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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There have been a couple recent and we'll publicized biographies of Laura Ingalls Wilder depicting her as an awful person as well as a politically active racist, and showing that almost nothing in the Little House series was true. I suspect that had some influence on the decision, even if they aren't saying it. "Author depicts lived experience in a way we now dislike" is different from "Manipulative, racist crank wrote fiction that is racist." The current view is the latter. [/quote]

Yeah, the books are treated like nonfiction, but she *heavily* altered the facts, leaving out and changing things that didn't fit her idealized version of her family, especially her father.  [/quote]

Most people, unless they are very bitter and heavily damaged emotionally, tend to forget or soften negative feelings for loved ones and mostly only remember the good things.

That her portrayal of Pa was so warm an positive given the time she wrote her books (critical blaming of parents was not a thing until recently) and the age she was when she wrote the series (nearly a half century past her youth) is completely to be expected and should not be shocking to anyone, especially since this is a children's book series.[/quote]

It's not shocking, but it's worth remembering that these books are not pure non-fiction.  A lot of the defense of them is that they are just reporting what actually happened to her, but that's not quite true.

I don't see removing her name from the award as that big of a deal.  The ALA isn't going to advocate for banning any books, FFS.  They specifically stated that they hope people keep reading her books, and discussing them, and thinking about them critically.  They just don't want her name on the award anymore.  [/quote]

That was a cop out by ALA.[/quote]

Nonsense.  The American Library Association is never going to advocate for banning books, or removing them from libraries, or discouraging people from reading them.  That would be totally contrary to their basic identity.  You can recognize that a book is meaningful to many people, and has positive qualities and a place on the shelf, and also not want to use the author's name on a major award because some aspects of her work are not consistent with your values and mission.    [/quote]

This.  You can think a book is a good read while also thinking it's full of racism.  This article talks about a little Native American girl who came home crying after reading "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" in her third grade class.
https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/6/26/17502346/laura-ingalls-wilder-award-little-house-books-racism[/quote]

The books have racism in them but the main character isn't racist.  It was a time of racism.  If the books were not full of racism, then they'd be full of lies.  Would that be more sensible?  [/quote]'

Except that the racism is only going from one direction--from white people to dark skinned people.    There are other alternatives to learn about that period of history.  Children’s librarians have suggested offering Little House fans the Birchbark series, by American Indian author Louise Erdrich.  Birchbark takes place in about the same time period as Little House, but its characters are Ojibwe.   That way I can have my kids learn about that time period without having them feel that they are "less than" for being dark skinned.[/quote]

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