Challenges and Cover Changes and Librarian Songs, Oh My!

A bunch of random happenings learnt today:

Menifee Union School District in California has pulled copies of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary (10th edition) from 4th and 5th grade classrooms in response to a parent complaint. Turns out there are certain words in that dictionary that are "sexually graphic." I always knew Webster was a perv out to corrupt our youth!

Little, Brown has announced they will be putting new covers on the The Mysterious Benedict Society book series (which, btw, my 6th graders LOVE) in response to complaints* of "whitewashing" the character Sticky. Sticky is described in the text as having "light brown skin" and is even shaded in internal illustrations, but appears white as ghost on the book covers. I'd make a "sticky situation" pun here, but SLJ beat me to it. Alas.

Now, to close-out with something fun, FlavorPill brings us Mixtape: 10 Best Songs About Libraries and Librarians.

Awesome job, Leila for your activism on this issue!

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Oops!...They Did It Again

Bloomsbury. Really? Again?

As if one cover featuring a white girl when the story was about a girl with dark skin wasn't bad enough. You had to go and whitewash the cover of Jaclyn Dolamore's Magic Under Glass.

I appreciate that you've done the right thing and responded to the public outcry* by ceasing to sell the book with the original cover, apologizing and creating a new cover. You did that last time, and it worked out well.

So next time, how about just doing the right thing the first time and creating a cover that reflects the story and the characters? And if you're queasy about putting a person of color on the cover, you could always take the easy way out and not put a person on the cover at all. Just stop it with the white girls on the cover of books about darker skinned girls. Ok?

I'm creating a "whitewashing" tag. Don't dare make me use it again.

...And Little, Brown, don't think you're not being watched. You are.

* Thanks to bookshelves of doom for rounding up all the posts!

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.