A national literary association voted Saturday to remove author Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from a children's book award saying the author's representation of certain races in her "Little House" series of books does not represent their "core values."
The board of the Association of Library Service to Children voted unanimously to rename the "Laura Ingalls Wilder Award" to the "Children's Literature Legacy Award," according to the Associated Press.
Wilder’s series of books about life on the American prairie in the late 1800s have been a favorite for generations. The books were the basis for the long-running television series in the 1970s starring Melissa Gilbert as Wilder.
According to the ALSC, the vote, taken during the group’s meeting in New Orleans, to change the name of the award was greeted with a standing ovation.
The organization said Wilder’s work, with its “expressions of stereotypical attitudes” of black and Native American people, was “inconsistent with ALSC's core values.”
The association has given the Wilder Award to “an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.”
Wilder was given the first award in 1954. E.B. White and Theodor S. Geisel (Dr. Seuss) are both past winners of the Wilder Award.
The ALSC, which is based in Chicago and is a division of the American Library Association, gives out several awards to authors of work aimed at children, including the Caldecott Medal and the Newbery Medal.
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