US publishing giant Scholastic has insisted that it "does not censor books" in the wake of a fierce row over US children's author Lauren Myracle, who was asked to rewrite her latest book Luv Ya Bunches to remove "offensive" language and a same-sex couple if she wanted it to be included in the company's school book fairs.
Myracle – who regularly makes the list of the most banned and challenged authors in the US – capitulated on the language, removing words such as "geez", "crap", "sucks", and "God", but refused to replace the lesbian parents of her character Milla with a heterosexual couple. "A child having same-sex parents is not offensive, in my mind, and shouldn't be 'cleaned up'," she told US library magazine School Library Journal. But Scholastic's book fairs, which are promotional events staged in schools right across the US, then decided not to take the book in order to avoid complaints from parents (it was still available in Scholastic's book club catalogue).
"I find that appalling. I understand why they would want to avoid complaint letters – no one likes getting hated on – but shouldn't they be willing to evaluate the quality of the complaint? What, exactly, are children being protected against here?" she asked. "Over 200,000 kids in America are raised by same-sex parents, just like Milla. It's not an issue to clean up or hide away. In my opinion, it's not an 'issue' at all. The issue, as I see it, is that kids benefit hugely from seeing themselves reflected positively in the books they read. It's an extremely empowering and validating experience."
Luv Ya Bunches, aimed at children with a reading level between nine and 12 years old, tells of four girls who have nothing in common apart from the fact they are all named after flowers. It is written in a mix of straight narrative, blog posts, screenplay and instant messages and is the first in a four-book series.
After the article ran, Myracle said she received "a flood of supportive emails from all sorts of people: parents, librarians, teachers, fellow authors, booksellers, and plain old concerned adults" thanking her for sticking to her guns. "Not just adults, though. I got emails from indignant tweens and teens, too," she wrote on her blog, "reaffirming a truth so beautifully put by Madeleine L'Engle: 'The problem is not that [certain subject matter] is too difficult for children, but that it's too difficult for grown ups'. We shouldn't have to defend non-traditional families, and 10 years from now, hopefully this will no longer be an issue. Families are families. Kids are kids. Love is love."
Parenting and gay rights blogs condemned Scholastic's decision, and a petition was launched by the website Change.org, signed by more than 4,000 people, demanding that Scholastic "stop censoring gay-friendly books immediately". "[The decision] is offensive, wrong, and exactly the opposite of the message of tolerance we should be sending to children," said the petition, supported by the National Youth Advocacy Coalition. Scholastic has now issued a statement saying that it "does not censor books", and announcing that after completing a review of Luv Ya Bunches for inclusion in its book fairs (it was already carrying it in its school book clubs) it will carry the title in its spring fairs for middle schools. "We review thousands of titles each year for our book clubs and book fairs, and we are committed to a review process that considers all books equally regardless of their inclusion of LGBT characters and same-sex parents," the publisher said.
Change.org claimed the news as "a victory for us all – not only for getting a business to respect LGBT rights, but to send a larger message about the dignity of LGBT families around the globe". School Library Journal, however, pointed out that the book still won't be available at Scholastic's elementary fairs – its target market.