Victory: Scholastic Reverses Decision to Exclude Gay Friendly Book from Fairs

Scholastic Books responded to the petition, signed by many villagers, criticizing the company for excluding a book from their popular books fairs simply because one of the characters had two lesbian mothers. Scholastic has reversed their decision to exclude the Lauren Myracle's book, Luv Ya Bunches, and has released a statement affirming the dignity of gay and lesbian parents.

We received the following message from Scholastic Books:

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Dear Electronic Villager,

Scholastic has been helping kids learn to love to read for almost 90 years. Scholastic does not censor books. The selection of books we carry in our book clubs and book fairs is the result of a careful review of thousands of titles each year, and we are committed to a review process that considers all books equally regardless of their inclusion of LGBT characters and same sex parents.

Scholastic is already supporting Luv Ya Bunches by Lauren Myracle. This book is featured prominently on both the student and teacher covers of our December 2009 Arrow Scholastic Book Clubs catalogs which are already printed and are in schools right now. On October 16 we also recorded a Book Talk Editors' Choice Video which features Luv Ya Bunches.

Scholastic editors recognize Milla's two moms as a positive and realistic aspect of the story. We offer other books with same sex couples and gay and lesbian characters in Book Clubs and Book Fairs including The Name of This Book is Secret and The Misfits, as well as the upcoming After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson, and others. Scholastic provides 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 helps us fulfill our mission to do that.

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 schools.

Thank you for taking the time to express your opinion. Scholastic is very proud of its long history of helping children learn to love to read. We look forward to continuing to bring the best in children's literature to communities across the country and around the world as Scholastic has done for nearly 90 years.

Sincerely,
Kyle Good
Vice President, Scholastic Inc.

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Scholastic Books is one of the largest educational publishing outfits in the country, and this sends a clear message to children and parents everywhere that there's absolutely nothing wrong with two men or two women raising a child.

As Lauren Myracle herself said at the height of this controversy, "Over 200,000 kids in America are raised by same-sex parents... It's not an issue to clean up or hide away." That's the message we sent by signing this petition, and Scholastic Books heard us loud and clear.