Mysterious Benedict covers to be "adjusted".

School Library Journal reports that Little, Brown has said:

“The character’s skin color is accurately reflected in the interior, black-and-white illustrations in all the books. While Sticky’s complexion is different relative to the other characters on the covers, the difference is subtle and therefore the jacket illustrations do indeed seem misleading.”

While that statement strikes me as somewhat... disingenuous, I do realize that it isn't really possible for Little, Brown's Publicity Director to say something along the lines of, "You know what?  You're right.  We screwed up.  [Edited to add: AND WE'RE SORRY.]" 

Anyway, I'm glad they're fixing the covers.

In related news, see The Book Smugglers' new feature Cover Matters, as well as the new Readers Against WhiteWashing Facebook group.  And if (SOMEHOW) you've missed all of this, there's a good rundown over at Racebending.

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Previously:

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Puzzling Change of Skin Color

Comments

[Jessie]

Thank God. Like you said, too bad they won't come out and just admit they screwed up. And were racist. I don't know--I think it's possible for them to admit it. But maybe I'm just naive...

[Winterrain]

It seems to me that this has been happening a lot more lately, though I guess it's possible that it's just gotten more attention. Or people are just saying, "Hey, no one worries about racism anymore- we don't need to pay attention to skin color on our book covers!" At any rate, I'm glad they'll be getting new covers.

[Ari]

Thank you for blogging about this issue (and thanks to everyone else who did too). I intend on keeping a better eye on this sort of thing and I'm glad RAWW is in place as well as the Book Smugglers Cover Matters feature. Glad they're changing the cover and their statement is better than Bloomsbury's but yes an 'I'm sorry' would be nice and an explanation. I don't even understand that.

Keep up the great work. And I really wish libraries would just leave books alone. I mean c'mon getting rid of the dICTIONARY?! really. and trying to ban a children's book because the kid has two moms. Oh my goodness it is no big deal! Arghh. ok sorry I had to vent

[Maggi (Mama Librarian)]

Thanks for this post. It's good to know they decided to change the covers, but frustrating that they wouldn't own up to their mistake. How hard is that, really?