I was really excited about this Clothbound Classic knowing it’s a really well known children’s classic. Imagine my disappointment coming across racist content right in the first few pages of the book. And if racist content wasn’t enough then you also got a paragraph towards the last few pages of the book in which the conversation between a 10 year old boy and and a senior gardener talks light on domestic violence. 

And no the racist bits aren’t just a 10 year old spoilt child’s opinion that has been corrected over the course of the story. It’s never addressed at all. And now Imagine a child reading this book and looking up to the characters. How is this a children’s classic so widely distributed by Puffun Books without taking any accountability for the content that young readers are exposed to. 

The copy I have is a republished 2019 version. 

And if the excuse is ‘this was written at a time when the author didn’t know better, I don’t think thats enough. Like one reviewer said- you don’t have to be born at a particular period of human history to see others of different appearance as human. And I completely agree with this. 

What’s absolutely strange is that when I checked the reviews on goodreads it’s so highly rated and majority of them don’t even address the problematic parts.  It’s about time publishing houses took some responsibility for the content that is sold to children, especially being a publishing division specially catering to young readers. The least the publishing house can do is republish it omitting the racist content. 

If you are looking to still read it, Amazon.com has a racism free version of the book in kindle format, which if I knew earlier, I probably would have gone for. 

If you are looking to purchase a children’s classic, I am sure there are better options out there free of racist, problematic content.