Some of Roald Dahl‘s beloved children’s books will be getting updates to be more inclusive, progressive and more acceptable to today’s readers, according to The Roald Dahl Story Company, which owns the rights to the books.
The celebrated children’s book author was the mastermind behind bestsellers such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda and The BFG.
Phrases like “Mothers and fathers” in Dahl’s Matilda, first published in 1988, could be replaced with “parents” while some descriptions of “fat” characters could be edited or removed entirely. Description of women’s jobs are also subject to change.
“It’s not unusual to review the language used alongside updating other details,” a spokesman for The Roald Dahl Story Company, which was purchased by Netflix in 2020, told ABC News, adding, “Our guiding principle throughout has been to maintain the storylines, characters, and the irreverence and sharp-edged spirit of the original text.”
The new development has sparked backlash from the literary community, with PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel writing in part in a Twitter thread, “The problem with taking license to re-edit classic works is that there is no limiting principle. You start out wanting to replace a word here and a word there, and end up inserting entirely new ideas (as has been done to Dahl’s work).”
The language within Dahl’s works were reviewed in partnership with publisher Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and Inclusive Minds, a collective with a mission to make children’s literature more inclusive, diverse and accessible.