Dr. Seuss Enterprises will cease publishing six of the author’s books — including And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and If I Ran the Zoo — saying they “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” The books have been criticized for how they depict Asian and Black people.
The decision to stop publishing and licensing the books follows a review by a panel of educators and other experts, according to Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the company that controls the author’s books and characters. The other four titles that will be permanently shelved are McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super! and The Cat’s Quizzer.
The company says the decision was made last year, in an effort to support “all children and families with messages of hope, inspiration, inclusion, and friendship.”
First published in 1937, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is the book that propelled Theodor Seuss Geisel’s career to new heights, as he pivoted from working in advertising to writing children’s books as Dr. Seuss.
Several of Geisel’s later books overshadowed Mulberry Street. But over the years, critics and readers have struggled to reconcile the open-hearted and clever tone of it and other Seuss classics with the small-minded caricatures of minorities they also contain.