Wow. As I write this, over 1900 people have signed the online petition asking Scholastic to include Lauren Myracle’s new book Luv Ya Bunches
Scholastic has asserted that they are not censoring the book, but are carrying it in their Book Clubs. That is true, as the original School Library Journal article reported. SLJ also reported, however, “The company sent a letter to Myracle’s editor asking the author to omit certain words such as ‘geez,’ ‘crap,’ ‘sucks,’ and ‘God’ (as in, ‘oh my God’) and to alter its plotline to include a heterosexual couple.”
Even if a separate person at Scholastic then made the decision not to carry Luv Ya Bunches in the book fairs, for unrelated reasons, it seems there is clearly some sentiment at the company that lesbian moms (even if they are not a focus of the story) are not appropriate for children’s books. That is enough to make me contact the company in disappointment.
Also, according to Scholastic’s 2009 Annual Report (PDF):
Revenues from school book fairs accounted for 43.7% of segment revenues in fiscal 2009, compared to 34.9% in fiscal 2008 and 42.4% in fiscal 2007. In fiscal 2009, school book fair revenues decreased by $6.2 million, or 1.5%, to $399.5 million compared to $405.7 million in fiscal 2008, primarily due to lower revenues from clearance sales and lower fair count, partially offset by higher revenue per fair. In fiscal 2008, school book fair revenues increased by 3.0%, or $12.0 million, from $393.7 million in fiscal 2007.
Revenues from school book clubs accounted for 36.2% of segment revenues in fiscal 2009, compared to 29.0% in fiscal 2008 and 38.9% in fiscal 2007. In fiscal 2009, school book club revenues decreased by $6.5 million, or 1.9%, to $330.2 million as compared to $336.7 million in fiscal 2008, primarily due to lower revenue per order partially offset by an increase in order volume. In fiscal 2008, school book clubs revenues declined by 6.6%, or $23.9 million, as compared to $360.6 million in fiscal 2007, principally due to the elimination of certain less profitable mailings.
In other words, book fairs are the larger part of their business, by about $70 million. In fiscal 2008, book fair revenues grew by 3%, whereas book club revenues declined by 6.6%. Nice to be in the book clubs, but the fairs seem to be where it’s at.
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School Library Journal reports that Scholastic has refused to include Lauren Myracle’s new book Luv Ya Bunches
In this instance, Myracle agreed to change some of the offensive language (mild stuff like “geez,” “crap,” “sucks,” and “oh my God”), but refused to change the character’s two moms: Read the rest of this post »
2:07 pm 
Scholastic is giving tremendous support to Luv Ya Bunches. In fact, our editors believe in this book so much that it is featured prominently on both the student and teacher covers of our December 2009 Arrow catalogs which are already printed and are in schools right now. On October 16 we also recorded a Book Talk Editors’ Choice Video which features Luv Ya Bunches.
The prominent promotion of Luv Ya Bunches in Scholastic’s Arrow December catalog, which has been distributed to 3.7 million students, affirms that the company is in complete support of this book.
Scholastic editors recognize Milla’s two moms as a positive and realistic aspect of the story. We offer other books with same sex couples and gay and lesbian characters in Book Clubs and Book Fairs including The Name of This Book is Secret, the upcoming After Tupac and D Foster, The Misfits, and others. Scholastic seeks to provide books that will appeal to a wide range of interests and reading abilities of children living in the many diverse cultures and communities we serve. Luv Ya Bunches helps us fulfill our mission to do that.
Scholastic is proud of its support for Luv Ya Bunches through its classroom Book Clubs. As we’ve said previously, Scholastic Book Fairs is working on firming up their Spring list and is considering Luv Ya Bunches.
Thank you for taking the time to express your opinion. Scholastic is very proud of its long history of helping children learn to love to read. We look forward to continuing to bring the best in children’s literature to communities across the country and around the world as Scholastic has done for nearly 90 years.
For more information, visit http://onourmindsatscholastic.blogspot.com/2009/10/update-on-lauren-myracles-luv-ya.html
Hey! Kyle left that exact same comment on my blog.
I still want to know what Scholastic’s response is to Myracle saying she was asked to change the lesbian moms. What stops that from happening again, only with no follow-up interview from School Library Journal?
[...] of you have been following the story of Scholastic and their request that author Lauren Myracle change the lesbian moms of one character into a mom [...]