Children’s author Rick Riordan is getting kudos for his response to a request to remove a passage from his novel The Sword of Summer (Disney-Hyperion, 2015) that some readers felt improperly appropriated Native American culture. In the passage, one of Riordan’s characters is described as someone who “used to joke that her spirit animal was Tinkerbell from Peter Pan.” The term spirit animal is considered sacred to many Native Americans. Weezie Wood, a blogger who self identifies as a huge fan of Riordan’s work, reached out to the author on Twitter to ask about his use of the term. The tweet read, “Hi, Rick! Can you explain this passage? Native readers know spirit animals are sacred… Why include this?” Wood, who is Mvskoke, was reading the book with a young boy who became upset over Riordan’s use of the phrase. “My godson immediately didn't want to read the book anymore,” Wood says. “It was just kind of a shock to see that line in a Riordan book when he's always seemed to take such care in making sure his books don't contain cultural appropriation. He did such a good a job with Piper [a Native American character] in the “Heroes of Olympus” series, so the line was just so out of place in this book.” Wood tagged Debbie Reese, publisher of American Indians in Children’s Literature blog, in the tweet. After that, Reese also reached out to the author via Twitter and asked if he would cut the spirit animal line from the next printing of The Sword of Summer.

Hey, @camphalfblood, how about you cut the spirit animal line from next printing? (h/t @WeeziesBooks) pic.twitter.com/DRClo0cjm8

— Debbie Reese (@debreese) April 26, 2017

Riordan responded that he would.

Just spoke to my editor and we will delete that in all future printings. Thank you for pointing this out. Apologies for my insensitivity. https://t.co/ZpD2kalSLL

— Rick Riordan (@camphalfblood) April 26, 2017

Reese had interacted with Riordan on Twitter in the past when she found another passage in one of his books troubling. “He was open to conversation in ways that so many other writers are not,” she says. “That was very, very encouraging to me then and now, because he’s a powerful figure in children’s literature, and he can effect change in ways that others are resistant to doing.” After Riordan announced he would remove the spirit animal reference, some Twitter users thanked him, but others said the change was unnecessary. Some pointed out that other cultures also use the term spirit animal. But Wood says that argument ignores the history of Native Americans in this country. “The concept of spirit animals in popular culture came directly from anthropologists' descriptions of Native American religions,” Wood says. “It doesn't matter if the Celts or Nordics had spirit helpers,because when people think of spirit animals, they automatically think of Native Americans because it was our religious traditions that have been discussed, colonized, and bastardized to give pop culture the ‘spirit animals’ that non-Native people use today.” Some who were upset about Riordan’s decision attacked Wood online. “That was an absolute nightmare, honestly,” Wood says. “A few people even went as far as to tell me to kill myself and I was like... ‘I seriously asked a grown man a polite question and you're that angry over it?’” Things got so bad that one of Wood’s friends stepped in and asked Riordan to ask those who were upset to back off, and he did.

All choices about and responsibility for my text are mine. If people want to get mad at someone, they should get mad at me and me only. https://t.co/HHVMbZ5OlY

— Rick Riordan (@camphalfblood) April 27, 2017

Riordan’s tweet slowed down the online harassment considerably. Overall, Wood still thinks reaching out to Riordan was worth it. “It definitely proved to me that he is an author I should continue to support because even though he made a mistake, he owned up to it and took actions to correct it,” Wood says. Riordan was unavailable for comment, according to a Disney-Hyperion spokesperson, because he is promoting his new book, The Dark Prophecy, and is on deadline for his next "Magnus Chase" title, to be published in October.