January/February 2017 Horn Book

January 5, 2017

Good morning Mr. Sutton,

I felt inclined to write to you following my reading of your editorial letter to Dr. Carla Hayden. I would like to preface my comments by revealing that I did not vote for President-Elect Trump.

This morning's news contained a disturbing video of four Chicago young adults torturing a special needs young man and taunting him as a Trump supporter. Following this was a report of a group of celebrities who plan to boycott the inauguration and hold a telethon on Inauguration Day in protest of Trump. Of course, one of these is an example of our democratic right to freedom of speech and the other is hateful thuggery. However, both are part of a disturbing imbalance to the peaceful transfer of power typical of our democratic republic by folks who are reluctant to accept the newly elected leader of our country.

Of course, you have written an editorial which reveals your personal thoughts and political leanings. That's what editorials are all about. I just ask that you consider what effect editorials such as these have on further tipping the imbalance. I believe whomever is the elected president of our nation deserves a chance to begin office without being called unfair names (troll under the bridge) or having unsubstantiated assumptions made against him ("desperate grab to a 1/2 remembered 9th grade reading list"). Furthermore, reading between the lines of your editorial leads a reader to infer that P-E Trump plans to cut funding for the Library of Congress or otherwise harm the mission of the Library. I haven't heard or read about anything in his administration's agenda that alludes to this happening. I don't think it is fair to suggest this without providing any evidence to support it.

I love Horn Book. I appreciate all that you and your staff do for children's literature and literacy. That's why I believe this editorial was beneath you and why I felt the urge to write to you. Please consider giving the future President the proverbial "benefit of the doubt" and refrain from poking at him in your editorials until he gives you a reason to.

With regards,

Tracy Aitken, Ed.D
School Librarian, NBCT
Mechanicsville, VA

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Response from Horn Book editor in chief Roger Sutton

Dear Ms. Aitken:

I have no idea what plans, if any, Donald Trump has for the Library of Congress, and nothing in my editorial was meant to suggest I did. And on the list of things I worry about Trump screwing up, the LC is pretty low. (My worry about a President who doesn’t like to read remains high, however.)

It is disingenuous of you to cite the attack in Chicago and the decision of some entertainers to counter-program against the Inauguration and leave unmentioned the many documented attacks on immigrants, people of color, sexual minorities, and Jews that have also accompanied this “peaceful transfer of power.” I do not blame Donald Trump for these attacks; please don’t blame Bruce Springsteen or me for that terrible hate crime in Chicago.

If Donald Trump decides not to build his Wall, not to arrest Hillary Clinton, leave intact the Affordable Care Act as well as a woman’s right to choose, and strengthen gun control laws, I’ll be the first to cheer. But until then I have to take him at his word, and he has spoken and Tweeted very clearly about his positions on all these things. Are we to “doubt” that he means what he says?

Sincerely yours,



Roger Sutton
Editor in chief
The Horn Book, Inc.

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