Philip Nel is University Distinguished Professor of English at Kansas State University and the author or co-editor of 13 books, including: Keywords for Children’s Literature (with Nina Christensen and Lissa Paul) and a double-biography of the children’s writers Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss. His Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature and the Need for Diverse Books was one of the catalysts for Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ March 2021 decision to stop publishing six Dr. Seuss books that contain racist imagery.