Scholastic announced that schools would have to opt into its newest category of books from LGBT authors and those of color.

This category, titled “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice,” is made up of 64 books that won’t be offered at its book fairs unless asked for. They include I Color Myself Different by Colin Kaepernick, Change Sings by Amanda Gorman, I Am Ruby Bridges by Ruby Bridges, and She Dared: Malala Yousafzai by Jenni L. Walsh. This category was created in the middle of Scholastic’s book fair season.

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“Because Scholastic Book Fairs are invited into schools, where books can be purchased by kids on their own, 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,” Scholastic’s statement read. “We don’t pretend this solution is perfect — but the other option would be to not offer these books at all — which is not something we’d consider.

“There is a wide range of diverse titles throughout every book fair, for every age level. And, we continue to offer diverse books throughout our middle school fairs, which remain unchanged,” the statement went on.

This was met with backlash from the authors included in the list. Gorman, a Youth Poet Laureate who recited one of her poems at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to respond and demand change.

“Stunned that Scholastic Book Fairs is self-censoring the books in its “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice,” which are predominantly by queer, disabled, & Black & brown authors. This is not sharing our stories–it’s treating them as separate but equal,” Gorman wrote. “Trust me, Scholastic, I know book bans in schools is messy and intimidating. But we can, and must, do better, for ourselves, for our authors, for readers, for all our stories — both those today and yet to come.”

Gorman’s illustrator Loren Long would also refer to Scholastic’s action as “book censorship” in a post online.

“I’ve been [really] mad and upset about this all day. I was mad about this whole thing anyway, of course!” author Rebecca Burgess wrote in her graphic novel about LGBT romance. “So, like, probably most kids are finding this book through Scholastic. These are kids saying in emails how they feel seen/understood for the first time?? I was very excited about that they’d decided to host my book at beginning of the year. Cos [sic] it’s like reaching past that niche—But now it’s back to being in that niche bracket you know?? Where some schools will decide to just not include it entirely.”

Burgess claimed this was her second banned book. However, her editor still has plans to publish another on the same topic.

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“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,” Scholastic explained. “We cannot make a decision for our school partners around what risks they are willing to take, based on the state and local laws that apply to their district, so these topics and this collection have been part of many planning calls that happen in advance of shipping a fair.”

While the publisher has been around since 1920, it began its tradition of book fairs in 1981. Fairs are featured in 115,000 schools nationwide, which are made up of 3.8 million educators and 54 million students.