Now that beloved children’s-book author Dr Seuss is an “outlaw”, according to US House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and conservative pundit Ben Shapiro is stockpiling strategic reserves of If I Ran the Zoo, parents face a desperate conundrum. What can they possibly read to their children?
If that paragraph makes no sense, good for you: The Great Seuss Hysteria of 2021 is a faux controversy if there ever was one, worth following only for what it reveals about children’s literature and the limits of adults’ imaginations.
The short, sensible summary is as follows. Dr Seuss Enterprises, which controls Theodor Geisel’s copyrights, decided not to print more copies of six works that contain racist imagery. This ought to be relatively uncontroversial. The books won’t be pulled from public consumption, as Disney did with
Feb 25, 2021
Alexandra Penfold is a literary agent and the author of several picture books. Suzanne Kaufman is an author, illustrator, and animator. In 2018, Penfold and Kaufman released their bestselling picture book All Are Welcome
,
a call for equity and inclusion in the classroom and the world at large. A companion book, Big Feelings
, which focuses on navigating emotions, is due out next month. We asked Penfold and Kaufman to interview each other about their process and the inspiration behind their two titles.
Alexandra Penfold: Hey, Suzanne! Can you believe
Big Feelings is coming out next week?
Suzanne Kaufman: It doesn’t seem real. So many feelings. Big, big feelings.