Seven former National Ambassadors for Young People’s Literature have announced their opposition to the Trump administration’s removal of the Librarian of Congress. Librarian Carla Hayden was fired from the role without justification on May 8, and Robert Newlen is the acting Librarian at this time.

Past ambassadors Jon Scieszka, Katherine Paterson, Kate DiCamillo, Gene Luen Yang, Jacqueline Woodson, Jason Reynolds, and Meg Medina all signed a joint statement. The only former ambassador missing from the list is the late Walter Dean Myers, who served from 2012–2013. The NAYPL program was established in 2008 as a partnership between the Library of Congress and the Children’s Book Council’s literacy nonprofit Every Child a Reader, with support from the Library of Congress James Madison Council, a group of philanthropists.

In their declaration, the cohort wrote, “We, the former National Ambassadors for Young People’s Literature, are united in our strong opposition to the recent removal of Dr. Carla Hayden as the Librarian of Congress.”

“As advocates for the reading lives of children and their families, we believe in promoting libraries as places for young people to learn, grow, and connect,” they continued. “Through Dr. Hayden’s innovative leadership, the Library—a research institution with the largest holdings in the world—served as a national model of how all libraries could engage a new generation. Her wisdom and vision, along with her unfailing ability to work impartially with all constituents, are unparalleled.”

They concluded, “Dr. Hayden’s dismissal is deeply disturbing and should alarm all Americans. We urge everyone who values our libraries and our foundational principles to contact their leaders in Congress now.”

Medina, the 2023–2024 ambassador, initiated the action. She told PW that news of Hayden’s ouster had shocked her. “It felt to me personally such a travesty—I lost my breath, I could feel my chest squeeze, it was so unjust,” Medina said. She began wondering how “to model advocacy for children at times like this,” and her solution was to rally the rest of the ambassador alums. “I reached out to the other ambassadors and I asked them if they would be willing to come together in a shared statement to show unity and strength,” she said.

They kept the proclamation short and direct, mindful of their dissimilar writing styles and audiences. “We write different kinds of books, we have different fan bases, we’ve served under different librarians,” Medina said, yet they are unified in this opposition.

She added that this is a statement from the past ambassadors alone. “I did not pass this by the Library of Congress or Every Child a Reader, and I did not include the current ambassador on this either,” she said. “We wanted to keep this independent, to work as children’s literature leaders speaking as one voice, and not to complicate things further for the program, for the Library, or for Every Child a Reader.”

Current ambassador Mac Barnett, who called his NAYPL inauguration “one of the biggest days of my life” in a recent social media post, began his service in the role in January.

The past ambassadors fully support Barnett, “the people who work at these incredible organizations,” and American libraries in general, Medina told PW. Hayden’s firing and the upheaval at federal library agencies “goes against everything we know is true about how we make people feel welcome, invited, and safe,” she said. “It feels like a remarkably bad mistake.”

Carl Lennertz, executive director of the Children's Book Council and Every Child a Reader, concurred. "We are also extremely upset about the abrupt and uncalled for dismissal of Dr. Hayden, whom we love and respect," Lennertz said. He added that CBC and Every Child a Reader "are honoring her legacy by doing our work" to promote the love of reading and stand with librarians across the country.

Medina and her consortium want to model collective responses to the abuse of power. “We are waking up to a new reality, and that new reality has to include ordinary, everyday people speaking out,” she said. “It’s going to take unexpected courage, courage that we didn’t think we had.”