(CNN) — Barnes & Noble says it is kicking off Black History Month by releasing a series of classic novels with new cover art featuring people of color.
The move has sparked a social media backlash from critics, who point out that the characters inside the books are still white.
The bookstore giant and Penguin Random House are holding a launch event for the Diverse Editions on Wednesday at its Fifth Avenue store in New York.
In its advertising of the event, Barnes & Noble invited people to ask the question, “What if your favorite literary characters reflected the Diversity of America?”
One cover of “The Wizard of Oz” shows Dorothy as an African American girl with her hair in a braid and puffs and a pair of red sneakers slung over her shoulder. Juliet wears a head scarf on one cover of “Romeo and Juliet”, “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” wears a turban and Frankenstein’s monster is a green-eyed, African American man with bolts in his neck.
The bookseller made new covers for “Moby Dick,” “Emma,” “The Secret Garden,” “Treasure Island,” “Peter Pan,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “The Three Musketeers.”
Alexandre Dumas, who wrote “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “The Three Musketeers,” is the only black author on the list.
The new covers were called “literary blackface” by African American writer Rod Faulkner in an essay on Medium, and others have said the energy spent making the “Diverse Editions” would have been better spent promoting books written by people of color.
“What?!? No! Is it really this hard? People sat down & had meetings & put a lot of energy & money into creating covers f/black people on books w/ the same old stories INSTEAD of promoting books written by black authors & featuring black characters?WTF?!,” author Tracey Livesay tweeted.
Author Karen Strong said in a tweet that she didn’t understand the thinking behind the effort.
“Can you imagine a young Black girl seeing a cover with someone who looks like her but then finds nothing that reflects her in the pages? No Black girls at all? Y’all that is more than a bait and switch. That’s harmful,” Strong tweeted.
CNN reached out to Barnes & Noble and Penguin Random House for comment but there was no immediate response.
Barnes & Noble is featuring works by African American authors on its website, social media and in stores.
Penguin Random House says it will donate up to $10,000 to the Hurston Wright Foundation, which works to develop, discover and server black authors. The publisher promised to give a dollar every time people tweet the hashtag #BlackStoriesHavePower.
The-CNN-Wire
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