America’s Children Will Get to Read About Fictional Gay Parents After All

Luv Ya Bunches was, evidently, a horror story to Scholastic, the book fair company that banned Lauren Myracle’s children’s story about four classmates who bond over their floral first names. Not only did the copy include words like “sucks” and “crap,” it also featured a character with gay parents. So Scholastic banned the book from its fairs! Then the gays complained.

And now, the book is back in. Says the company in a statement: “Scholastic does not censor books. We review thousands of titles each year for our book clubs and book fairs, and we are committed to a review process that considers all books equally regardless of their inclusion of LGBT characters and same sex parents. In an interview with School Library Journal, Scholastic stated that we are currently carrying Luv Ya Bunches by Lauren Myracle in our school book clubs. We also said we were still reviewing the book for possible inclusion in our book fairs. Having completed our review of Luv Ya Bunches, Scholastic Book Fairs will carry the title in our spring fairs for middle school. Scholastic is proud of our long history of providing books that will appeal to the wide range of interests and reading abilities of children in the many diverse cultures and communities we serve. Luv Ya Bunches is just one example.”

Let’s be clear: Not featuring a book in the fair, for any reason, is by definition “censorship.” And while Scholastic won’t admit as much, we are pleased to see their, uh, internal review concluded Luv Ya Bunches won’t force school children to learn about two dads going down on each other.