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A 2017 tweet from Vice President Kamala Harris has resurfaced mentioning Dr. Seuss by name and quoting him, four years before her own administration would strip his name from Read Across America Day. Harris was a senator when she sent out the tweet, dated March 2, 2017, in which she wished the famed children’s book author a happy birthday. “Happy birthday, #DrSeuss! ‘The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go,’” the California senator wrote at the time.

When a classic children's book gets turned into a TV series, it's usually a cause for celebration. Usually. One of the most endearing and enduring books for kids is Anne of Green Gables, a 1908 novel about a Canadian orphan who is adopted by a brother and sister on Prince Edward Island. It's been filmed a number of times over the years. And given the non-stop campaign to normalize the LGBT lifestyle, it should come as no surprise that the most recent version introduces several homosexual characters. The Netflix series, titled "Anne with an E," just began its second season....

I was sitting on my daughter’s bed reading Laura Ingalls Wilder, and this and other scenes in “Little House on the Prairie” stopped me cold. What had been, in my gauzy memory, a beautiful and pure story was complicated by passages like this: “Why don’t you like Indians, Ma?” Laura asked, and she caught a drop of molasses with her tongue. “I just don’t like them; and don’t lick your fingers, Laura,” said Ma.

Last week, the Association of Library Service to Children renamed the award it gives authors or illustrators whose books “have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.” This award used to be called the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, but the association’s board decided to rename it the Children's Literature Legacy Award. Why? Because, according to board members, Wilder’s books include “anti-Native and anti-Black” references that fail to represent the association’s “core values of inclusiveness, integrity and respect.”Wilder wrote about her childhood experiences in a 19th century pioneer family. Perhaps her most famous...

The US Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) has removed Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from one of its awards over racist views and language. The association had received complaints for years over the Little House on the Prairie author's "anti-Native and anti-Black sentiments in her work". The ALSC board voted unanimously on Saturday to remove Wilder's name from the children's literature award. The medal will be renamed as the Children's Literature Legacy award. The ALSC, a division of the American Library Association, said Wilder's novels and "expressions of stereotypical attitudes" were "inconsistent with ALSC's core values". Wilder's children's novels...

CHICAGO – A division of the American Library Association has voted to remove Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from a major children's book award over concerns with how the early-to-mid 20th century author portrayed blacks and Native Americans. The Association for Library Service to Children's board made the unanimous decision Saturday at a meeting in New Orleans. The name has been changed to the Children's Literature Legacy Award.

Intriquing story of AA Milne, Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh.

... In today’s hair-trigger, hyperreactive social media landscape, where a tweet can set off a cascade of outrage and prompt calls for a book’s cancellation, children’s book authors and publishers are taking precautions to identify potential pitfalls in a novel’s premise or execution. Many are turning to sensitivity readers, who provide feedback on issues like race, religion, gender, sexuality, chronic illness and physical disabilities. The role that readers play in shaping children’s books has become a flash point in a fractious debate about diversity, cultural appropriation and representation, with some arguing that the reliance on sensitivity readers amounts to censorship....

Tonight I made a rare Friday appearance with Tucker Carlson on Fox News. The subject was a Massachusetts school librarian's decision to reject a gift of children's books from Melania Trump because Dr Seuss is "racist propaganda":According to Steyn, the letter that Massachusetts librarian Phipps Soeiro wrote was "incredibly moronic" and "part of the dumbing down of American society." After disputing one of Serio's complaints, Steyn lamented that "we are making ourselves a society too stupid to survive."Steyn specifically took issue with Soeiro's complaint that the main character in "The Cat in the Hat" had a bowtie intended to evoke...

(snip)There’s a girl-power movement in the picture-book world(snip) The little girls (and boys) reading these books are being primed for action rather than lulled to sleep. They are curious. They are inquisitive. They are not shy. They are, in a word, woke. And they want to talk about Hillary Clinton —(snip) Simcha Jacobs, 6, of Honolulu — said she was excited about the event “because I might see Hillary!” “Maybe she’ll make a surprise appearance,” the girl’s mother said hopefully. She did not. But Simcha was not alone in wanting to talk about Hillary and the current state of affairs...

