In 1991, the editors of Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever made some key editorial changes in an effort to level the race, gender and religious biases of the original 1963 edition. The side-by-side comparison offers a composite look at changing times, and highlights the treasured-relic status of the old version. The truth is, back in ’63, you couldn’t get a job as a “stewardess” if you weren’t “pretty,” and why would you bother if the pilots weren’t “handsome?” (Yet, the editors added the now-frowned-upon epithet “cockpit.” Tsk tsk. It’s a “flight deck.”) And let’s be honest, who is more likely to be rescued in a fire: a “beautiful screaming lady” or a “cat in danger?” And since when has a cat in Scarry’s books ever been just a house pet anyway? In 2009, can we tell our kids that the bear driving the steamroller, now with yellow hair bow, is transgender? Is a bear dentist really any less threatening than a rhino dentist with a giant horn pointing toward your open mouth? Well, maybe so. I, for one, will miss that little mouse in his xenophobic Native American getup. But certain ironies of Scarry’s other books may always be STET. Consider, for example, the cannibalistic irony of a pig shopping for ham in Scarry’s Best Storybook Ever. Some oddities just stand the test of time.
