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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I haven’t been following.  Is Caddie Woodlawn next? What about Tom Sawyer? All of these books have unfavorable portrayal of Indians/Native Americans.  They are products of their time—they still have literary merit.  It’s time to teach context.
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That was actually exactly the point that the ALA made--that kids should be reading these books critically, with guidance. They didn't call to ban the books or even edit those portions; they simply opted to no longer name their own award after Wilder out of concerns that the books did not necessarily reflect their current bar for what they are looking for in children's literature. That's certainly their prerogative, and pretty far from erasing her as an author.

I haven't yet re-read the Little House books with my own kids yet, though they were among my favorites as a child. However, I will say that I was appalled by a recent Roald Dahl book that I read aloud to my kids (Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator) that I had also loved as a kid. Reading it critically as an adult, it was horribly racist. We didn't stop reading it, but we did stop to talk about it. Everything has a context, and it's important to frame literature as a product of its time.[/quote]

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