A book that emerged from the popular Captain Underpants series by author Dav Pilkey is no longer published by Scholastic, which also requested the return of copies to libraries and other retailers.
said in a statement Scholastic that Pilkey’s 2010 graphic novel The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Future Kung Fu Cavemen will no longer be published or distributed. It was claimed that the author supported the move.
“Together we see that this book perpetuates passive racism. We are very sorry for this serious mistake, « the company said without giving any details.
» Scholastic has removed the book from our websites, stopped fulfilling orders (at home or abroad), contacted our retail partners to order explain why this book is no longer available and request a return of all inventory. We will take steps to inform schools and libraries that may still have this title about our decision to remove it from publication. “
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Pilkey’s Captain Underpants character was the subject of a 2017 DreamWorks animation and Twentieth Century Fox film, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. He also authored the popular Dog Man series.
Pilkey also shared a letter of apology on YouTube claiming the deleted book was intended to « demonstrate diversity, equality and nonviolent conflict resolution. » p> « But this week my attention was drawn to the fact that this book also contains harmful racist stereotypes and passively racist images, » he wrote. “I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly apologize for it. It was and is wrong and harmful to my Asian readers, friends and family, as well as to all Asian people. “
The Pilkey book ban is the result of a similar decision, six Dr. Erase Seuss books from Penguin Random House. The books were pulled because of allegedly racist and insensitive images.
Ref: https://deadline.com