So, who’s distributing these harmful books, and what can we, as parents, do to make a genuine change?
As you may know, I have recently become something of a children’s literary connoisseur (one salty critic dubbed me the “right-wing Raffi”), publishing three family-friendly titles that educate children about wholesome, traditional values. I stood up against Drag Queen story hours by traveling the country to read to children in a safe, age-appropriate, and welcoming environment.
During these book tours, parents shared with me their concerns about the constant influx of morally degrading, sexually confusing ideologies infiltrating their children's education. School libraries and classroom bookshelves are lined with content that is simply not safe for children.
One major culprit stands out in distributing the woke agenda to impressionable children: Scholastic. Their celebrated book fairs serve as a springboard for pumping critical race theory and LGBTQ+ materials into the hands of young readers.
Of course, for many of us, Scholastic still probably evokes positive images of a big red dog, a car-driving mouse named Stuart, James and a giant peach, and other innocent childhood favorites.
However, today, kids are just as likely to come home with stories about gay dinosaurs, transitioning toddlers, and cross-dressing ducks.
No joke.
Opening my eyes to this reality revealed that it is not enough just to write family-friendly books that parents can trust—we also have to get them into libraries and schools in a way that rivals, or at least begins to chip away at Scholastic’s book-distributing empire.
So, I wanted to further cement myself in the fight to protect children from harmful ideologies through books. That’s why I partnered with SkyTree Book Fairs, a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to nurturing childhood innocence and building character through books that inspire imagination while upholding truth and goodness. We took the name SkyTree from my first kids’ book, As You Grow, which was the same book that received mounds of pushback from public libraries.
I hope SkyTree becomes everything Scholastic should have been, only better. Where Scholastic puts stories about gay dinosaurs in kids’ hands, SkyTree will screen every title available at our fairs, ensuring that each book is free from sexually explicit content (including LGBTQ+ material), foul language, dark themes, and critical race theory. I want parents to feel safe browsing SkyTree’s shelves, knowing that every book there has been rigorously reviewed and approved for the whole family. And no, I’m not trying to fill the shelves with political propaganda. I just want to equip kids with content that promotes good values—general life principles that everyone can benefit from. Only with good values can we break Scholastic’s stronghold on public education and, in doing so, destroy the nation’s leading hotbed for the radical sexual, transgender, and racial agenda, cleverly packaged for impressionable youth under the misleading guise of “family-friendly” fairs.
And make no mistake, Scholastic is the nation’s leading hotbed. The New York Times itself reports that more than 120,000 Scholastic book fairs occur per year (that averages out to roughly 650 per school calendar day). Ellie Berger, president of Scholastic’s trade publishing division, wrote, “We pledge to stand with you as we redouble our efforts to combat the laws restricting children’s access to books.”
In other words, they are intensifying their efforts to make sexually explicit and gender-confusing books available to minors. This problem is far from negligible, and we cannot afford to turn a blind eye to it. That’s why a rival book fair – a real, parent-friendly alternative -- is urgently needed in schools nationwide.
I’m creating that alternative and taking the fight into Scholastic territory, which has been long unchallenged, to tackle the woke agenda head-on. I’m doing this because I believe that kids and parents deserve an environment where they can enjoy literature that does not indoctrinate or make a mockery of traditional American values. Children’s books should serve only two purposes: to entertain and to educate toward goodness and truth.
In the past, Scholastic provided children with books that educated and entertained them while fostering their love of reading. Since Scholastic has strayed from its roots, I am happy to create a better alternative, ensuring that children have access to high-quality literature that aligns with our most cherished values and principles. I hope that you, and more importantly, your children, will join me in my fight to save children’s literature.
