'A Birthday Cake for George Washington' Children's Book Pulled by Publisher
The Scholastic Publishing company has announced it will be pulling its distribution of a newly-released children's book, A Birthday Cake for George Washington, due to its portrayal of slavery.
The book, authored by Ramin Ganeshram and released earlier this month, focuses on U.S. President George Washington's enslaved cook, Hercules, and his daughter, Delia, as the two bake a cake for the president's birthday.
While Scholastic Publishing initially defended the book, it released a statement on Sunday, saying the piece of work does not display an "appropriate presentation of information to younger children."
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"We do not believe this title meets the standards of appropriate presentation of information to younger children, despite the positive intentions and beliefs of the author, editor and illustrator," the publishing company said in the statement.
The publishing company went on to suggest that the book might also falsely portray slavery as a joyous experience.
"While we have great respect for the integrity and scholarship of the author, illustrator, and editor, we believe that, without more historical background on the evils of slavery than this book for younger children can provide, the book may give a false impression of the reality of the lives of slaves and therefore should be withdrawn," Scholastic added.
Scholastic made its decision to pull the book after parents and educators took to social media and book review websites to voice their criticism of the book for portraying slavery in a positive light.
Some readers were so outraged by the book that they started a Change.org petition calling for the book's removal from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and eBay.
"The book A Birthday Cake for George Washington is a vile exemplification of the distortion of history. Slavery should not and cannot be portrayed as anything other than what it was — the abuse of people of color for centuries in order to build the America we know," the Change.org petition reads.
Ganeshram, the book's author, sought to defend the work in a blog post last Friday for the Children's Book Council.
In the post, Ganeshram argued that the book "tells the story of a real American — Hercules, George Washington's enslaved chef."
"He was a man renowned for his skill; a man respected by President Washington, a man who lived with pride and dignity," Ganeshram continued, adding that the book addresses the "complex and varied nature of enslaved existence" that includes "enslaved people who had a better quality of life than others and 'close' relationships with those who enslaved them."
