It’s Banned Books Week once again, the American Library Association’s annual celebration of the freedom to read. Each year, the ALA tracks the books that have received an official challenge, “a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.” Judith F. Krug, director of
Here’s my next recommendation for a book about non-traditional (or non-specific), but not necessarily LGBT families. (See my philosophy behind this as well as my first recommendation here.) Mommy, Do You Love Me?, by Jeanne Willis and illustrated by Jan Fearnley (Candlewick Press, 2008), tackles the same broad theme as the publisher’s classic Guess How
It’s lesbian home improvement this week! Helen and I show you how we reorganized our garage with a few simple pieces of hardware to make things more convenient for ourselves and safe for our son. We also update viewers on our son’s transition to kindergarten and recommend two classic books with positive messages for kids
The number of children’s books featuring LGBT families is sadly low, and the number of quality ones even lower. I think the only new one in the picture book category this year was Uncle Bobby’s Wedding. This needs to change, and we need to do whatever we can to encourage both independent publishers and large
The Carnegie Corporation of New York and the New York Times are seeking nominations for the 2008 I Love My Librarian Award. Up to ten librarians will be honored. Each will receive $5,000 and be recognized at an awards ceremony hosted by The New York Times at TheTimesCenter in December 2008. I can think of
[Update: Sunday, 9/14, 11:30 a.m. Eastern: Michael Willhoite, author of Daddy’s Roommate (discussed below), has responded in the Huffington Post to Palin’s actions.] I’ve been quiet so far on the issue of Sarah Palin and the possibility that she tried to censor books in the Wasilla, Alaska Public Library. As far as I can tell,
Maurice Sendak, author of beloved children’s classics such as Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen, has just come out. He revealed this in an interview with the New York Times in honor of his 80th birthday, which will be celebrated Monday by a benefit in Manhattan. Sendak has kept his sexuality
A reader just wrote to ask me if I knew of any LGBT-inclusive children’s books in Spanish, especially for the very youngest tots. She knew of Antonio’s Card/La Tarjeta de Antonio, by Rigoberto Gonzalez and Cecilia Alvarez, but felt that was a little beyond the age of her own child. I’ll add the bilingual English/Spanish
A few weeks ago I reported on the first challenge to Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, a children’s book featuring two gay guinea pigs who marry. Today, library director James LaRue, who wrote a sensitive, balanced response to the initial challenge, reports that a second patron has challenged the book and asked for its removal from the
(Originally published in Bay Windows, June 26, 2008, with minor variation.) Two new works and one re-release share the real and fictionalized stories of teens with LGBT parents, shining a light on this often-overlooked part of our community. Tru Loved, now making the rounds at LGBT film festivals, features an all-star cast including Jasmine Guy,
