A school librarian has kicked the First Lady out.
Just like Sam from Green Eggs and Ham before her, Boston school librarian Liz Phipps Soeiro took one look at the Dr. Seuss books Melania Trump donated to her school, and decided she “would not like them here or there.”
The First Lady’s office declared on Sept. 6 that Trump would donate Dr. Seuss books to schools across America that had been recognized for education excellence to celebrate National Read a Book day. Cambridgeport Elementary School was on the list, but the book slinger in charge there took issue with the gesture for two reasons — she didn’t need free books, and they weren’t right.
As Liz Phipps Soeiro put it in a a blog post, there were schools that needed books and hers wasn’t one of them:
“School libraries around the country are being shuttered,” Soeiro wrote. “Are those kids any less deserving of books simply because of circumstances beyond their control? Why not go out of your way to gift books to underfunded and underprivileged communities that continue to be marginalized and maligned by policies put in place by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos?”
There was more. Soeiro also wrote she found Dr. Seuss “a bit of a cliche,” writing the late author’s illustrations are “steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes.”
She then drove home her point recommending stories she said illustrate the Trump Administration’s impact on children like Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation, and Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation instead of The Cat in the Hat and Oh the Places You Will Go.
She even issued a plea for the First Lady and the President. “You and your husband have a direct impact on these children’s lives. Please make time to learn about and value them,” Soeiro wrote.
In response, The First Lady’s office said that the librarian’s decision was “unfortunate”:
“Mrs. Trump intends to use her platform as First Lady to help as many children as she can. She has demonstrated this in both actions and words since her husband took office, and sending books to schools across the country is but one example,” her spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail to Fortune. “Turning the gesture of sending young school children books into something divisive is unfortunate, but the First Lady remains committed to her efforts on behalf of children everywhere.”
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