School librarian rejects books donated by Melania Trump

'Steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes'

irst Lady Melania Trump reads a book during the 139th White House Easter Egg Roll (AFP/Getty Images)

An elementary school librarian in Massachusetts has said she will reject a collection of books from First Lady Melania Trump.

Earlier this month, Ms Trump sent out collections of 10 Dr Seuss books to one school in each state to celebrate “National Read a Book Day”.

The White House said it worked “with the Department of Education to identify schools with programs that have achieved high standards of excellence.”

But in a blogpost, Cambridgeport Elementary School librarian Liz Phipps Soeiro said her school did not need the books, which included famous titles such as The Cat in the Hat.

“I work in a district that has plenty of resources, which contributes directly to ‘excellence,’” she wrote. “My students have access to a school library with over nine thousand volumes and a librarian with a graduate degree in library science.”

Instead, Ms Soeiro wrote, the White House should focus more on providing support to schools that are underfunded.

“Why not go out of your way to gift books to underfunded and underprivileged communities that continue to be marginalized and maligned by policies put in place by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos?” she said.

Cambridge, where Ms Soeiro’s school is located, sits just outside of Boston and is home to two prestigious and world-renowned universities, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

Ms Soeiro also took issue with the books themselves.

“Another fact that many people are unaware of is that Dr Seuss’s illustrations are steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes,” Ms Soeiro wrote, giving the examples of If I Ran a Zoo as well as And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street.

The librarian attached a list of 10 other books she hoped would “offer a window into the lives of the many children affected by the policies of [Donald Trump's] administration.”

According to CBS Boston, Cambridge Public Schools said in a statement that Ms Soeiro “was not authorised to accept or reject donated books on behalf of the school or school district” and counseled her on a policy against using public resources for political purposes.