Causecast

by CLAIRE MORGENSTERN, Contributing Writer

If you were anything like the nerd I was in elementary school, you’ll remember the annual Scholastic book fair as one of the best days of the year. You show up at the door with your class, a parent volunteer hands you a wish list and a pencil, and you can walk around the display and write down any book you want on the list. Well, now even the universally-loved, blatantly uncontroversial book fair has become restrictive and politicized. This year, Scholastic has banned one of its books, Luv ya Bunches, from the ranks of its selections – because a main character in the book has lesbian parents.

Scholastic cited “offensive language” and the same-sex parents of Milla, one of the four elementary school-age girls featured in the book, as grounds for omitting the book from the selection of reading material available at its book fairs, according to an October 21 article published in the School Library Journal. Reportedly, the company sent the book’s editor a letter asking the author of the book, Lauren Myracle, to omit words like “geez,” “crap” and “sucks” – the extent of the “offensive language” – and to make Milla’s parents a heterosexual couple. Myracle agreed to remove the language in question but held firm on her decision to give Milla two moms.

Scholastic argued that the change was required to “meet the norms” of the communities that host the book fairs. But whose norms are those, exactly?

“Over 200,000 kids in America are raised by same-sex parents, just like Milla. It’s not an issue to clean up or hide away,” Myracle is quoted as saying in the Journal. “In my opinion, it’s not an ‘issue’ at all. The issue, as I see it, is that kids benefit hugely from seeing themselves reflected positively in the books they read. It’s an extremely empowering and validating experience.”

This is not the first time that Myracle has faced censorship of her work. Her TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R series was among the ten most frequently challenged books of 2008 for “offensive language,” “sexually explicit” content, and “unsuited to age group,” according to the American Library Association (ALA).

Myracle’s latest censorship challenge ironically came on the heels of Banned Books Week (Sept. 26-Oct. 3), an annual celebration of intellectual freedom featuring books that have been banned or restricted in the past.

The good news is that the book will continue to be available in the Scholastic Book Club catalog that thousands of youngsters receive on a regular basis. In addition, the title was one of only 18 books included on a list of “Teachers’ Picks.”

But while educators seem to think the book is appropriate for their students, Scholastic said that one of the reasons the book was vetoed from the book fair line-up was that the company didn’t want to deal with letters from homophobic parents – exactly the opposite of the message of tolerance and inclusion we should be sending to children, blogger Michael Jones argues on Change.org.

Moreover, Scholastic stated that it will monitor the public’s reactions to the book going forward in order to decide whether or not to include it among the books offered in next year’s fair. So make your voice heard! Send a letter to Scholastic and tell them not to censor books that are inclusive of all types of families.

Photo by San Jose Library, flickr.