Dr. Seuss Books

In regard to the racist images and/or text in books being discontinued by the Dr. Seuss estate, the Tilton Library takes the following stance as quoted by the American Library Association:

The American Library Association vehemently opposes literary censorship. Rather than remove the offending books from their collections, [we can] come up with creative solutions to educate young readers…so they’ll come away knowing what’s wrong with those stories — and which books get diverse stories right.

If parents do choose to introduce these books to their children…they can use the texts as launch pads for discussion of complicated topics like racism.

The decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises is a chance for adults to think critically about the books, decide whether or not to share them with the children in their lives, and to engage in that conversation about race and racial prejudice.