The company behind the beloved Scholastic Book Fair is facing push back after making changes to its offerings in response to increasing book ban attempts across the U.S.
Driving the news: Scholastic, an educational company that publishes and distributes books for children and young adults, created a separate collection for its more diverse titles, allowing schools to opt in or out, or limit, their inclusion in elementary school fairs.
- The move came in response to enacted or pending legislation in more than 30 states that prohibit certain books from being in schools – “mostly LGBTQIA+ titles and books that engage with the presence of racism in our country,” Scholastic said in a statement explaining the decision.
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The “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” collection includes about 30 books, most of which address issues of race, gender and sexuality, per NPR.
- They include The ABCs of Black History, biographies of late civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and books by poet Amanda Gorman, former NFL player-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick, and dancer and LGBTQ icon Jojo Siwa, NPR reports.
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