The Trenches of Modern Children’s Literature

From a disruptor in the kid lit space

Thank you to Kiri Jorgensen, the Publisher and Senior Editor at Chicken Scratch Books for this guest piece. We recently wrote about a difficult decision Jorgensen made that put their commitment to the ideas discussed here to a real test.

We welcome submissions from those inside the children’s literature industry, anonymous and not. Our mission here is to expose what’s wrong in the industry and be a voice for those who want to create change. We believe Kiri is one of those individuals; what she’s doing is grassroots and inspiring. We own all of the books that they’ve published and have a special code for our followers to purchase her books. You can visit Chicken Scratch Books here and use the discount code RightBooksCSB23. This code will get you 15% off any purchase through September 30. 

Children’s books are one of the most powerful tools parents have to help teach their kids how to be humans. From picture books being read at bedtime, to novels being read by flashlight under the blankets, kids flourish in the safety of stories as they develop their belief systems. Resilience, empathy, respect, and many other noble traits are portrayed and experienced vicariously through books. What a powerful tool!

Having been a part of the children’s book publishing industry for several decades, and as a passionate participant, I’ve watched in growing dismay as the children’s literature world has shifted and changed, and most recently taken a drastic plummet. Parents need to understand the progressive path this industry has taken, or they will discover too late as the damage hits home.

This shift in kidlit has been happening for a long time. From novels portraying kids as environmental activists, to increasing sexualization, to depictions of abuse and racism, and most recently the focus on sexual identity - today, if books don’t include any of the above depictions, they are rarely published by medium and large publishing houses. 

And it’s the medium and large publishing houses that supply schools, libraries, and bookstores. 

About eight years ago, I organized a statewide writer's conference for children’s book authors. We brought in several high-powered industry members from major publishing houses. One editor’s words threw open the window to this shifting world.

A writer at our conference, who was a leftist himself, asked about his story. He explained that in his manuscript, his main character learns that his hero is gay. The protagonist is troubled by this and works through his feelings to come to acceptance later in the book. This respected editor stopped the writer mid-explanation and said, “No.” She explained that in kids’ books, we must represent the ideal as if it already exists. There can be no ‘being troubled by’ gayness. There can be no ‘coming to terms with’ sexual identity. The characters in our stories must immediately accept with positive responses any representation of modern social constructs. This positive and immediate reaction to woke ideology is what is required now in kidlit. If an author doesn’t portray it as such, their book will not be published.

This pronouncement by the editor shocked me and many other writers there. The line had now been drawn. As writers, our hope of publication rested on our willingness to include the woke.

Shortly after this conference, as a part of several online writer’s groups, I started to see comments like this: “We have a duty to save children from conservative, Christian thought.” And “It’s our responsibility as writers to right the wrongs of past traditional thinking.” In their minds, they were in a strategic position as writers of books for kids to influence young minds in the direction they wanted. I was soon canceled from these groups.

In the past three years, there has been another dangerous shift. In 2020, the Publisher’s Weekly list of ‘Best Middle Grade Books’ of the year featured 14 titles. These are books for kids ages nine to thirteen. 9 of the 14 books on that year’s list openly spoke to topics of racism and sexual identity. The description of each book clearly identified these themes as being represented. Of the 14 books on the 2021 best books list, 9 of the 14 again included topics of racism and sexual identity, but this time, they were a mix of being clearly identified and more subtly presented. Some of the books showed these topics plainly on the back cover description, but some of them were veiled in a more subtle way. On the Publisher’s Weekly list of ‘Best Middle Grade Books’ for 2022, 9 of the 14 books included topics of racism and sexual identity, but only 1 of these had it clearly stated in the book description.

Publishers are no longer telling readers openly about the social agenda portrayals that are in their books. They are subtly inserting the concepts they want taught to young kids without letting parents know they are there. 

This shift is much more frightening to me. We’ve moved from the inclusion of liberal social agendas in kid’s books – and flaunting it – to sneaking in the social agendas under the radar of parents. This is called Normalization. The goal is to include these ideologies in exciting, adventurous stories so they become commonplace. Woke ideology has shifted from being the make-up of a book’s plot lines, to the fabric of the setting – the normal backdrop of the story – as if it exists that way in real life.

This normalization leads to acceptance which leads to embracing. By weaving these social agendas into the ‘normal’ background of a story, when a child reading the book feels shocked at a scene or description, they immediately shift to feeling shame for being shocked in the first place. Kids will seek to replace their shame with acceptance. This is the power of normalization.

When I know what a book is about, I can make sure my child doesn’t read it. When I’m being kept in the dark, these ideologies may slip past me and directly into my child’s hands and mind. Strong storytelling mixed with normalized social agendas creates a book that will influence my child in ways I don’t want. This is the power the industry holds. 

We can no longer walk into a library or bookstore, grab a children’s novel off the shelf, and expect it to be clean, based in traditional values, or contain age-appropriate material.

It won’t. 

As parents, we need to ensure that as our children come across shocking depictions in media, their shock stays intact. We can’t allow the mainstream creators of kidlit to normalize leftist social agendas to the point of causing our kids to shift from shock to shame.

This is why I started Chicken Scratch Books. Families need good, strong, clean literature that portrays traditional values. Parents need access to books they can trust from an alternative source. 

Let’s normalize traditional values again.