Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House, signed the book deal with Hadid, a philanthropist and activist, and Matari, an author and communications strategist, in November 2024. The manuscript was promoted for release in September this year and covered the history of Palestine, Israeli occupation, Palestinian resistance, and the diaspora, interwoven with the authors’ own family stories of displacement.
The authors withdrew their book after objecting to edits by Random House that they said sanitized and misrepresented their account. The changes, they said, were introduced after they had believed the manuscript was finalised. A Random House spokesperson said the process “followed our standard bookmaking procedures” and that the publisher ultimately supported the authors’ decision to pull the book.
The book was to be the eighth installment in the Race to the Truth series, an ongoing collection of nonfiction books for youth that aims to provide the “true story of American history”, written by members of marginalized groups. The series’ co-creator said she objected to the treatment of Displacement and said she would not be pursuing future installments in the series with the publisher.
“It became clear that Penguin was never actually going to allow us just to write the book we wanted to write,” Hadid said. “It says a lot that they’re willing to tank an entire very powerful series that helps children learn history, just because of one book about Palestine.”