The following is an update on Luv Ya Bunches and Scholastic Book Fairs:
Scholastic does not censor books. We review thousands of titles each year for our book clubs and book fairs, and we are committed to a review process that considers all books equally regardless of their inclusion of LGBT characters and same sex parents. In an interview with School Library Journal, Scholastic stated that we are currently carrying Luv Ya Bunches by Lauren Myracle in our school book clubs. We also said we were still reviewing the book for possible inclusion in our book fairs. Having completed our review of Luv Ya Bunches, Scholastic Book Fairs will carry the title in our spring fairs for middle school.
Scholastic is proud of our long history of providing books that will appeal to the wide range of interests and reading abilities of children in the many diverse cultures and communities we serve. Luv Ya Bunches is just one example.
17 comments:
Are the reports that Lauren Myracle was asked to change the two-mom family incorrect?
Is the book going to be available through Scholastic to 4th-5th graders?
I will not support this company until they make it right. I will not hold a book fair with them until this book is included.
I am deeply concerned about Scholastic's actions. If the company asked the author to change something as basic as some of the characters that is just plain censorship!
I'm happy to hear that Scholastic is including Luv Ya Bunches in the spring fairs. I'm even happier to know that the School Library Journal was inaccurate when stating that Scholastic was requiring changes to be made before considering it for inclusion.
Why on your post from 10/22, was it decided that this book wouldn't be offered at the fairs, but now it is?
Was it because the review process wasn't complete? Or because many people had contacted Scholastic and voiced their concern about the supposed censorship?
Regardless, I am happy that the end outcome is a positive one. Thank you for deciding that all the thousands of children, past and present, raised in LGBT families like I was, shouldn't be hidden or censored. It would be shameful if they were.
Scholastic is finally doing the right thing. As a teacher, good literature is good literature regardless of the characters or their choices. Just note Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. His main character Hester has a child out of wedlock. She is the first American heroine who is a single parent. What if publishers would have put that book away because of its character and its content, written in the 1800's? We would have missed one of the greatest American novels.
Scholastic is only adding it to their MIDDLE School Book Fairs - not good enough. The recommended reading age is nine and that is the Fourth grade. They need to add it to the Grammar School Book Fairs as well. My daughter's classmates have known since preschool that she has two Moms and there are plenty of children in her Fourth Grade classes that would love this book and benefit from it. I would love for her to buy it at her Book Fair this year and I would buy it for EVERY teacher in her school that adds it to their wish list.
Did you or did you not ask the author to make her character's parents straight?
While I welcome the news that Myracle's Luv Ya Bunches will be included in the middle school book fairs, this neither answers the questions raised by the School Library Journal article nor does it address the inclusion of LGBT books appropriate for elementary grades in the Scholastic elementary book fairs. If Myracle's assertion that the book fair requested that she change the same-sex parents of one of her characters to a heterosexual couple, then the problem is much larger than merely the one book. I read the featured books pages in the Scholastic book fair web site for both middle and elementary book fairs did not find any books with GLBT content featured. I would be happy to have this observation corrected.
YAY! For changing the world one STEP at a time!!! One more win for the LGBT community!!!
I think that Scholastic should consider content when considering a title for inclusion in a Book Fair, especially for a private (Catholic) school. I have had to pull titles previously because they contained offensive material (usually found by a parent browsing books, but I was equally shocked). The Book Fair Chairperson should be asked if they want the book at the Fair or at least warned about a possible controversial topic for that particular community. Luv Ya Bunches looks really cute. I don't know how much of a role the same-sex parents play in the plot of the books, but I know that there are many school libraries (public and private) in my state that would probably have the book challenged, if it were placed on their shelves.
I don't think it is up to Scholastic to decide what should be in their book fairs based on what kind of a school it is. If Catholic schools want to be non-inclusive that is up to them. I found myself wondering what the the religious books were doing at my daughter's public school book fair but thought it OK to reach out to all the students in the school.
Other private schools (non-religious) often have a very advanced inclusive atmosphere as well as a broad commitment to diversity - much more that in some of the public schools.
Fact is, there are kids of gay parents everywhere (even in Catholic schools) and they deserve to see themselves just like everyone else.
As a parent, thank you Scholastic for doing the right thing! My kids need to see their family in the books that are presented for their consideration. I'm so pleased that you came to this decision quickly and are committed to diversity in books.
Thank you so much scholastic. As a child who also grew up in a minority situation, adoption, your books helped me to feel like a normal child even though I looked different from my parents. Thank you for including more books to diversify, and to let other children feel included in this already hard world.
Scholastic bookfairs are held at schools across the country - blue states and red states, public schools and parochial schools, big cities and small towns. Sometimes the decisions the editors and executives make are based on the bottom line...which is why Luv Ya Bunches is such a success. The masses have shown that GLBT is mainstream and marketable, and that the anti-gay protesters are the ones in the minority. The real struggle here is overcoming the hurdle of an old way of thinking, and showing that kids and parents can make their own choices and don't need the publisher to do it for them. Editing out GLBT content is as asinine as banning Harry Potter for its inclusion of witchcraft and wizardry.
The key question asked above -- "Are the reports that Lauren Myracle was asked to change the two-mom family incorrect?" remains unanswered. If the reports that she was asked to change the family are true, can Scholastic ensure that this will not happen again?
I know many parents who have stated that they simply will not buy Scholastic books until they know that the statement "we are committed to a review process that considers all books equally regardless of their inclusion of LGBT characters and same sex parents" means that the inclusion of LGBT characters and/or same-sex parents has *no effect* on the *outcome* of the review process.
I'm glad to see Scholastic do the right thing, too. Book publishers need to wake up and realize that gay people read, too. We spend our green money just like everyone else and we have the right to be represented. Now, if a reader chooses to pass over a book because of gay content, that's their choice. But there's another reader right behind that one, ready, willing, and very eager to read that book.
As an author myself, and one who has written a YA novel about a girl with a lesbian mom (one that hasn’t been challenged by anyone to my knowledge), I can’t believe how long it is taking for certain aspects of society to realize, and accept, how the idea of “family” has evolved over the years. There was a time in the not so distant past (30+ years ago) when stories about kids with divorced parents were frowned on, as well as those involving premarital sex, masturbation, domestic violence, or any of the other issues teens deal with on a daily basis. For example, I remember a book on writing for children published back in the sixties or seventies that disencouraged authors to write about the death of a parent, presumably because it might be upsetting to the younger reader.
Today's teen readers are smart and savvy, and eager to read about experiences both similar to, and different from, their own. Gay parenting isn’t new, and novels dealing with this subject are long overdue; discouraging and/or censoring these stories not only does a great disservice to the many children of gay parents who’d certainly like to read about families like their own, but to the others who could benefit, and gain empathy, from a deeper understanding of the subject.
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