Slavery book author says she had concerns

NEW YORK — The author of a children’s book pulled last month because of its smiling depiction of slaves says she herself objected to the illustrations and had expressed early concerns with the publisher, Scholastic.

“The public does not know that the authors (of picture stories) are not in full control of their books,” she said.

The Washington book was published Jan. 5 and set off a wave of criticism from reviewers, and on social media and Amazon.com, where 270 out of 371 reader reviews were one star as of Thursday morning.

[...] on Jan. 17, it halted publication, explaining in a statement that the book “may give a false impression of the reality of the lives of slaves.”