Makers of children’s non-fiction history books are struggling to create editions for the current president because they are unsure how to include all the controversial statements and positions Mr. Trump has made and whether to include them at all.
“After an election cycle whose divisive effect on voters is still being felt, publishing books for classroom use has been unusually perilous,” New York Times journalist Katherine Rosman writes today. “For Ms. [Beth] Sutinis [executive editor for the children’s division of Time Inc], the difficulty went beyond the time crunch to finding concise quotations from Mr. Trump’s campaign appearances that didn’t include contentious remark.”
One book had to edit its initial entry in one passage about Trump, “Troubling Statements.”
It initially read “Some of Trump’s biggest supporters were white nationalists. Their comments and actions during and after the campaign were racist and often dangerous. Trump did little to speak against them.”
The finished book was changed to “Campaign Statements.” The section about discrimination was modified to read, “Some of Trump’s critics felt he did not speak out against prejudicial people and groups strongly enough.”