Scholastic is a children’s book publisher. The company holds elementary school book fairs where kids and teachers can peruse titles and order books. In October the company announced that 64 of its titles would be put in a separate section. These were books that dealt with race, gender, or sexuality.
That set of books was entitled “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice.” The books included a children’s biography of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a graphic novel with a Black Panther superhero, a fantasy featuring a Lakota girl, and a book about different family types. It also included a book on school integration entitled “I Am Ruby Bridges” and one about John Lewis and the march from Selma to Montgomery.
Scholastic opposed laws that ban books like that in schools, but the company was also aware that librarians and teachers in states like Florida and Oklahoma could lose their jobs or be sued and fined.
The good news is that a few weeks after Scholastic announced the separation policy, it changed its mind. It received so much backlash from parents and teachers that the “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” books are no longer separated.
By the way, the company holds over 120,000 of these book fairs annually.
Information for this post was from various articles in the New York Times over the last two months.
Thank you for opening my eyes to the title these books were under and how Scholastic listened to the feedback leading to its return to its original inclusion. I miss when my kids would bring the order forms home, and not until this post am I thinking if their school / district for their book fair in the fall wasn’t Scholastic for the first time in all these years considering the category change of books. I hope not and think maybe it had to do with money or not booking them in time or something . In any case, sometimes taking a politically correct approach can make what was an “issue” an issue, and it reassuring to know Scholastic listened to the clear feedback they were getting. I’m also grateful for seeing this post when I had a moment to share my input in which I knew I wouldn’t go off on a rant, wax sarcasm with crazy politics I seem I can only follow so much of these days (or years!) or come across feeling helpless
ReplyDeleteI think a great many of us feel helpless much of the time. I know I do. And yet we keep on fighting. (Good to hear from you.)
ReplyDeleteBook bans, outlawing abortion, and literal Nazis marching through our streets feels surreal to me. But I think "it feels unreal" is an attitude that should be quickly set aside because it *is* real, it's happening, and we better face it head on or risk things getting even worse.
ReplyDelete