School book fair loaded with right wing books!

[goddess40]

We just closed our school Scholastic book fair. I was astounded at the number of political books aimed at our children. The masqurade as history, counting and biography, but they all carry a subtle right wing slant. They seem to want to make sure that these books are done now under their watch, knowing that in two years new books won't be made because those subjects have recently been covered. If there is no money to be made the publishers won't put out new books.

Even Lynn Cheney has two out. There is one on the White House that talks about the security needed after 911. One is about important Americans and while it has Ralph Nader it doesn't mention Al Gore, of course it isn't very favorable to Clinton. There is even a biography about Bush - I couldn't bring myself to even pick that one up to look at the lies. There were probably about 6 more, but you get my drift.

[childslibrarian]

1. I've noticed that too

Scholastic responds to what will sell--the publishers now have a GI JOE series too.

[AP]

6. I don't think they respond to what will sell.

They're a big corporation and they'll do other big corporations favors and they'll synergize with the consumption-chearleaders before they'll turn to quality independant publishers who's books aren't trying to synergize with other retailers.

[Touchdown]

2. When RW stealth candidates...

get themselves elected to school boards, this is what happens. RW indoctrination. If modern conservatism (plutocratism) had any worthy arguments, the kids would've learned, and picked up on this ideology on their own. Instead, since the whole belief system is ideologically bankrupt, they have to shove these screeds down children's throats, disguized as "histroical documents".

We should be wary of any Repub who claimes to be "moderate" when they run for a school board, and get as many people as we can to vote against them.

[HFishbine]

3. Don't buy anything

That's the easiest thing to do. Do they offer a title request form? Pick a progressive title, request it and buy it.

[AP]

7. Or, if you have real initiative, start a company that competes with...

...Scholastic, and make the theme of it that you focus on independant publishers, and then get some famous QUALITY book authors on board, and shop it around to school districts.

And then hope those authors don't get blacklisted by the big publishing firms.

And, if it works, send me a royalty check.

[JewelDigger]

4. I saw that too

at our recently 'expanded and enlarged' book sale - 2-3 times more books offered than in previous years. I also noticed that those didn't seem to sell very well either :-) Kids still want to be kids and read about adventure and 'fun' stuff. I hope that this is the case everywhere.

[AP]

5. Sick thing I saw in a small town paper: essay contest for elementary &

middle school students on why America is a better place after 9/11.

Then, three weeks later, there's a referendum on whether the school district needs to spend 6 million bucks on a new security system. That's 6 million bucks for a small town school district which probably has never had a serious problem with crime.

I strongly suspect that, when there's 6 million dollars at stake, there's no coincidence that there was just a well-publicized district-wide essay contest where DOZENS of winners were chosen who wrote essays with themes such as, "we were attacked, people came together, and now that we take terror seriously, we're safer."

Our country is seriously fucked up by people who just want guaranteed profits.

[ComerPerro]

9. Oh my God

Having kids write essays about why the US is a safer place after 9/11???

If this were such a safe place, why did so many people rush out to buy duct tape?
Why are so many people worried about the next terrorist attack???

Its obvious why they don't ask anyone older than middle school to write such essays. In elementary school you can't really think for yourself, and you aren't likely to do anything radical.
In middle school, you are getting your own ideas, but you are too scared of "standing out" to do much.
High school, though... Hoo boy. Try asking high school students to write such an essay

[Benhurst]

8. I think you are being a bit unfair.

Surely, any fair-minded person would have to admit that Lynn Cheney's "Dick Gets a New Heart" is bound to become a modern children's classic.

"George W. Bush, Boy Substance Abuser" warns the young reader about the dangers of drugs, while showing it's never too late to change, especially if you happen to have a chance encounter with God and your father has good CIA connections. This is especially true if Dad is a former president.

Barbara Bush's "The Return of the Wrinkle Monster" is a touching roman à clef.

And Nancy Reagan's "You're Never Too Young to Consider a Face-lift" deserves a place on every child's bookshelf.

[ComerPerro]

10. Dont forget my childhood favorite:

Dick Cheney's classic, "Face It, Kid: There Is Always Money To Be Made".

I believe he talks about fun ways to turn people into cash.

On edit: Wasn't "Dick Gets a New Heart" the sequel to "Dick Has No Heart"?

[Benhurst]

11. Yes, but for some reason

"Dick Has No Heart" didn't develop the following it deserved.

Parents probably were still thinking of Lynn Cheney as the author of the soft-porn classic "Sisters."

[tom_paine]

12. Bush Jugend knows what Hitler Jugend did...

Youth are the future. Capture their minds early, not with skepticism, curiosity or scientific method, but with the psychomanipuative propaganda of Goebbels v2.0, and you have a programmed automaton for life.

Come to think of it, that was Stalin's plan, too.

"Great minds" think alike, eh?

:puke: :puke :puke:

[LWolf]

13. Huh?

My school just finished a scholastic book fair, and I didn't see any of that crap. We're a K-8 school.

I did find one book I decided not to place in my classroom; a book from the "Shadow Children" sequence. Big brother cracks down on 3rd children by killing them in the spirit of population control. Portrays the idea of limiting human population according to available resources as bad, with goons enforcing the idea by killing innocents. No discussion of actual responsible reproduction, or of any responsible ways to respond to the crisis. Just bad, sensationalistic fiction. A whole series worth.

Having done many book fairs during my years as school librarian and parent, I can say that scholastic is the easiest, most profitable book fair to do, with the widest selection of materials. They are very well organized.

That says something about the bigger picture, I think. We often lose campaigns and lose on issues, not because we don't have the better position, but because we are not as well organized as the opposition. How do we organize ourselves without slowly becoming the enemy?

[davsand]

14. You would not believe the complaints I got about books!

I marketed for Troll Bookfairs several years ago, and you would not believe the number of times I had somebody call me up and bitch about one book or another that was in the bookfair. Usually, it was the stuff at Jr high level, but there were folks who threw a fit at the elementary level too.

If I had to make a sweeping statement, I'd have to say the fundys and the wingnuts were the most likely to bitch. Usually I'd just tell them to pull the offensive materials out of the cases. However, if I was feeling really frisky, sometimes I'd ask them to tell me why they found it offensive--claiming I was taking notes to forward to our buying dept. I was horrified by some of what I heard. You have no idea how much racism and stupidity there really is out there...

I have to say, that was one of the worst jobs I have held as an adult. I hated the products, I hated the corporate policies, and my boss was an asswipe. I sued them over the health benefits (they were "self insured" meaning they paid what they wanted when they wanted to.) and I never went back there again after I left. To this day, when I see a Troll logo on anything I shudder.

Scholastic had a bad reputation at that time too--but even THEY made Troll look good. I'm sorry to hear that little has changed in that industry.

Laura