If you haven’t heard, Scholastic has created a segment of books titled Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice. It’s in response to the book bans happening across schools in the U.S. This segment of books broadly includes queer books and books that deal with racism. In order for schools to receive these books, they need to opt in.
What do you think? Is Scholastic doing what they need to do to because they’re up against a wall? Are they truly protecting teachers and librarians? Or should they take a stand and not cower to these ridiculous book ban regulations?
Tell me your thoughts in the comments.
**Full transparency, I have a publishing deal with Scholastic.
The opt-in thing will at least mean that the schools and libraries who would be targeted by the book banners for having them in their collections could avoid the controversy. But it would mean the kids who would be the target audience would miss out on some valuable reading experiences...
Yeah, it's really a lose/lose, IMO. The book bans means librarians and teachers are now responsible for deciphering what is "allowed" and the penalties, in some cases, are pretty severe. Scholastic is trying to be proactive, but in doing so, they're literally marginalizing already marginalized groups and accepting a bias level of censorship.
The opt-in thing will at least mean that the schools and libraries who would be targeted by the book banners for having them in their collections could avoid the controversy. But it would mean the kids who would be the target audience would miss out on some valuable reading experiences...
Yeah, it's really a lose/lose, IMO. The book bans means librarians and teachers are now responsible for deciphering what is "allowed" and the penalties, in some cases, are pretty severe. Scholastic is trying to be proactive, but in doing so, they're literally marginalizing already marginalized groups and accepting a bias level of censorship.