“The Cricket in Times Square” (revised and updated edition) - George Selden, Garth Williams (illustrator)

 🌃 Published in 1960, and a 1961 Newberry Honor book, you’ll often find this children’s classic on 2nd grade reading lists - including my own, way back when. As a child I relished tales featuring anthropomorphic animals; I loved this one and was excited to read it with my kids. 

🌃 As an adult who has lived through these changes, I appreciated Selden’s portrayal of New York City in the era before technological change and rapid transformation that was ushered in by the late 20th century.

🌃 My suspicions that the revisions had to do with the Mr. Fong character, proved to be correct. I recall from when I read it in 2nd grade, that Selden had Fong pronounce the “r” in cricket with an “l” sound, and there must have been many more cases of stereotypical pronunciation and perhaps behavior or appearance, that I can’t recall.

Note: Mama Bellini still retains her rustic English (stereotypical of an Italian immigrant in the mid-20th century). Although it was perhaps not laid on as thickly as the diction of the original Mr. Fong character, it makes me wonder whether if we are revising novels, is a more wholesale revision necessary? Put another way, if we are revising unpalatable portions of classics, why stop at Mr. Fong? 

Typically, my personal preference is for not revising books, but including a forward to help current generations work through the cultural anomalies. However, I recognize the difficulties with this approach for children’s lit, particularly in the tricky matter of dialogue. We don’t want to inadvertently teach this linguistic stereotype to a classroom of 2nd graders.

On the other hand, in novels like the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, I wouldn’t sanitize unsavory aspects such as her treatment of Native Americans. I believe these portions could be used for thoughtful discussion (at age appropriate levels) of how the settlers treated Native Americans, whose land they were occupying.