Publishing and media conglomerate Le Go-Go Group issued an apology today for publishing an image of First Lady Michelle Obama in one of its popular children’s alphabet books under the heading ‘M is for Monkey’. The book, titled “Alphabet Zoo”, has sold over 500,000 copies and been translated into international editions in seven countries.

The error went unnoticed for several weeks until parent Todd Nesbit of Flint, Michigan published a Letter to the Editor of the local Times protesting the ‘offensive’ image pairing. Since then, parents across America have reacted. On a recent family trip to Akron, Ohio, Sue-Ellen Merchant of Mobile, Alabama and her two children aged four and five read “Alphabet Zoo”.

“I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary when I read it,” said Merchant, “but it’s that damned liberal agenda again trying to poison our nation’s children.”

Her husband John, a self-identified lifelong Republican and devout conservative, sees it differently: “When I first saw that picture, I was just laughing hysterically – the best things are funny and true at the same time.”

Liberals are not laughing. The image has stirred up sharp political rhetoric, with some liberal organizations including MoveOver and WALNUT declaring the image ‘racist and misleading’. Animal rights advocate PETA has also chimed in, calling the image ‘deeply wrong’ and ‘an act of animal humiliation’.

The White House has issued a statement condemning the book and requesting that the image be altered in subsequent editions. A White House staffer commenting off-the-record, however, confided that the President had a hearty chuckle at his wife’s expense, saying that “they got the ears right.” This comment was reportedly followed by a fist-bump.

While it is making no moves to honor the White House’s request, the publisher did take out an ad in one of its own wholly-owned circulars apologizing for and explaining the situation. The statement from Le Go-Go reads: “Our indexing and filing policy is very strict and cannot be helped. This was the image returned to one of our design editors after consulting our image librarian. We apologize for the insult that we may have caused the First Lady, however we have no direct control over the system and people we have put in place.”