The Greater Victoria Public Library is reviewing some of its Dr. Seuss titles now that six of his books will no longer be published because they have been deemed to portray people in ways that are “hurtful and wrong.” Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced on Tuesday that it worked with a panel of experts, including educators, to review its titles, and decided last year to stop publishing and licensing six of them. Libraries elsewhere are vetting their Dr. Seuss titles as well, concerned about racist and insensitive imagery.
Kelly Ridgway, spokesperson for the GVPL, said Thursday that an internal review has begun of the four Dr. Seuss titles cited by Dr. Seuss Enterprises that are in the library’s collection: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, McElligot’s Pool, If I Ran the Zoo and On Beyond Zebra!
Last week in a virtual Q & A session, Indigenous author Bob Joseph was asked “How will people know that they’ve achieved reconciliation?” Joseph answered, “When people are at peace with . . .
“She said: ‘There’s no way my church would do this. There’s no way my church would take the kids and put them in these schools and run these schools.’ It was so hard for her to believe it. It was unbelievable,” said Joseph, who is hosting a virtual talk and Q&A through the Vancouver Island Regional Library on Jan. 28 to share some of the surprising elements of the laws that govern Indigenous people, governments and lands. The best-selling author of 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act says the participants in his workshops these days tend to know a lot more about residential schools, but people are still caught off guard by the Indian Act.