[THEGUARDIAN] A division of the American Library Association has voted to remove the name of Laura Ingalls Wilder from a major children’s book award, over concerns about how the author portrayed African Americans and Native Americans. She was there, the prize committee wasn't. People spoke and thought that way at the time. Writing books featuring female gunmen or generals or sword fighters doesn't mean they were there. People in this country used to refer to
The board of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) made the unanimous decision to change the name on Saturday, at a meeting in New Orleans. The name of the prize was changed from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal to the Children’s Literature Legacy Award.
The association said Wilder “includes expressions of stereotypical attitudes inconsistent with ALSC’s core values”.
The first award was given to Wilder in 1954. The ALSC said Wilder’s work continued to be published and read but her “legacy is complex” and “not universally embraced”.
Wilder was born in 1867 and died in 1957. She is best known for her eight Little House on the Prairie novels, about pioneer life in the American West, which were published between 1932 and 1943.