Joy Masoff facts for kids
Joy Masoff, born in 1951, is an American author. She writes books for children and also textbooks for schools.
About Her Books
Joy Masoff has written many books. Virginia public schools have approved 14 of her books for use in classrooms. These books are all published by a company called Five Ponds Press.
Some of her popular children's books are Fire!, Emergency, Oh Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty, and Oh Yikes! History's Grossest Moments.
Joy Masoff also got ideas for some of her books from her time working with kids. She was a leader for Cub Scouts and also for Brownies.
Textbook Controversy: Our Virginia: Past and Present
In October 2010, one of Joy Masoff's textbooks caused a discussion. The book was called Our Virginia: Past and Present. It was written for fourth-grade students.
A historian named Carol Sheriff, who is a professor at the College of William and Mary, questioned something in the book. The book stated that thousands of enslaved people fought for the Southern side in the American Civil War. Most historians do not agree with this idea.
Joy Masoff explained that the Virginia state curriculum asked for information about African Americans in the war. She said she used the internet to research this topic. She found three sources that supported her statement. However, these three sources all came from the Sons of Confederate Veterans. This group does not believe that slavery was the main cause of the Civil War.
Masoff said that it was "just one sentence" in the book. She also said she would have changed it if historians had asked her to.
On October 21, 2010, the publisher of Our Virginia: Past and Present made an announcement. They said they would send out stickers. These stickers could be used to cover the sentence about enslaved soldiers.
Later, another mistake was found in the book. It claimed that brown bears live in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But only black bears actually live there. The publisher then announced that both mistakes would be removed from the next version of the book.
Different schools reacted in various ways to this situation. Loudoun County public schools decided to remove Our Virginia: Past and Present from their classrooms. Nearby Prince William County was not using the book at the time. However, they decided to review this book and five other books from Five Ponds Press.
Personal Life
Joy Masoff is a mother of two children. She lives with her family in Waccabuc, New York.
