Tokuda-Hall and Scholastic Controversy
In April, author Maggie Tokuda-Hall posted on her website about a request from Scholastic’s Rising Voices Library to alter the afterword of her picture book Love in the Library (Candlewick) to remove references to racism, leading to an outcry online and a later apology from the publisher.
Love in the Library, illustrated by Yas Imamura, is the story of Tokuda-Hall’s grandparents meeting at a Japanese internment camp during WWII, and includes an afterward placing the story in historical context, referring to the “virulent racism” of the time. Scholastic asked her to cut that phrase, and to remove a paragraph that discussed racism in America more broadly.
Scholastic’s Rising Voices Library is part of the company’s Education division, and focuses on providing works from “historically underrepresented” voices along with supplementary material for teachers. Scholastic wanted to license Love in the Library for their Amplifying AANHPI (Asian Americans and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders) collection, but wanted the author to remove those portions of the afterword, because “our audience is comprised of elementary school-aged children and there are some details in the Author’s Note that, although eloquently stated, are too strongly worded for what most teachers would expect to share with their students. This could lead to teachers declining to use the book, which would be a shame.”
Tokuda-Hall posted about the situation on April 11, 2023, in a piece titled “Scholastic, and a Faustian Bargain”. She wrote that the request “seemed like a thrilling opportunity. But as soon as I cleared the opening paragraph, my heart sank.” She says Scholastic “wanted to take this book and repackage it so that it was just a simple love story. Nothing more. Not anything that might offend those book banners in what they called this ‘politically sensitive’ moment.”
Tokuda-Hall’s publisher Candlewick is behind her, with her editor Karen Lotz saying, “We honor Maggie’s courage and moral clarity in responding to any request to obscure that truth or censor her voice, and support her decision not to accept an altered version of the book.”
Scholastic’s vice-president of corporate communications, Anne Sparkman, told Publishers Weekly, “We are very sorry for how this is all unfolding. We wish the conversation around Love in the Library could have continued with the author and her editors because we very much wanted the book to be available in our collection to reach as many students as possible.” She also said Scholastic hadn’t heard directly from the author or Candlewick before the blog post was published, but Tokuda-Hall explained: “I clarified that the offer was contingent upon this edit being accepted. The answer was yes, it is.”
As news of the controversy spread online (including a petition demanding the work be published unchanged, along with a public apology), Scholastic released another statement, this one from CEO Peter Warwick, who said, “This approach was wrong and not in keeping with Scholastic’s values. We don’t want to diminish or in any way minimize the racism that tragically persists against Asian-Americans.” He still hopes to work with the author: “It is our sincere hope that we can start this conversation over and still be able to share this important story about Ms. Tokuda-Hall’s grandparents, who met in a WWII Incarceration camp, with the author’s note unchanged.”
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