Dr Seuss works to be edited by racially diverse team

Unseen sketches by Dr Seuss will be edited by an “inclusive” group before being published – but there are already accusations of “woke-washing”.

A series of unseen sketches drawn by Dr Seuss will be edited by an “inclusive” group of writers and artists from “diverse racial backgrounds” before they are published for the first time.

The news has already spawned accusations on social media of “woke-washing” after it was announced on Wednesday by Dr Seuss Enterprises.

The company was founded by the family of the famous children’s book author, whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel, after his death in 1991, reports the New York Post.

The sketches will serve as the basis for a new line of books to be written and illustrated by the group.

It follows the recent pulling of six of his children’s books from publication, after concerns they allegedly promoted “harmful” racial stereotypes.

Now, the new group of up-and-coming authors and illustrators will attempt to create “inclusive” storylines inspired by the drawings with the aim to “represent a diverse cross-section of racial backgrounds to represent as many families as possible,” according to a Dr Seuss Enterprises spokesperson.

Sketches drawn by Dr Seuss prior to his death will be edited by a racially diverse group of authors and illustrators. Picture: Aaron Rapoport/Corbis/Getty Images

The books are set to be published in a new Seuss Studios series, aimed at readers aged four to eight. The first two titles are set to hit shelves next year.

“We look forward to putting the spotlight on a new generation of talent who we know will bring their unique voices and style to the page, while also drawing inspiration from the creativity and imagination of Dr Seuss,” Dr Seuss Enterprises CEO Susan Brandt said in a statement.

“The original Dr Seuss sketch that serves as the inspiration for each of the new Seuss Studios books will be included in the book, along with a note from the creators explaining how they were inspired, and their process,” she said.

Ms Brandt did not reveal the identities of the authors and illustrators who form the new group. The company said more details will be announced in the coming months.

The news has attracted backlash on Twitter, with one person writing: “Can’t they just make up their own woke stories without ruining the work of a beloved author? Was bad enough when they cancelled his books.”

One of the original Seuss sketches shows a small four-legged animal with humungous ears, while another is of a group of three multi-coloured hummingbirds.

The announcement comes on what would have been Dr Seuss’s 118th birthday, and exactly a year after it was announced six of his books would no longer be published.

Six books including ‘And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street’ and ‘On Beyond Zebra!’ were pulled from publication last year. Picture: Scott Olson/Getty Images

‘Time to take action’

Last year, Dr Seuss Enterprises used the author’s birthday, March 2, to announce it would cease publication of the half-dozen books, because they “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong”.

“We believed that it was time to take action,” Dr Seuss Enterprises told The Post in a statement at the time. “We listened and took feedback from our audiences including teachers, academics and specialists in the field, too, as part of the review process.”

The titles were: If I Ran The Zoo, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra, Scrambled Eggs Super and The Cat’s Quizzer.

On the same day, US President Joe Biden removed mention of Seuss from the “Read Across America Day”.

While Dr Seuss remains one of the world’s most popular children’s authors three decades after his death, his books have come under fire in recent years for how they portray several minority groups.

And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, the first children’s book published under the Dr Seuss pen name, which was released in 1937, depicts an illustration of a “Chinese man with sticks”, who has two lines for eyes and is holding chopsticks and a bowl.

If I Ran The Zoo (first published in 1950) has two men in the book, described as African men, who are wearing grass skirts, are barefoot and have their hair in knots.

In the wake of the news famed titles including ‘The Cat in the Hat’ reportedly shot to the top of Amazon’s bestseller charts. Picture: Gene Lester/Getty Images

But news of the six titles being “censored” sparked a firestorm, with critics accusing politically correct parents, politicians and companies of “cancelling” the famous author.

In the wake of the news, some Seuss stories, including famed titles such as The Cat In The Hat, Green Eggs And Ham and Fox In Socks, shot to the top of Amazon’s bestseller charts, according to Comic Book Resources.

– Associated Press contributed to this report

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission