A Message from Scholastic on U.S. Book Fairs

In the regions that have banned or will ban books legislatively but still ironically hold book fairs, scholastic is letting the schools themselves decide which books to display, rather than including the books in the book fair shipments without notifying the schools first.

From the link:

To continue offering these books, as well as even more high interest titles, we created an additional collection called Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice for our U.S. elementary school fairs.

So they took all the books with topics that isolationist conservatives believe are bad and corralled them into a separate collection that can be easily excluded by schools. This way, more schools can participate in their book fairs and make Scholastic more money.

Because that’s what’s most important to them.

There is now enacted or pending legislation in more than 30 U.S. states prohibiting certain kinds of books from being in schools – mostly LGBTQIA+ titles and books that engage with the presence of racism in our country. Because Scholastic Book Fairs are invited into schools, where books can be purchased by kids on their own, 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.

Land of the free.

This sucks. Book bans need to be fought tooth and nail, not because of the books, but because they’re a precursor to much worse things. I don’t believe for a second that Scholastic doesn’t know better or doesn’t realize what they’re acquiescing to. Their rationalizations are gross.

Not sure how you read this as "they caved."