I remember Scholastic book fairs well. I recall the excitement, as a child, of flipping through their bright catalogues and the intoxicating smell of so many new books neatly laid out on tables in the school library.

With its unique book fair business model, it is no wonder Scholastic grew to become “the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children books,” as its website proudly declares.

And with such an unrivaled reach into the minds of children, it is also no surprise that the New York City–headquartered company has more lately been commandeered as a propaganda arm for the woke revolution.

Actor and father of six Kirk Cameron took to X (formerly Twitter) last week to expose the “sexually explicit, morally disgusting, and dangerous books” that Scholastic now markets to children.

The purpose of Cameron’s thread was twofold: to call out Scholastic for its nosedive into the woke abyss and to promote SkyTree Book Fairs (where Cameron serves as a board advisor) as a safe alternative.

The first Scholastic book profiled by Cameron on X was the aptly titled 2022 publication Welcome to St. Hell, which “glamorizes gender transitioning to middle schoolers.” He noted that the images accompanying his post were redacted so as not to “violate social media policies against sexual material.” Still visible, however, were images promoting testosterone injections, chest binders, double mastectomies and “penis packers.”

In another post in his thread, Cameron displayed quotes from a book titled Rick that is marketed to children aged 8 to 12 and “tells the story of a grandfather and grandchild coming out as trans to one another.”

Another publication called out by Cameron was an “award-winning story” that appears to feature adults “grooming a little boy into dressing in drag.”

Cameron likewise profiled one of Scholastic’s new-era authors, Alex Gino, who is “a radical critical gender activist and self-described ‘fat femme’ who calls for defunding law enforcement.”

Summarizing the dire situation, Cameron noted, “some assume that because Scholastic is a world-renowned children’s publisher, these books we’ve highlighted are the exception.”

“That is incorrect,” he countered. “Scholastic prioritizes LGBTQIA+-themed books—including those that have obscene, graphic content.”

Cameron went on to note that Scholastic has made available on its website “a list of their 100+ LGBTQIA+ books”—and yet even this is not an exhaustive catalogue, he warned.

In driving home his point, Cameron explained that while Scholastic “has been championed by educators as a trusted publisher of children’s content,” such a high view of the company is no longer tenable. “Scholastic is pushing sexualized and gender-confusing content for minors into schools and libraries,” he said.

Only last month, the publisher attempted to partition its more controversial books from the rest of its catalog by allowing elementary schools to opt in or out of having those texts at their book fairs. Scholastic says they wanted to provide a way for schools to avoid potential legal liability:

There is now enacted or pending legislation in more than 30 U.S. states prohibiting certain kinds of books from being in schools – mostly LGBTQIA+ titles and books that engage with the presence of racism in our country. … These laws create an almost impossible dilemma: back away from these titles or risk making teachers, librarians, and volunteers vulnerable to being fired, sued, or prosecuted.

However, after backlash from progressive groups such as PEN America, Scholastic reversed their decision, saying the “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” collection would no longer be a separate collection starting in January. The publisher also promised to expand their efforts against the legislation preventing such titles from appearing in elementary schools.

With Scholastic clearly fallen to left-wing cultural pressures, Cameron pointed people toward SkyTree Book Fairs. Consciously founded as an alternative to Scholastic, SkyTree Book Fairs is a nonprofit organization that describes itself as being “committed to providing book fairs that schools can trust and are accessible nationwide.” They aim to “celebrate literacy while ensuring that books are wholesome and trustworthy.”

Their catalogues feature over 200 books “selected for family-friendly values,” while their fairs have already been hosted in upwards of 600 schools across America.

On its website, SkyTree Book Fairs has a page dedicated to calling out Scholastic for its egregiously trashy content. Among the issues flagged are publications promoting gender confusion, self-harm, “medical gender transitions,” “LGBTQIA romance scenes,” and children “looking up material online and keeping secrets from parents.”

Appearing in a Fox News interview, Kirk Cameron explained, “It’s obvious that Scholastic is committed to indoctrinating our youth with harmful messages.” Speaking of his partnership with SkyTree Book Fairs, he said, “We want to knock them out of the race.”

In a separate interview with The Daily Wire, Cameron mourned that Scholastic is “taking children down a path that will eventually destroy them and their families.”

The question now is whether parents, teachers, and school administrators will stand up to Scholastic. If not, who stands between Scholastic’s radical ideology and the impressionable children the publisher apparently seeks to turn against parents and the broader culture that is still generally opposed to such ideological grooming?

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Image credit: “Kirk Cameron” by Gage Skidmore on Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.