Scholastic Defends “Share Every Story”

Scholastic has found itself on the defensive over an optional collection of diverse titles at its book fairs.

Educational publisher Scholastic maintains its “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” offering is intended to keep school officials and librarians out of harm’s way in places where book banning laws and policies might put them in jeopardy, according to Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly executive editor.

Critics counter that segregating diverse books just paves the way for censorship, he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.

The controversy erupted on social media last month, when educators first raised concerns that Scholastic was requiring school fairs to opt into or out of the “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” showcase, which effectively gave school officials an option to eliminate a wide swath of titles that feature diverse identities – including BIPOC, LGBTQ, and disabled.

“Scholastic insisted that it created the collection for U.S. elementary school book fairs as a way to continue providing diverse books, not to censor them,” Albanese reports.

This week, Scholastic Book Fair officials said it is a “misconception” that the company was “putting all diverse titles” into one “optional” case; instead, the company said, there is “a wide range of diverse titles throughout every book fair, for every age level.”

Every Friday, CCC’s “Velocity of Content” features the editors and reporters of Publishers Weekly for an early look at what news publishers, editors, authors, agents, and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.