The importance of getting children’s books ‘just right.’
There appears to be an ever-growing trend of pulling children’s books off of shop shelves in the name of ‘political correctness’ or for being considered ‘outdated’ and ‘no longer relevant’ to the society we live in. It is easy to understand why, however, as even some of the most lauded children’s fiction books such as Blyton’s ‘Famous Five Stories’ and Kerr’s ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ are now being criticised for promoting sexist and old-fashioned values that no longer stand in a more diverse and accepting society. C. S. Lewis’ ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ was criticised for its sexist portrayal of Susan and Lucy. While their brothers were allowed to be heroes and fight bravely, the sisters are made to sit on the sidelines and nurse.
And it isn’t just old books that are being found at fault- a recent picture book depicting smiling slaves making a birthday cake for the first President George Washington, was pulled from shelves when the book caused a social media storm, labeling the book as being ‘racially insensitive’ for glossing over the actual horrors of American slavery and not even attempting to address the obvious sanitisation of black history. Similarly, a children’s colouring book ‘for beautiful girls’ and ‘brilliant boys’ came under scrutiny for its harmful stereotyping of gender roles.
In an attempt to smooth out some of the controversy that comes with selling some of the more ‘old-fashioned’ children’s books, edits have been made by publishers to ensure that the language is more modern and suitable for today’s audiences. Blyton’s ‘Famous Five’ stories have been revamped by publishers and have had parts rewritten and improved for the readers of the 21st century. ‘Dirty tinker’ has become ‘traveller’, ‘housemistress’ has been changed to ‘teacher’ and ‘Aunt Fanny’ has had her name rewritten as ‘Aunt Franny.’
There seems to be clear reasons why some of Blyton’s work has been rewritten and improved. Her work was even criticised by some during her own time for being ‘racist’ and ‘offensive.’ The traveller characters that the children encounter in the books are vilified and treated as being ‘dirty’ and ‘slovenly’, but some have argued that censoring classic literature for the sake of it has gone too far. While they can understand why words such as ‘gay’ and ‘queer’ have been changed due to semantic shifts over time, many argue that adults are underestimating the intelligence of children by assuming they won’t understand that the books are from a different time. Their argument is that by choosing to censor older books that have racist and sexist undertones, they are in fact contributing to the erasure of history and leading children to believe that the times were simpler than they really were.
On the whole, though, censorship of children’s stories is not a new thing. The original Grimm’s fairy stories would be virtually unrecognisable to readers of the 21st and even the 20th century. But perhaps as a response to the growing need for safer, more politically correct material, a surge of children’s books covering topics on feminism and racism have started to appear, starting at an age range of 3 months to 12 years old and discussing current and relevant topics such as the treatment of refugees and climate change. There is even a ‘Child’s First Book of Trump’ and a book of ‘Politically Correct Bedtime Stories.’ While it is clear that we have a responsibility in how literature shapes and influences our children’s minds, there appears to be a thin line between protecting children from harmful stereotypes and ideas and censoring for the sake of it.
