A move is afoot to form an alternative after venerable children’s book company Scholastic reversed itself and announced it would force schools to accept child grooming and transgender books in its sponsored book fairs in America’s grade schools.
The controversy started in October when Scholastic — a promoter of kids books for decades — announced it would allow schools to opt out of including controversial, sexually explicit gay sex books in its book fairs for young kids. These book fairs are usually held in more than 120,000 schools to give kids opportunities to buy books aimed at them at reasonable prices.
The company, which has been deleting parts of old book series because of supposed “racism,” decided to offer the opt out for the more controversial books because so many states have passed laws limiting certain sexually explicit books from being stocked in school libraries.
“There is now enacted or pending legislation in more than 30 U.S. states prohibiting certain kinds of books from being in schools — mostly LGBTQIA+ titles and books that engage with the presence of racism in our country,” Scholastic said in an October statement.
“Because Scholastic Book Fairs are invited into schools, where books can be purchased by kids on their own, these laws create an almost impossible dilemma: back away from these titles or risk making teachers, librarians and volunteers vulnerable to being fired, sued or prosecuted,” the company added.
From there, the company added a new selection of 64 books that are more controversial than the average kiddie book. The company labeled these books the “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” collection. Their plan was that schools would be allowed to opt in to have this collection added to a book fair.
But leftists were outraged at this opt-in feature and absurdly accused Scholastic of “censoring books.”
Naturally, it wasn’t long before Scholastic caved to the left-wing outrage machine, dumped the opt-in collection, and announced that going forward every school would be forced to accept the books aimed at grooming small children for sexual contact with adults.
In an Oct. 25 statement, Scholastic president Ellie Berger groveled before the left, saying that the opt-in collection was a mistake.
“Even if the decision was made with good intention, we understand now that it was a mistake to segregate diverse books in an elective case,” she said. “We recognize and acknowledge the pain caused, and that we have broken the trust of some of our publishing community, customers, friends, trusted partners and staff, and we also recognize that we will now need to regain that trust.”
Now that Scholastic seems to be signaling that schools will have to take the controversial grooming books, this is leaving many looking for an alternative to the left-wing agenda being forced on children. And actor and Christian activist Kirk Cameron is about to step up to fill that need.
Cameron has announced the formation of SkyTree books which, he says, will offer “healthy, wholesome” books for kids, according to Fox News.
The nonprofit says that it is “leading the way with book fairs that promote literacy while protecting childhood innocence.”
The former “Growing Pains” star says that his new company is a direct response to the decision by Scholastic Book Fairs to push controversial and inappropriate content on kids.
“It’s obvious that Scholastic is committed to indoctrinating our youth with harmful messages,” Cameron told Fox News.
“They are not just the 1,000-pound gorilla in this space. They are the space. They are the ones publishing this material. We want to knock them out of the race,” the actor added.
“A lot of this stuff is pornography by any definition,” he said of many of the books Scholastic is celebrating.
SkyTree is headed by Riley Lee, a former middle-school teacher who said she was working for Brave Books on Cameron’s library tour when “my eyes were opened to the impact that books have on families across the country.” https://t.co/wkQpxDsaQb
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) November 18, 2023
SkyTree plans to roll out its new program to more than 600 schools that have already expressed an interest in what it has to offer.
“SkyTree Book Fairs offers a positive alternative to Scholastic,” Cameron said. “We want to do a better job of providing wholesome books to kids. We want a better alternative that puts good age-appropriate books in the hands of our children.”
Sadly, this is what we are going to have to do all up and down the line and in every field of manufacturing and product sales. Since these giant corporations insist on peddling sexually explicit materials and products to our children, or are otherwise supporting efforts to target children for sexual conquest by adults and an adult agenda, we are simply going to have to offer our own services and products for sale in a parallel economy that promotes healthy children and pro-American ideals.
If you are a parent, go to your school and demand a SkyTree book fair instead of one controlled by the groomers at Scholastic.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
