Educational publishing and media company Scholastic has pulled one of its newest picture books after coming under fire for positively depicting slavery, according to the New York Daily News. "A Birthday Cake for George Washington," released Jan. 5, was pulled last night after garnering controversy for its upbeat portrayal and images of Washington's cook, who was a slave named Hercules, and his daughter Delia. After word of the book traveled across social media, it received more than 100 negative one-star reviews on Amazon, according to the Guardian.
The School Library Journal, which is the world's largest reviewer of children's books, referred to the book as a "highly problematic work" that would allow younger readers to "come away with a dangerously rosy impression of the relationship between slaves and slave owners." They criticized the tone of the book and the accompanying illustrations for "[conveying] a feeling of joyfulness that contrasts starkly with the reality of slave life."
The author, Ramin Ganeshram, has defended the book and insisted that Hercules had a positive relationship with Washington in a blog post for CBS Diversity, claiming, "Hercules was famous in his day as a towering culinarian - admired and in charge, despite his bondage." Ganeshram encouraged readers to look past the "literal face value of the characters" and to be "mindful that we don't judge historical figures by modern viewpoints."
After initially directing observers to Ganeshram's post, Scholastic released a statement Jan. 17 announcing that the company would be taking "A Birthday Cake for George Washington" out of publication. Among the reasons given was the risk of failing to meet "standards of appropriate presentation of information to younger children" and the possibility that "without more historical background on the evils of slavery, [this book] may give a false impression of the reality of the lives of slaves."
