters, are both fighting foreclosure with Occupy Homes MN.

"People still blame individual homeowners for their foreclosures," says Becky. "They think they must have been irresponsible. But irresponsible homeowners didn’t crash our economy. Bad banking practices did. And as long as the banks can keep blaming individual homeowners, they’ll never have to change their practices. It's time to change the way we tell the story. And we can have fun with it, too."

The book is available for sale at http://fannieandfreddie.org for $10. Half of all proceeds go to Occupy Homes MN. We'll also be selling them at meetings and events.