Analysis Of A Birthday Cake For George Washington

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The recent removal of the new picture book A Birthday Cake for George Washington has placed the topic of censorship in the public’s eyesight again. A Birthday Cake for George Washington was written by Ramin Ganeshram a famed chef and writer of the book Stir it up! and was illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton who has written and illustrated Let Freedom Ring. The book A Birthday Cake for George Washington is a celebratory book about Hercules the head chef in the Washington’s kitchen, who is also a slave. The book is narrated by Hercules daughter Delia who describes her father as “the general in the kitchen”. The book’s illustrations are lighthearted and make the image of slavery seem brighter and not as much of a horror that it was. This is …show more content…

They started a petition on Change.org, and created a campaign on one star reviews on Amazon in attempts to prevent people from purchasing the book. In the beginning Scholastic, the book’s publisher, stood beside the author and illustrator of the book giving support and telling people that the book is not as bad as it seems. The School Library Journal then issued their review and criticism of the books claiming that
“Brantley-Newton’s colorful, cartoon-style double-page illustrations, combined with the light tone of the text, convey a feeling of joyfulness that contrasts starkly with the reality of slave life...Hercules, Delila and the other slaves are seen in the kitchen below, smiling with glee as they worked on the cake, evoking a strangely cheerful and exuberant scene reminiscent of a Disney film.” (School Library …show more content…

Scholastic responded to these claims stating that they did not pull the book due to the criticisms but because they did not feel that the book matched their standards of a book published with their name on it’s cover. Eventually the author was allowed to speak up and she firmly states that the removal of the book was not a freedom of speech win but the denial of the chance for Hercules’ story to be told denying him the chance to have his freedom of speech. The most impactful thing she wrote was in regards to the claim that only a white person would have written a story like this. She

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