Scholastic Reverses Position to Exclude Children’s Book With Lesbian Moms

10/28/09-by Paula Brooks UalZmDANlMhVPBZ-250
Michael Jones of Change.org is reporting that Scholastic Books has reversed their decision to exclude a book from Scholastic’s popular book fairs, simply because that book featured two moms raising a child.

Last week Jones launched a petition drive from Change.org after the popular children’s book club excluded author Lauren Myracle’s best-selling children’s book, Luv Ya Bunches over concerns Myracle included same-sex parents in her book and then refused to include a heterosexual couple when that was requested by Scholastic.

The controversy over Myracle’s book began after The School Library Journal reported that global children’s publishing, education and media giant decided not to include a book about the friendship among four elementary school girls, with one of those girls, Milla, having lesbian moms, from its Scholastic Book Fair, because the company says one of the main characters had same-sex parents.

According to Jones, the reversal by Scholastic came after more than 4,000 people contacted the publisher expressing concern Scholastic was attempting to censor books with LGBT characters.

A statement from Scholastic said…

“Scholastic does not censor books. 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. In an interview with School Library Journal, Scholastic stated that we are currently carrying Luv Ya Bunches by Lauren Myracle in our school book clubs. We also said we were still reviewing the book for possible inclusion in our book fairs. Having completed our review of Luv Ya Bunches, Scholastic Book Fairs will carry the title in our spring fairs for middle school.

Scholastic is proud of our long history of providing books that will appeal to the wide range of interests and reading abilities of children in the many diverse cultures and communities we serve. Luv Ya Bunches is just one example.”

The Scholastic Mission Credo notes the company produces educational materials to assist and inspire students:

To cultivate their minds to utmost capacity
To become familiar with our cultural heritage
To strive for excellence in creative expression in all fields of learning, literature, and art
To seek effective ways to live a satisfying life
To enlarge students’ concern for and understanding of today’s world
To help build a society free of prejudice and hate, and dedicated to the highest quality of life in community and nation.

Lesbian Mom Blogger Dana Rudolph, who was instrumental in alerting parents about Scholastics slight on Luv Ya Bunches said, “I am pleased Scholastic has decided to include Luv Ya Bunches in its School Book Fairs. It is unfortunate that they initially felt the need to ask Myracle to change the lesbian moms (who play only a minor role in the book) to a mom and a dad, but it is heartening to know that they listened to the more than 4000 people, LGBT and not, who signed Change.org’s petition in support of the author. The upside is that going forward, the company is on record as stating: “We are committed to a review process that considers all books equally regardless of their inclusion of LGBT characters and same sex parents.” I hope that will benefit many authors—and, more importantly, many children—in the future.”