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https://www.seussville.com/statement-from-dr-seuss-enterprises/ https://www.seussville.com/statement-from-dr-seuss-enterpris... Statement from Dr. Seuss Enterp

https://www.seussville.com/statement-from-dr-seuss-enterprises/ https://www.seussville.com/statement-from-dr-seuss-enterpris... Statement from Dr. Seuss Enterprises March 2, 2021 Today, on Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, Dr. Seuss Enterprises celebrates reading and also our mission of supporting all children and families with messages of hope, inspiration, inclusion, and friendship. We are committed to action. To that end, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, working with a panel of experts, including educators, reviewed our catalog of titles and made the decision last year to cease publication and licensing of the following titles: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer. These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong. Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’s catalog represents and supports all communities and families. The Dr. Seuss Experience – A wondrous world awaits!

asoneth 6y ago
A few of these books are only incidentally racist so I hope Dr. Seuss Enterprises sees fit to tweak and re-release them similarly to the Richard Scarry classics[1] others have mentioned. Cultures have been bowlderizing kids books for as long as there have been kids books. Early versions of classic fairy tales had characters meet gristly ends -- skinned alive, forced to wear red-hot iron shoes, decapitated, eyes plucked out, etc. You can still find the original versions (including on eBay) but the kids section of the library generally carries the revised versions and no one was shocked that Disney decided not to animate the part of the story where the little mermaid had to choose between murdering the prince in his sleep and bathing her feet in his blood or committing suicide in the ocean. Though when kids are old enough to think critically about this sort of thing I generally agree with Philip Nel [2] that reading books and talking about them is a much better approach to problematic books, so I also hope they ultimately decide to release annotated versions as well. I just wouldn't stock those in the kids section of the library. [1] https://www.upworthy.com/8-changes-that-were-made-to-a-classic-richard-scarry-book-to-keep-up-with-the-times-progress https://www.upworthy.com/8-changes-that-were-made-to-a-class... [2] https://philnel.com/2010/09/19/censoring-ideology/ https://philnel.com/2010/09/19/censoring-ideology/ is

asoneth 6y ago

A few of these books are only incidentally racist so I hope Dr. Seuss Enterprises sees fit to tweak and re-release them similarly to the Richard Scarry classics[1] others have mentioned. Cultures have been bowlderizing kids books for as long as there have been kids books. Early versions of classic fairy tales had characters meet gristly ends -- skinned alive, forced to wear red-hot iron shoes, decapitated, eyes plucked out, etc. You can still find the original versions (including on eBay) but the kids section of the library generally carries the revised versions and no one was shocked that Disney decided not to animate the part of the story where the little mermaid had to choose between murdering the prince in his sleep and bathing her feet in his blood or committing suicide in the ocean. Though when kids are old enough to think critically about this sort of thing I generally agree with Philip Nel [2] that reading books and talking about them is a much better approach to problematic books, so I also hope they ultimately decide to release annotated versions as well. I just wouldn't stock those in the kids section of the library. [1] https://www.upworthy.com/8-changes-that-were-made-to-a-classic-richard-scarry-book-to-keep-up-with-the-times-progress https://www.upworthy.com/8-changes-that-were-made-to-a-class... [2] https://philnel.com/2010/09/19/censoring-ideology/ https://philnel.com/2010/09/19/censoring-ideology/ is