Scholastic Publications announced that “A Birthday Cake for George Washington” released  on January 5, 2016, will be pulled from publication.

The book dealt with a fictional story of Washington’s slave cook Hercules baking a birthday cake for the President.  Book reviews  strongly criticized the story for its images of slavery.  It received 100 one-star reviews.  “School Library Journal” called it “highly problematic” and recommended against its purchase.

It its defense, author Ramin Ganeshram has stated that she wrote the book based on historical research.  She said the story was “meant to honor the slaves’ resourcefulness.”

This entry was posted on January 19, 2016 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Adult Readers Advisory. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.