Deaf author Adam Pottle is boycotting his own book — here’s why and why his publisher now says it’s stopped selling it

For most writers it’s a dream to get a book published. That was true for Adam Pottle when he signed an agreement with Reycraft publishing for his debut picture book, “The Most Awesome Character in the World.”
Pottle is deaf, and getting his children’s book featuring a deaf main character into the hands of kids was important to him. It’s a nightmare to then feel that you have to boycott your own book. But that is the uncomfortable spot the Saskatchewan writer says he found himself in after his book was released by the American publisher at the end of September.
Sera Reycraft, who is Asian and was born in Korea, is the publisher of Reycraft Books. Her biography on the company’s website says that “Sera knows firsthand the struggles of an immigrant child in a strange land, looking to find herself reflect(ed) in the world around her.”
It’s something she and Pottle would seem to have in common, feeling like outsiders.
As a child, Pottle says, there was only one book that he knew of that showed a deaf or hard-of-hearing child. It was a book about Helen Keller and on the cover she was shown with her teacher, Annie Sullivan; Keller was crying.
“It had an impact on me because it made me think that the experiences of deaf children and hard-of-hearing children are sad and are tragic,” Pottle said in an interview. “And they’re not. That’s why I wrote this book to begin with: for deaf and hard-of-hearing children to be able to see themselves.”
That is also the mission stated by Reycraft Books. The book was commissioned under the publishing house’s “Own Voices” imprint which, according to its website, is “an incredible collection of beautiful fiction and nonfiction trade books with a focus on diversity and #OwnVoices authors and illustrators.”
Pottle says that, in 2017, he had tweeted about deaf stories and was subsequently contacted by a Reycraft editor who asked whether he would be willing to submit a children’s book. Pottle did and they liked it. He signed a “work-for-hire” contract, which means he was paid a flat fee for his work on the book.
So far, so good. He also supplied Reycraft with a list of preferred deaf illustrators; they chose not to use one on his list, instead commissioning Ana Sanfelippo, who has had a long career in children’s book illustrating.
The book’s main character is Philomena, who doesn’t want to wear her hearing aids; she’d rather use sign language and create characters with her imagination, characters such as robots and monsters and heroes.
In the summer, Kirkus Reviews gave the book a rave review, concluding that “Pottle shows readers the rich inner life of a Deaf child and directly counters the tragic narrative of deafness while telling a fun story that any young reader could enjoy.”
But one line caught Pottle’s attention: “The human characters are racially diverse — though one unfortunately plays into Asian stereotypes — and some use wheelchairs.”
So Pottle says he had a “sensitivity reader” look at the book and was concerned by what they reported back. “One of the wheelchair users is wearing a kimono, she had her hair in buns, she’s often shown doing martial arts moves,” Pottle says. “In one instance she’s shown laughing, but with her hand in front of her mouth, which I was told was an Asian stereotype.”
The sensitivity reader, whose name Pottle didn’t share, also noted that this character was set apart from other characters spatially and in what she was wearing: the other human characters wore contemporary clothes.
“The sensitivity reader asked: why is this happening? … (and) assured me that this was a stereotype, that this was an ‘othering’ illustration.”
It was not a point of view that Reycraft shared.
“Philomena is not a Japanese girl, but we must ask the important question here: should the imaginary worlds of the imaginary children in our stories be limited to the confines of their own borders? Does that reflect the reality of the children reading our books? Or are we affirming children’s place as global citizens when we include characters in our books that appreciate other cultures?” Sera Reycraft wrote in a statement to the Toronto Star.
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She went on to explain where the image was derived. “Displayed prominently on Philomena’s desk is a Maneki-neko, or beckoning cat, which is a Japanese figurine that brings good luck. As Philomena sits at her desk and creates her amazing world, her love for Japanese culture infuses her imagination and manifests in the motifs of the yukata, the beautiful dragon, and even the fighting robots, all drawn lovingly and with respect.”
Pottle says he asked Reycraft to change those specific illustrations. He says they refused; the book was already printed. He said he told them that he would have to “discourage people from buying it.”
And he did.
He found a lot of support within the CanLit community and around the world: McNally Robinson Booksellers said they wouldn’t carry it; Chapters Indigo removed it from its website, and Toronto’s Another Story Bookshop sent an open letter to Sera Reycraft, dated Oct. 3, saying it would not be offering the book for sale in its store and urging Reycraft “to honour your mission statement of #OwnVoices and representation. I urge you to respect the comments of your author, sensitivity readers as well as reviewers from the School Library Journal and Kirkus Review who have all stated that the character is a racist stereotype. We also urge Reycraft to respect Adam’s request that a deaf illustrator be hired to illustrate this important book.”
The illustrator, according to Pottle, has asked her name to be removed from the book after receiving hate mail and threats.
Pottle says he’s also had “some people denigrate me and accuse me of different kinds of things like mansplaining.”
Reycraft, for her part, says that “we also recognize that sometimes a well-intentioned ‘defense’ (sic) of another’s culture can reveal implicit biases in one’s own view of that culture.”
But Reycraft, it seems, is hearing the criticism that’s been coming the company’s way — sort of.
In her statement to the Star, Reycraft said they are pausing their sales and promotion of the book “to reassess how we move forward with the title, such as adding a note of clarification regarding what we consider to be the thoughtful and respectful Japanese cultural references in it.”
“We always knew as we embarked on telling these stories in authentic and expansive ways, we would have things to learn. When we make mistakes, we fix them. We also knew that as we told these stories there might be misinterpretations that would require clarifying and educating.”
Pottle, meantime, isn’t giving up on getting deaf stories in the hands of deaf children who need to see themselves reflected back to them in the books they read. He has just finished another book with a deaf protagonist. It’s with a few publishers now, although no one has bitten just yet.read more