Scholastic issued another press release on Monday regarding the withdrawn picture book A Birthday Cake for George Washington, responding to criticism from PEN America and the National Coalition Against Censorship calling the move “a shocking and unprecedented case of self-censorship.” Scholastic insists it was not self-censoring, and removed the book “because it did not meet the standards which support our publishing mission.” The new statement attributes the decision to ceo Richard Robinson, who “determined that the book should be withdrawn because the book did not meet Scholastic’s standards for appropriate presentation of complex subject matter in a picture book directed […]
