DAV PILKEY

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The longtime head of the children’s publishing giant Scholastic Inc. who presided over such bestsellers as J.

Scholastic has halted the production of a children's book by "Captain Underpants" author Dav Pilkey, for the book's "passive racism." "Together, we recognize that this book perpetuates passive racism," Scholastic said in a statement. On his own YouTube page, Pilkey posted a letter apologizing for the racist imagery in the book. "But this week it was brought to my attention that this book also contains harmful racial stereotypes and passively racist imagery," Pilkey wrote. "The Adventures of Ook and Gluk" is not the only children's book that has been halted due to racist imagery.

FILE - Dav Pilkey arrives at the premiere of "Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie" in Los Angeles on May 21, 2017. A graphic novel for children from the wildly popular Captain Underpants series, The Adventures of Ook and Glu," is being pulled from library and book store shelves after its publisher said it perpetuates passive racism. “I hope that you, my readers, will forgive me, and learn from my mistake that even unintentional and passive stereotypes and racism are harmful to everyone,” he wrote. It also follows a wave of high-profile and sometimes deadly violence against Asian Americans nationwide since the pandemic began. The move drew immediate reaction on social media from those who called it another example of “cancel culture.”

FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2016 file photo, author and filmmaker Sherman Alexie appears at a celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day at Seattle's City Hall. Alexie is included in a list of authors who wrote books that were among the 100 most subjected to censorship efforts over the past decade, as compiled by the American Library Association. All wrote books that were among the 100 most subjected to censorship efforts over the past decade, as compiled by the American Library Association. The association does not formally count the number of times books are actually removed from a library shelf or from a school reading list. “There are actually two lines of objections to the Anne Frank diary,” Caldwell-Stone says.