Thursday, July 23, 2015

POPCORN by Frank Asch

Eds. Note on July 31, 2017: This racist book is now available as a board book for the youngest readers. Racism sells. 

Eds. Note on March 11, 2023: There is a new edition coming out in summer of 2023 that replaces the Indian costume with a pirate one. Some info here: https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2023/03/another-new-cover-for-frank-aschs.html 

Dear Editors at Aladdin/Simon & Schuster,

A reader of AICL wrote to ask me about Frank Asch's Popcorn. It is an older book (pub year 1979, from Parents Magazine Press) that I haven't written about before. As a former elementary school teacher, I do remember one of the books about Sam (the bear). Not this one, though. Perhaps I saw it and decided not to use it. With good reason. In it, Sam (the bear) is having a Halloween party. Here he is in his costume:

Source: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_RDXFS33SaM/maxresdefault.jpg


Here's the old cover:
Source: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5474/10652326993_4d45e9c8a1_b.jpg



And, here's the new one, published in 2015 by Aladdin/Simon and Schuster. The synopsis at Amazon tells us "This refreshed edition of a beloved classic features the original text and art with an updated cover." 




It must have made a fair bit of money for you, Aladdin, to be giving it to us again in 2015, with this "updated" cover---but it has racist material! Do you not follow any of the national conversations around stereotyping of Native people? Or, about mascots?

Giving children this book, in 2015, suggests that either you're ignorant of those conversations and the research studies about the harm of such imagery, or, you know about it and don't care.

It is definitely a Book to Avoid. And, it is definitely another book for AICL's "Foul Among the Good" page.

Any chance you can 'stop the presses' so to speak? Or maybe recall what you've already sent out?

Sincerely,
Debbie Reese
American Indians in Children's Literature





3 comments:

Unknown said...
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Cari West said...

This is the wrong updated cover. The new cover has a pirate. I think they were trying to be considerate of the history with their revamping of the images.

Debbie Reese said...

Cari West:

The cover you note is newer than the 2015 one that I showed in this post. Thank you for the info about the 2023 one. I've done an updated post:

https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2023/03/another-new-cover-for-frank-aschs.html

I will insert a note to this post about the 2023 one here.

Debbie