the author of a collection of parodies of children’s book covers from “more innocent times” has called for his book to be removed after a storm of twitter complaints accusing the titles of crossing the line from satire to racism and Islamophobia.
pseudonymous author arthur c gackley has instructed his publisher, abrams books, to remove poor children’s books from sale after a slew of complaints were posted online. covers featured in the book include an illustration of a First Nation family with the caption The Anti-Vaccine Kid and the gift of the pox-ridden Navajo blanket. under the title happy burkaday timmy! a girl in a hijab, with a bomb in her hand, chases a white boy. other skits feature kids killing babies, throwing up, and being picked on by predatory guys.
You are reading: Bad little children’s books
Although the cover says the illustrations are meant to be “blatantly offensive,” a Twitter firestorm led by Book Riot editor Kelly Jensen accused Gackley of crossing the line. On the latter site, she wrote: “Abrams, along with Gackley, and the editorial team behind this, who are listed on the book’s copyright page, should be ashamed of publishing and promoting this kind of racist rubbish. We don’t live in a world where humor like this is acceptable.”
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In announcing his decision to halt sales of the title, Gackley said: “The book is clearly not being read by some in the way I had intended, as a satire, and, more disturbingly, it is being misconstrued as an act of hate”. and the fanaticism that the work was intended to expose, not promote. For this reason, I have asked Abrams to stop publishing the book.”
abramns defended his decision to publish bad children’s books, which were met with positive reviews when it was published in September. In a statement, she accused “certain social media commentators and those who follow them” of “taking elements of the book out of context and failing to recognize it as an artistic work of social satire and comic parody.”
In a statement issued Monday night, the publisher said: “At Abrams, our books and our publishing house have never and never will represent bigotry or hate. Those misrepresentations, slurs and claims that surround the book, and the attempts to promulgate them, go against the values that our company and our employees hold dear.”
gackley said he had deliberately tried to offend in the book to “shine the uncomfortable light of day on bigotry, prejudice and hate; in effect, refusing to let those pernicious and undermining feelings remain.”
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He blamed the current political climate in the US, which he said made it impossible to have the “kind of dialogue he hoped to promote through the publication of bad children’s books.” He added: “This act of censorship is dangerous on many levels, as freedom of expression, satire and parody are tools to help us become a stronger society, not a more divided one.”
Support for the author and publisher came from the National Coalition Against Censorship. As criticism mounted, the NCAC said, “We support Abrams’ decision to publish this or any other book, even if it offends some readers. we urge the company not to accede to pressure to withdraw the book, but rather to stand up for the proposition that authors have the right to write as they wish and individuals have the right to decide for themselves what to read.”
bad little children is the latest in a wave of nostalgic satires of children’s books from the 1950s and 1960s started a year ago by artist miriam elia, who was threatened with legal action by penguin random house for her parodies of ladybird books. After Elia withdrew her work, PRH launched a best-selling series of its own. The artist responded by releasing a piece of art called We Sue an Artist: The Dung Beetle’s Guide to Corporate Bullying for Ages 5+.
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