The settings are real, the troubles of the cats are real, and the fact that the cats have wings and can fly…well, perhaps that’s a stretch! What a wonderful way to weave fantasy into stories. This set of stories, beginning with Catwings, continuing with Catwings Return, Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings, and Jane on Her Own, are the perfect mixture of fantasy and realism. In four small children’s books, Ursula Le Guin has created a very endearing set of cat characters with personality, adventure, and wisdom. Jane Tabby could not explain why all four of her children had wings.” People who don’t share my sensibilities about artistic freedom seem to prefer to ban or burn books, usually without having read them.“Mrs. I found substitutes that would retain the original meaning and cadence, and stipulated to the publisher that the new editions would note that the text had been revised. My mother’s note tipped me toward changing her words. But cultural constructs of harm are mutable we frequently revise our definition of what’s harmful to whom, how it is spoken of, and who gets to do the speaking. I like to think that truth and compassion are immutable even as the language we use to express them changes. But she left me a clue: a note over her desk asking, “Is it true? Is it necessary or at least useful? Is it compassionate or at least unharmful?” I genuinely didn’t know what my mother would have decided. My advisory group leaned toward change but was not in consensus. I was excited to move the books to a new publisher last year.Īs we began work on the new editions, I received an unexpected note from the editor: “I’m writing to propose several minor changes to the language… to remove words that now have a different connotation than when the books were originally published.” The words in question were “lame,” “queer,” “dumb,” and “stupid,” a total of seven instances across three books.Īfter deep breaths, and with Ursula’s own revisionism in mind, I contacted a disability rights attorney, a youth literature consultant, a racial educator, and some kids. A multigenerational fan base has kept her Catwings books in print in the US since the 1980s.

My mother, known for her young adult and adult novels, also wrote several children’s books. What they find for themselves they should be able to read for themselves.” I had this in mind as I read about wording changes in new editions of Dahl.Īs Ursula’s literary executor, I recently faced a similar decision. While acknowledging her own “feelings of unease” about Dahl’s work, she remarked that “…kids are very tough. Le Guin, took Roald Dahl’s books to task. In a 1973 letter to the editor of The Horn Book Magazine, my mother, Ursula K.

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