“In the great green room/there was a telephone/and a red balloon/and a picture of a cow jumping over the moon . . .”cow jumping over the moon . . .” For childhood readers of the classic “Goodnight Moon,” there is no more nostalgic image. The simple, rhythmic language and the bold drawings captured the hearts and minds of the public when “Goodnight Moon” was published in 1947. It has sold over 14 million copies and is one of the most beloved children’s books of all time. But it’s likely few could even name the book’s author, let alone know her wild backstory. She was...

Beatrix Potter was a writer of strong contradictions. A keen business woman, the first author to license fictional characters to a range of toys and household objects still on sale today, she allowed herself to be short-changed over her royalties for years. She was an expert in natural history, boiling down animal corpses to extract their skeletons so she could understand their anatomy well enough to draw them, yet she wrote stories in which rabbits wear blue jackets and hedgehogs pinafores. A huge success, she turned her back on her literary achievements in middle age to pursue a career as...

Disney and Selma director Ava DuVernay are setting Oprah Winfrey to star in A Wrinkle In Time, an adaptation of the 1963 Newbery Medal-winning Madeleine L’Engle fantasy classic novel that has a script by Oscar-winning Frozen writer and co-director Jennifer Lee. Winfrey will play the role of Mrs. Which. The studio is moving quickly to cast the film, with actors including Amy Adams and Kevin Hart chief among those circling. Winfrey is in final negotiations. She starred for DuVernay in Selma and played a role behind the scenes in helping to make the movie happen. Winfrey and DuVernay also co-created...

Maclean’s spoke with Eric Walters, author of national bestselling children’s books, to find out how Canadian parents and teachers can explain America’s rowdiest politician to kids. Q: How can adults explain Trump to kids? A: How do you explain a sociopath to an eight-year-old? That’s a hard one. A mean man. A non-Canadian. Darth Vader. Actually, can’t you picture Darth Vader with that hair? But in the end, good does prevail. Show them there are good parts of life. Show them Michelle Obama’s speech. You need to say, “but here is what good people do. Here in Canada, we’re different.”...

The iconic American children's book character Curious George is celebrating Ramadan in one of the latest books from the 75-year-old series.It's Ramadan, Curious George was written by Pakistani-American Muslim author Hena Khan who stated she was glad the book was released during this contentious election season, particularly with Donald Trump's call for a ban on Muslim immigration. "There's a very dangerous narrative being spread about Muslims and inaccurate things being said," Khan said. "[The book] comes at the right time in terms of trying to promote understanding and tolerance." Khan has already written two children's books about Islam, according to...

It was the film that traumatised a generation of children, with its much-loved rabbit characters slain on screen in graphic and memorable scenes. But the story of Watership Down is to be remade for a new era, as programme-makers promise to tone down its most brutal images. The BBC has teamed up with Netflix for one of the most expensive mini-series ever made for the small screen, and the first animated four-part drama of its kind. The new version stars the voices of James McAvoy and Nicholas Hoult as Hazel and Fiver, Sir Ben Kingsley as General Woundwort and Star...

Beverly Cleary, the children’s author whose books about Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins and others captured the spark and struggles of “kids like us,” doesn’t mind if you celebrate her birthday. After all, she turns 100 on Tuesday. Now living in a retirement community in Carmel, California, Cleary plans to celebrate with a slice of carrot cake. But it’s fine if others celebrate, including the “Drop Everything and Read” effort sponsored by her publisher. “Go ahead and fuss,” she told the Washington Post of her centennial birthday. “Everyone else is.”

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) — As she turns 100, the feisty and witty author Beverly Cleary remembers the Oregon childhood that inspired the likes of characters Ramona and Beezus Quimby and Henry Huggins in the children’s books that sold millions and enthralled generations of youngsters. “I was a well-behaved little girl, not that I wanted to be,” she said. “At the age of Ramona, in those days, children played outside. We played hopscotch and jump rope and I loved them and always had scraped knees.” Ramona, perhaps her best-known character, made her debut in “Henry Huggins” with only a brief mention....

Eric Hill, whose effort to entertain his young son with a simple drawing of a mischievous dog named Spot blossomed into a popular series of children's books that have sold more than 60 million copies, has died at his home in central California. He was 86.