Amy Ignatow has been organizing the Scholastic Book Fair at her children's school for seven years. She loves the fair, whether it's the smell of new books or the reactions of children finding ways into worlds they didn’t know existed.
But this year, that almost came to an end for Ignatow, after Scholastic's announcement that it would separate books with themes of race, gender, and LGBTQ+ identity, a move that fair organizers and librarians across the country saw as the Scholastic organization’s obsequiousness to right-wing groups aiming to limit the books children can read. Now that Scholastic has reversed that decision, Ignatow says she's “incredibly relieved.”
“I recognize that it’s easy to say now, but I would not have been comfortable working with them again, both in my capacity as a kid-lit author and as a fair organizer,” she says. “And that was heartbreaking.”
In an announcement on October 13, Scholastic said it would change how some schools would present the Scholastic Book Fair amid increasing restrictions and book bans. Instead of being available as usual, certain books about race, gender, and LGBTQ+ identities, which some schools have banned, would have been offered only at schools that opted in to what Scholastic called their Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice collection. This, Scholastic said, was an answer to “an almost impossible dilemma” that teachers and administrators at schools with book bans face: “Back away from these titles or risk making teachers, librarians, and volunteers vulnerable to being fired, sued, or prosecuted.”
But on October 25, after much backlash, Scholastic reversed its decision, and discontinued the Share Every Story collection. “Even if the decision was made with good intention, we understand now that it was a mistake to segregate diverse books in an elective case,” a letter announcing the reversal from Scholastic Trade Publishing president Ellie Berger stated, according to Publisher's Weekly. The letter was not posted publicly, but it was sent to authors who signed a statement against the initial decision, who have since posted it to social media.
Scholastic posted a public statement announcing the change, saying the separate collection will be discontinued as Scholastic works “to find a better way.” “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,” the statement said.
Scholastic also decried the book bans that prompted its initial decision: “It is unsettling that the current divisive landscape in the US 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,” the statement continued.
According to data from the American Library Association (ALA), requests to ban books hit a 21-year high, with 1,050 censor requests in 2022 — a steep increase from the 619 requests in 2021. “We are seeing less and less of what used to happen, which was an individual parent would see their student reading a book and look at it and have questions about it and take it to a teacher or librarian to have a discussion,” Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, told CNN. “What we are seeing now is organized political advocacy groups go to school boards with an agenda with a long list of books they want banned because those books don’t fit their political, moral, or religious agenda.”
Book bans are rising sharply in schools and public libraries, leaving librarians struggling to do their jobs and students trying to find the books they’re looking for. According to the New York Times, “Most of the challenged books were by or about people of color or LGBTQ people.” Education Week reported that some book bans are tied to state laws prohibiting “explicit sexual” or “sensitive material” in lesson plans.
The books that were included in Scholastic's separate category ranged from those written by Black poet Amanda Gorman to queer singer Jojo Siwa, and even books about the late Representative John Lewis and the civil rights icon Ruby Bridges. Librarians and organizers Teen Vogue has spoken with say that separating these books was one step further on the slippery slope of accommodation to censorship demands and right-wing influence.
Molly Quinn, the 28-year-old librarian behind @the_memeing_librarian, tells Teen Vogue that the initial Scholastic decision gave a sense of gravitas to the censorship attempts. “It gives an appearance of validity to their side, that these books should be able to be opted out of,” Quinn explains. “The reality is, you can't opt out of the human experience, you can't opt out of diversity.”
Hearing that Scholastic has reversed course is a relief, Quinn says, but there's more work to be done: “I am hesitantly optimistic by this statement. We as a community need to make sure they follow through and actually integrate the diverse books into every fair.”
Garrett Traylor, a research and instruction librarian, says many questions still remain, despite Scholastic's new announcement. Scholastic said it is discontinuing its Share Every Story collection as it works to find a different solution, but Traylor says it's not clear what that means. “Are they reintegrating the selections that would have made up this collection into the rest of their collection offerings as they were before?" he asks. “Or are these titles being dropped entirely? They don’t seem to clarify that point when I look closely at their statement.”
Anne Sparkman, senior vice president of corporate communications at Scholastic Inc., tells Teen Vogue via email that this is being “actively worked on,” adding that it's “too early to provide specifics.”
“What is certain today is the titles remain available through the online fair for all families participating in fairs through their child’s school, hosts can still order titles individually, and if you planned on having the collection in your fall fair, you will receive it,” says Sparkman.
“Okay, they’re ‘working to find a better way.’ That’s nice," says Traylor. "So, my final thought: Prove it, Scholastic.”
