Don’t worry, Dr. Seuss can still be found at the Iola Public Library.
For those wondering why it might be otherwise, on Tuesday, which happened to be Theodor Seuss Geisel’s birthday, his publisher announced that it would no longer print six titles given their problematic depictions of people belonging to certain ethnic or racial groups.
The six books include: “And to Think I saw it on Mulberry Street,” “If I Ran the Zoo,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.”
“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” read a statement from Dr. Seuss Enterprises.
The decision was made following feedback by a panel of educators and other experts, in the hope that “Dr. Seuss’ catalog represents and supports all communities and families.”
It has been known for years that during his early career Seuss drew war propaganda images containing anti-Black and anti-Japanese motifs, and that some of these “leached” into his children’s books, but no widespread action had been taken until now.
To learn more about the Dr. Seuss debacle, this Register reporter spoke with Roger Carswell, director of the Iola Public Library.
Carswell said the library owns four of the six books in question, but added that “we’re not pulling them, and I don’t think anyone expects libraries to pull them.”
The story might be different in the case of public schools, however, as K-12 librarians face more pressure to “screen” items for objectionable content. (A school system in Virginia, for example, opted to remove Seuss from its Read Across America Day activities.)
By contrast, to be pulled from the public library shelves, at least locally, “an objection would probably have to be pretty egregious,” Carswell said.
And if that’s the case, “it probably would have been discarded long ago.”
Given that Tuesday was Dr. Seuss’ birthday, the Iola Library had already set up a display in his honor, so Carswell and this reporter went to the shelves for a first-hand look.
Carswell picked up “And to Think I saw it on Mulberry Street,” and started flipping, eventually coming to the page in question.
“There’s the objection, right there,” he said, pointing.
Sure enough, on a specific page was the image of an Asian man represented in racially stereotypical fashion, with features such as a pointy hat and slanted eyes.
