[aleph_minus_one]

> My daughters are Asian I wouldn't buy them a children's book where "be Chinese" is considered an acceptable Halloween costume.

There also exist people who would rather avoid buying books where the publisher changed the content in 1984 style to appease the woke moaners.

[NeoTar]

There is a difference between consciously erasing the past in the 1984-novel style, and re-releasing an updated version of a book. The important thing being that the original texts are still available - we aren't seizing original editions from homes and burning them.

Admittedly that's actually a more complicated when it comes to electronic texts which may be automatically updated.

[boesboes]

If only those people would read

[pessimizer]

The people who secretly rewrite literature do not take a vote from readers before they do it. They "know better." They'll tell you that it's really just administrative, they're "updating the language."

[dml2135]

Also consider that maybe the parent comment would not have bought the book in 1984 either, for the same reason.

[aleph_minus_one]

> Also consider that maybe the parent comment would not have bought the book in 1984 either, for the same reason.

With 1984, I meant the book by George Orwell where newspaper articles of the past are permanently changed (and any references to the existence of the old versions are destroyed) to fit the daily political climate/narrative.

[GJim]

> would not have bought the book in 1984 either

In a conversation about censorship being used to alter past events, I'm somewhat surprised you didn't understand the reference. Can I suggest this is a book you read as a matter of some importance:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four

[GJim]

It's sad to see your factual statement downvoted.

There was indeed a huge backlash in the UK, amongst authors and the public, when publishers sought to edit classic children's books by Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton to make them politically correct. Children a quite capable of understanding something was written at a different time.

[aleph_minus_one]

> Children a quite capable of understanding something was written at a different time.

Even if some person is certain that this is not the case, the child's parents hopefully are capable of explaining this to their children. :-)

[watwut]

Even if it was the case, but it is kind of massively easier to pick a book where you do not have to explain that.

Sometimes you just want to read a book and children books are not all that much fun for adults anyway. You might not want to then have to go into explaining that racism was normal for the author, but we think differently jadda jadda ... it is additional completely pointless complication for what was supposed to be good night story.

[GJim]

I could not disagree with you more.

It is something you will need to explain to children at some point, and doing so over a light hearted story is an ideal approach. Shying away from the difficulties of bringing up a child isn't something you should be doing.

Besides, the best children's books are also fun for adults! (I raise you Roald Dahl's 'Boy' and Judith Kerr's 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea')

[watwut]

No it is not ideal and that argument does not make sense at all. It would be explaining something mostly off main topic of the story. And I would rather explain it on something real rather then randomly.

And I am not always interested in research about the original reason - how much author was or was not racist.

I don't know how you define best children's book. I found most of then boring and kids taste was not the same as my taste.

[kwhitefoot]

> the best children's books are also fun for adults!

Also Kipling's Just So stories. My eldest loved me to read them to him and it was no chore at all.

[47282847]

If you do not find it fun to read with your children and enjoy the stories equally you may want to consider picking different books or doing something else with them. They will pick up on it, and grow up to think you do not like to spend time with them - and later take that “truth” turned core belief to other relationships.

[watwut]

I kind of did not liked most of them. And the ones I kind of liked were still something I would not read if I did not had to.