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The author of one of the most popular children's book series claims that the publisher made numerous edits to his works without his permission. A report last week from The Sunday Times found that Scholastic had made more than 100 edits to several books in the Goosebumps series to remove what it considered offensive and outdated words and phrases.
According to the Times, the changes include describing a character as "cheerful" instead of "plump," while descriptions comparing overweight characters to "a bowling ball" and having "squirrel cheeks" have been removed.
In the book Don't Go to Sleep!, one of the characters called Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina "girl's stuff." That phrase was removed, and now, the character just says the book is "not interesting."
While the Times' initial report said that Stine was on board with the changes, the author tweeted that he had nothing to do with the edits. He replied to a tweet from a fan who expressed her dismay that the books were altered.
"Lindsey, the stories aren't true. I've never changed a word in Goosebumps. Any changes were never shown to me," Stine tweeted.
Scholastic defended the decision to make edits to Goosebumps.
"For more than 30 years, the Goosebumps series has brought millions of kids to reading through humor with just the right amount of scary," the publisher said in a statement to Deadline. "Scholastic takes its responsibility seriously to continue bringing this classic adolescent brand to each new generation. When re-issuing titles several years ago, Scholastic reviewed the text to keep the language current and avoid imagery that could negatively impact a young person's view of themselves today, with a particular focus on mental health."
This is not the first instance of a publisher making edits to beloved books. Penguin Random House and Puffin faced criticism and were forced to partially walk back a decision to publish re-edited Roald Dahl's books. Even super-spy James Bond isn't safe from being censored. As the book series approaches its 70th anniversary, Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. said it plans to publish an updated version of Casino Royale in April that was vetted and edited by a team of sensitivity readers.