Despite being "canceled" and pulled from publishing earlier this week, Dr. Seuss' books have topped Amazon's bestseller list.
And of course, everyone knows which book took the top spot. Here's the full story...
As we all know, Dr. Seuss is somewhat of a national treasure here in America.
Theodor Seuss, who died in 1991, is known for his best-selling children's books such as Horton Hears A Who! (1955), The Cat in the Hat (1957), How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1957), and Green Eggs and Ham (1960).
And it's safe to say that the work of Dr. Seuss has cemented millions of childhoods...
Espeically here in America.
Earlier this week, the annual Read Across America Day came and went...
Celebrating Read Across America with dressing up as your favorite Dr. Seuss character 📚 #TeamSISD pic.twitter.com/8kpsAIvFX7
— Crystal Rios (@crios_ECES) March 2, 2021
Meaning a lot of children were reading the work of Dr. Seuss.
Because Dr. Seuss and his work has always dominated this national reading day...
And it's become somewhat of a tradition for Dr. Seuss's wild and wacky stories to be celebrated and remembered on this special day, with numerous former presidents and first ladies promoting and paying tribute to his stories.
Oh, and March 2nd also marks the birthday of the famous author, making it all that more special!
So quite predictably, it came as quite a shock to many to hear that President Biden "canceled" Dr. Seuss this year for the national reading day.
In Biden's proclamation declaring Tuesday's Read Across America Day, he made absolutely no mention of Seuss.
Even though Donald Trump and Barack Obama both mentioned the author in their own declarations in the last 2 decades...
It seemed as if Biden decided to break the tradition.
Although the White House hasn't yet commented specifically on why the president chose not to mention the author...
The apparent snub came just days after Loudoun County Public School District in Virginia removed Dr. Seuss from its Read Across America Day celebration, claiming that the legendary author's books had "racial undertones."
The Loudon County School District said they were leaving Seuss out of their celebrations and instead were shifting the "emphasis" towards books that are more "inclusive and diverse and reflective of our student community."
"Research in recent years has revealed strong racial undertones in many books written/illustrated by Dr. Seuss," LCPS said in a statement to CNN.
Examples of racial undertones in the books include "anti-Japanese American political cartoons and cartoons depicting African Americans for sale captioned with offensive language," LCPS explained.
They continued:
"Given this research, and LCPS' focus on equity and culturally responsive instruction, LCPS provided this guidance to schools during the past couple of years to not connect Read Across America Day exclusively with Dr. Seuss' birthday."
And then in an even more shocking move...
It was announced that 6 Dr. Seuss books will stop being published which caused huge controversy online...
Anyone cancelling Dr. Seuss bc of racism are really the ones that are racist.
— Jess 🇺🇸 (@jessiprincey) March 2, 2021
So we’re going to cancel six Dr Seuss books for racism but do nothing about racist police departments murdering black people?
— 🌹Revolt Politic🌹 (@RevoltPolitic) March 2, 2021
The fact that Dr. Seuss is being banned for racism despite writing a book condemning racism. pic.twitter.com/fuyStQOMao
— Melany // JarHead11 💙🏳️🌈 (@JarHead11TikTok) March 2, 2021
As of this week, 6 Dr. Seuss books will no longer be published due to their "racist and insensitive imagery."
The 6 books no longer being published are: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot's Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat's Quizzer.
Of course, we know that this move has triggered a huge divide in opinion across the country...
With many people disagreeing with the move, including one of Seuss' stepdaughters.
Leagrey Dimond - one of Dr. Seuss's stepdaughters - told TMZ she doesn't think his work needs to be censored or stored away from public view...
But instead, she suggested the books should contain a disclaimer... something a lot of media companies have been opting for lately for questionable or outdated material with racist depictions.
She insisted: "Yes, some of his earlier publications and illustrations DID feature racist imagery, but his legacy shouldn't hinge on that alone."
Dimond then insisted that her stepfather actually regretted some of his work, such as ads, comic strips, and political cartoons he helped craft during the WWII era - which featured blatantly racist drawings of Black people and Asian people, as the years went on...
But Dimond insisted that since coming into Seuss' care at the age of 9, she never once experienced any hatred, hate speech, or bigotry of any kind...
Which she says was emblematic of his character at large - the fact that people are judging him in death, she said, just doesn't sit right with her.
But, it seems despite the controversy, Dr. Seuss and his work is still extremely popular.
So much so, that some of his books have topped Amazons bestsellers list.
Yesterday, 9 of Dr. Seuss' books filled the top 10 of Amazon's bestseller list.
With The Cat in the Hat of course at number 1.
A total of twenty-five Dr. Seuss titles filled the top fifty list.
For more on the Dr. Seuss controversy, keep scrolling...
