“Read Across America Day” is an event that was created to get kids excited about reading and has been held on March 2nd since it started. That’s also Theodor Seuss Geisel’s birthday, so a lot of the Dr. Seuss books were included in the reading choices.
A report for “Research on Diversity in Youth Literature” was published two years ago, showing that almost all of his books feature on or more examples of “Orientalism, Anti-Blackness and White Supremacy”, with the last one being labeled also as “White Hegemony”. You can read or download the PDF of the report. At the end is the chart showing number of white characters, number of characters of color, number of girl or women characters of color, and then the negative depictions.
At least some of the libraries participating in “Read Across America Day” this year are going to not feature the Dr. Seuss books to help separate the event from him.
Earlier today, Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that six Dr. Seuss books will no longer be published:
- “If I Ran the Zoo”
- “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street”
- “The Cat’s Quizzer”
- “McElligot’s Pool”
- “On Beyond Zebra!”
- “Scrambled Eggs Super!”
The CNN article references that report and breaks down what’s in each book that resulted in their removal.
All six books are not listed any more on the official Seussville website. They’re unavailable on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and Half Price Books. On Ebay, prices are skyrocketing. The bid for a fairly recent version of “McElligot’s Pool” doubled in the last 10 or 15 minutes to over $100, and in the minute or two while I was typing this and looking at something else, it went up by another $20. (And up another $10 in the next 10-15 minutes.)
This is shaping up to be another example where we're going to lose a piece of history and people won't have a chance to learn from it in the future. These books are going to become a footnote where we'll have to accept what's being said about them now without being able to see for ourselves because the physical copies will become unavailable. You can get a few of them as a Kindle version from Amazon, but depending on what kind of DRM they have in the file, reading options will be limited and you'll be dependent upon Amazon not deleting it from your library under some obscure clause that's buried deep in the licensing agreement.
If I had the money, I’d buy at least one copy of all of Dr. Seuss’ books right now so there’s at least one set that’s preserved. It’s not unreasonable to assume that as more people look at Ted Geisel’s work and political views, the rest are also at risk for disappearing.
Here’s what else is at risk for disappearing:
- Seuss Landing at Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park. It has a Mulberry Street Stores Trading Co. shop and an If I Ran the Zoo interactive kids play zone. Universal will likely restructure Seuss Landing to remove those two areas or they will close Seuss Landing and change it into something else.
- Existing TV and movie adaptations of his books, unless the companies that own them put a disclaimer in front about what’s in it. (I haven’t seen it, but I think HBO’s featurette they added in front of Gone with the Wind is a better way of doing it instead of just tacking on a “there’s bad stuff in this movie that used to be okay” title card.)
- Future TV or movie adaptations. Warner Animation Group was developing a new animated version of The Cat in the Hat in 2018, but with the economic impact of COVID-19 on the movie industry and this, will they continue? Live-action versions were already stopped by Audrey Geisel after how poorly-received the Mike Meyers version of Cat in the Hat did.
- The Dartmouth Outing Club at Geisel’s alma mater will likely discontinue the pre-matriculation trips into the New Hampshire wilderness that featured green eggs for breakfast. Likewise, the Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine may revert to its previous name, even though both had exhibited years of generosity to the college.
- The University Library Building at the University of California, San Diego was renamed to the Geisel Library four years after he died. Another candidate for reverting back to its original name.
- There’s a Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture in Springfield, Massachusetts. Will that stay open?
- Dr. Seuss was inducted into the California Hall of Fame. De-inducted candidate?
- The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award could be reevaluated to see if another author better represents the award’s values.
- Will his Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, Peabody Award, Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, Inkpot Award and Pulitzer Prize be revoked? And will his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame be removed?
- The Seussical musical had six tours since it was created in 2000 and has often been performed at schools and regional theaters. The last tour was an Off West End tour in London (the English equivalent of an Off Broadway play or tour) in 2018. Live theaters were also impacted by COVID, so this musical may not start back up whenever live theaters are able to.
This is something I'm actually sad to see happening because we're going to lose so much that we could definitely learn from. It's just six books right now. It could be more, as listed above.
How many parents try to teach their children by resorting to saying “Because I said so”? I’m not a parent, but I react the same way. If you say “Don’t do this” or “Because I said so” to me, that’s not a good enough reason. Tell me or show me why and I’ll understand it. I’ll be able to make an informed decision rather than blindly accepting what you say. I will be able to learn from the past and help work towards not making those same mistakes in the future.
