News

Petition seeks to get controversial parenting books pulled from Amazon

November 19, 2013

A petition on Change.org asking Amazon to stop selling three controversial books on parenting has today crossed the 50,000 signatures mark.

The petition was started alongside an August 2011 blog post, but in recent days has picked up steam thanks to social media, and due to some tragic news that went viral.

The books in question are "To Train Up A Child" by Michael and Debi Pearl, "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp, and "Don't Make Me Count to Three" by Ginger Plowman. According to the petition, all three books advocate the physical abuse of children. Signatories on the petition include "leading experts in children's rights, psychology, child development, and religious child maltreatment."

The story of Hana Williams, published earlier this month on Slate, brought "To Train Up A Child" back into the spotlight. The book was implicated in the beating deaths of Williams and two other children. (Please note that the story in that link is very disturbing.)

Given the massive number of titles the online giant carries, the number of times in which they've pulled a controversial book has been minuscule — once in 2010 of a book that gave advice to pedophiles, and a 2012 art book that was determined to be a fraud.

We've reached out to Amazon for comment on the petition, and will let you know if they respond to us.