Scholastic Book Fairs face criticism over isolating titles on race and gender

The battle over books has taken a new front.

The season for Scholastic Book Fairs has kicked off, a time when students shop for books at an annual pop-up fair in their own hallways.

But this year, the massive publisher of children's books that manages sales at 120,000 book fairs nationwide announced it has made a new collection entitled “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” that schools can opt in or out of including at fairs.

The decision has triggered criticism for giving schools the choice to remove books about civil rights icons like Ruby Bridges and public figures like Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson from shelves — amid a backdrop of heated debates in local school councils and legislatures over books that cover race, sex, and gender identity.

“My big concern was they were asking schools if you want to opt out on diversity,” said Gabrielle Balkan, a school book fair organizer from Germantown, N.Y., who told NBC News she raised objections with Scholastic via email saying she wasn’t sure she could host a book fair that does not “celebrate and educate about all aspects of human experience, especially those traditionally underrepresented or persecuted.”

The company responded to Balkan via an email from August shared with NBC News with a spokesperson writing, “we agree with you that there is significant confusion and inaccurate information circulating about our fall fairs that we are eager to clarify.”

Book fairs face an 'almost impossible dilemma'

A Scholastic spokesperson told NBC News the company is offering the new category as a way to celebrate diversity and provide more customization options for school districts in response to requests.

Local book fair organizers select from a catalogue of different Scholastic “cases” or groupings of books that are then shipped as units to the school for their event. This year’s offering, according to an email sent to a book fair organizer in late August, included 13 modules of books such as “Fun Facts and Favorite Characters” as well as “Picture Book Combo.” New this year was the grouping labeled “Share Every Story/Celebrate Every Voice Case(DIV).”

The new diversity grouping does not include books that have been recently banned for overt sexual content or stories of transgender youth. Instead, the group includes at least 64 titles with largely Black and brown community themes, such as the books about Bridges and Jackson, a book entitled “Reina Ramos Works it Out”, a book by Amanda Gorman, “I Color Myself Different” by former NFL star and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick, a children’s biography on Malala Yousafzai and the “ABC’s of Black History.”

Scholastic won’t say how many schools have opted “out” or “in” on the diverse category, but a spokesperson said the new grouping of books was created in response to teachers and school librarians who requested more tailoring for their fairs as they are “navigating complex environments.”

Scholastic said in a statement: “The biggest misconception is that Scholastic Book Fairs is putting all diverse titles into one optional case. This is not true, in any school, in any location we serve.”

The publisher cited enacted or pending legislation in more than 30 states prohibiting certain kinds of books — titles that touch upon LGBTQIA+ themes and racism — from being in schools.

“These laws create an almost impossible dilemma: back away from these titles or risk making teachers, librarians and volunteers vulnerable to being fired, sued, or prosecuted,” Scholastic said.

“We are committed to providing titles that are representative of the children and communities we serve in every fair, and steadfast in our support of educators who we must not put in jeopardy,” the spokesperson said, adding that questions from customers are typically regarding how to bring a fair to their school, not how to exclude titles.

"They are asking us for a path forward, particularly in states with strict legislation,” the spokesperson noted.

Concerns over 'gatekeeping' children's reading choices

Scholastic notes that book fair organizers can still individually order titles in the diversity grouping even if they don’t order the whole unit of diverse books and parents can order any book online for their children. Scholastic says that the overall number of diverse titles in its modules this year is “generally the same”.

Megan Angelo who ran her school’s book fair at a diverse elementary school in Pennsylvania for the last two years says she remains concerned.

She said there are no laws in her state dictating book content, “but that doesn’t mean some random fair chair who personally doesn’t want books with diverse protagonists can’t say, ‘Nah, no thanks, don’t send me that diverse case.’ That is an insane amount of gatekeeping power over a child’s reading choices to give an individual,” she told NBC News in an email.

The change has lit up private Facebook groups for Scholastic book fair organizers with some saying they welcome the change so they can “opt out” of the diversity package.

One noted that it was unnecessary to include the diverse titles since “parents can find inclusive books online and through the Scholastic website too.” But another organizer worried that school districts who opted out were missing the chance to educate families: “I hope you’ll reconsider your position so families can choose for themselves which titles they buy. The book fair is an important way for families to learn about new books they might not see in other places.”

Once a school signs up for a book fair, the organizer has a call with a Scholastic representative to walk through the book fair process. Representatives are now having conversations with organizers about the new diversity “case” for the fall fairs. One organizer wrote on a private Facebook group, “I just had a wild conversation with a Scholastic book fair rep about how they have a diversity module that they will uninclude from your fair if requested. I’m pretty horrified by this.”

On Tuesday, PEN America, a nonprofit dedicated to free expression, called upon Scholastic “to explore other solutions so they can reject any role in accommodating these nefarious laws and local pressures, or being an accessory to government censorship.”

“Sequestering books on these topics risks depriving students and families of books that speak to them. It will deny the opportunity for all students to encounter diverse stories that increase empathy, understanding and reflect the range of human experiences and identities,” the statement said. "In an environment of growing censorship, publishers have a dual obligation to both fight it, and to make books as maximally available as possible."

This is not the first time Scholastic has found itself in the middle of a controversy over new children’s book titles. In recent years, some districts in Texas and Florida, under fire from conservatives, have raised questions about Scholastic events because some found the publisher’s selections objectionable.

A school district in Grapevine, Texas, put its Scholastic book fair on hold last year because school officials concluded that Scholastic had “mis-merchandised” books at the book fair, resulting in children buying books that the district felt were not age appropriate, according to Nicole Lyons, spokesperson for the Grapevine Colleyville Independent School District.

Scholastic declined comment on how many fairs have been canceled in recent years.

Over the summer a teacher in Georgia was fired for reading a book to her students that she said she purchased at a Scholastic event.

Balkan, the book fair organizer from New York state, is a former Scholastic employee. She said she was reassured when she heard that the company was seeking to correct the messaging to their book fair consultants and trying to address diversity concerns.