Scholastic: Money before Honor

Author Maggie Tokuda-Hall wrote a Children’s picture book titled Love In the Library, a story based on her grandparents and the US internment of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. The book is published by Candlewick Press. Scholastic inquired about licensing the book for distribution in their channels, but the offer was contingent on Tokuda-Hall agreeing to remove references to racism. I urge you to read her blog post about the offer from Scholastic and the reasons she refused a dream contract. To the detriment of her career, by the way.

Publishers talk a big game about how they publish works that contain ideas some might disagree with or that challenge entrenched views. They talk about wanting to do better publishing for diverse readers and acquiring diverse voices. Scholastic makes a mockery of those professed ideals by caving in to people who want books to reflect their narrow, bigoted, racist, and hateful views.

Those who crow about Freedom aren’t asking schools to prevent their children from reading certain books. They don’t want any child reading books they don’t like, no matter the opinions of other parents. It’s their choice for everyone. They started with schools, and now they’re working on public libraries. Book sellers are next, online and brick and mortar.

Shame on Scholastic

Their cowardice is just one of many reasons that the consolidation of traditional publishers is bad for readers and authors alike. There’s no one else who competes in the Scholastic space and therefore no one else who could grow a spine and stand up to the voices of hate. They want to talk about how wonderful they are for putting books into the hands of children, but apparently only if those books have been sanitized enough to cater to the racists and homophobes.

Here’s where to contact Scholastic and let them know what you think.

Love in the Libary

Links to buy Love in the Library can be found at the author’s website. Hopefully most library readers can find the book at their local library.

Updated to add subsequent Scholastic spin: via NPR

Make no mistake. This isn’t a one-off situation, and chances are white authors are not hearing about the reality of non-white, cis authors. It’s critically important for people like me (white, straight, cis-gender) to understand that not hearing from the marginalized about the impact on them in no way means it isn’t happening. It is.

My DMs have been absolutely full,” [Tokuda-Hall] said. “People sharing pretty horrific stories that they’re just too afraid to share in public.”