Scholastic, which publishes and distributes books to schools, announced Wednesday it will take out the additional case beginning next January and allow the books to be displayed among others.
“As we reconsider how to make our Book Fairs available to all kids, we will keep in mind the needs of our educators facing local content restrictions and the children we serve,” Scholastic said in a press release. “It is unsettling that the current divisive landscape in the U.S. is creating an environment that could deny any child access to books, or that teachers could be penalized for creating access to all stories for their students.”
Amanda Gorman, author of the book “Change Sings,” said on Twitter that her book was placed into the case, called “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice.”
“Seeing these books that I love excluded in this way from a publisher that I’ve admired for a while hit home because I was that 8, 9-year old kid saving up every penny I had all year so I could go to the Scholastic Book Fair not to buy any book, but to finally buy a book with characters and voices that looked like me and sounded like me, as a Black girl with a speech impediment,” she said in a video posted to Twitter.
The American Library Association documented a record 1,269 demands to ban library books in 2022, the highest number of censorship attempts since ALA began compiling the data more than 20 years ago.
The number is nearly twice the 729 challenges reported in 2021.
The ALA says most of those attempts to ban books came from online lists on social media of specific books. The titles targeted are most often written by LGBTQ+ people and Black people.
Ohio is not one of the states with laws around banned books. In 2021, House Bill 327 was introduced to “ban divisive topics” in public, charter and STEM schools, but the bill didn’t make it out of committee.
The Scholastic Book Fair so far has been held at schools in Kettering, Northmont and Riverside, the school districts said. None reported knowing about the “Share Every Story” display.
“Our book fairs are being conducted this year just as they’ve been conducted every year in the past,” said Kari Basson, spokeswoman for Kettering Schools. “We believe our book fairs have always been representative of our community. There are no plans to have a separate cart of books this year at these book fairs.”
Traci Hale, spokeswoman for Oakwood Schools, said none of the elementary principals knew anything about the collections.
In Bellbrook, spokesman Henry Conte said the district has not used Scholastic recently. The K-2 building used Literati Book Fair this year.
“Our 3-5 building has not made a determination on what it will use this school year, but it will not be making a determination until the new year as the book fair won’t be until Spring this year for that building,” Conte said.
Dayton Metro Library Executive Director Jeffrey Trzeciak said while he has no opinion on the Scholastic Book Fairs, he does believe schools and libraries like Dayton Metro have a responsibility to include all kinds of books in their collections.
He said a fringe group of people have been putting pressure on schools and libraries to get rid of books they deem “inappropriate,” and it’s vital for schools and libraries to speak out.
“While they are very vocal, it is a fringe minority,” he said. “And it really is our obligation as public libraries and public schools to ensure that our collections represent the communities we serve, and that means everybody.”
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