Tuesday, March 16, 2021

James Preller and Phoebe Yeh Revisit THE FIVE CHINESE BROTHERS

Earlier this month, James Preller shared a post on his website, discussing how the recent Dr. Seuss news brought to mind another experience...

"We recently witnessed the kerfuffle regarding Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ decision to no longer publish six titles that it deemed offensive. It brought to mind an experience I had back in the late 1980s when I worked at Scholastic. So I reached out to my old friend, Phoebe Yeh, to ask her about it. Like me, Phoebe was young at the time, an editorial assistant for our beloved friend, Craig Walker. These days Phoebe is kind of a big deal, a widely respected VP/Publisher of Books for Young Readers at Crown, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books" 

 The title in question was The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Hughet Bishop and Kurt Wiese, published in 1938.

"I knew that there was a way to retain the humor, the absurdity without ridicule."

Click HERE to read the entire post, including how Phoebe Yeh fought to have a new, updated retelling of the beloved tale published with more inclusive, authentic depictions.

 

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