On our return to old stomping grounds (mine) in California last week, I found the physical changes to the landscape disorienting and somewhat distressing. I was pretty sure, though, that given enough time I could get used to the new freeways and buildings, the new housing developments and shopping malls and the huge influx of people that are responsible for all of the above. Growth and change, as difficult as they are to accept as we age are, after all, inevitable.
But while we were gone, I learned of another change that I don’t find quite so easy about accepting. Two days ago, the New York Times Book Section ran an article that began: The American Library Association is dropping Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name from a prestigious children’s literature award in order to distance the honor from what it described as culturally insensitive portrayals in her books… The decision was made out of a desire to reconcile the award with the organization’s values of “inclusiveness, integrity and respect,” representatives of the association said in a statement on Monday. The award is given out by its children’s division.
Laura Ingalls Wilder
OMG!! The award recognizes authors and illustrators whose books have created a lasting contribution to children’s literature. It has been distributed to just 23 people over more than six decades. Wilder, herself, received the first award in 1954, three years before her death in 1957. It was initially distributed every five years, but its frequency has steadily increased. Since 2016, it has been given annually.
The Library Association’s decision to rename the award is based on their belief that the “Little House Stories” set in the complicated context of westward expansion, are anti-Native and anti-black. Not so argues book reviewer Dedra McDonald Birzer: “Wilder’s works lead readers of all ages to ponder important truths about American history.”
Birzer’s article, “Librarians without Chests: A Response to the ALSC’s Denigration 0f Laura Ingalls Wilder” can be found at https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/laura-ingalls-wilder-alsc-award-removal/ and is worth reading. She concludes her article with this paragraph:
The rejection of the author and the rejection of her semi-autobiographical novels produce the same result: In favor of safe spaces and trigger-free zones, this country’s professional librarians seek to destroy the literary heroine that millions of American girls (and boys) identified with and aspired to emulate. In doing so, they seek to destroy us all and re-make us in their own image, based on their core values of inclusivity and responsiveness, rounded out by respect (properly placed, of course) and their version of integrity. Join me in being naughty on the inside (one of my favorite aspects of young Laura’s character) by refusing to accept the Association of Library Services to Children’s version of Laura Ingalls Wilder. We know better.
They are trying to hide history, the bad and the good… that is how we learn to change and hopefully do better! Her books were so good and made little girls appreciate what they had! Just think we don’t have to pump water, we have electricity and running water! We don’t have to cut wood for the cook stove and we can sew if we want to with an electric machine., Our cars make going to town effortless, no hitching up the horses for us. The one thing that hasn’t changed is integrity and friendship.