It’s Banned Books Week, the the American Library Association’s (ALA) annual celebration of the freedom to read. I can think of no better way to celebrate than to point out a new interview by NPR’s Terry Gross of children’s literature icon Maurice Sendak, about his new book, Bumble-Ardy. Sendak’s book In the Night Kitchen made the ALA’s […]
Authors Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith wrote in a post at Publishers Weekly this week that a literary agent told them to make a gay character in their young adult novel straight if they wanted the agent to represent them. It’s unfortunately not an isolated occurence. If you’re wondering why, author Patricia Nell Warren
I often write about banned books here, and love the annual Banned Books Week in September. This year, the American Library Association is encouraging anyone celebrating the freedom to read to take part in a Virtual Read-Out on YouTube. School Library Journal has the details: The criteria are simple: create a video that’s less than two minutes
Jewish LGBT organization Keshet has announced the winner of its first Jewish Children’s Book Writing Contest (mentioned here in February): The Purim Superhero, by Elisabeth Kushner, a public librarian in Vancouver, Canada—and a lesbian mom herself. Kushner told Keshet: When I heard about the Keshet contest, it seemed like a perfect fit: in the Purim story,
More than 20 years after she wrote Heather Has Two Mommies, the first picture book for and about children with two happily coupled lesbian parents, Lesléa Newman is still turning out must-reads for lesbian families. Her latest work, Donovan’s Big Day, is a delightful story about a boy preparing for the wedding of his two
Congratulations to Mandy, winner of the final Monday is One Day giveaway last week. Here’s a video of author Arthur Levine talking about the book, his own very personal inspiration for it, and Julian Hector’s fitting illustrations. Levine is openly gay, and includes a pair of gay dads in the book, but the book’s message
Congratulations to Kate, winner of yesterday’s Monday is One Day giveaway! Here’s the last of three giveaways this week. First, let me say thank you to all of you who commented on the previous giveaway posts. I encourage all of you to go read what others have written about balancing work and parenthood and their favorite kids’
Congratulations to Cheryl, winner of yesterday’s Monday is One Day giveaway! Here’s the second of three giveaways this week. If you missed the info yesterday, here’s the scoop: Monday Is One Day, by Arthur Levine, is a gay-inclusive (but not exclusive) poem from a working parent to a child. “The hardest part of going to work is being
It’s always exciting to share news of a brand-spanking new LGBT-inclusive children’s book, especially one as good as Monday is One Day, by Arthur Levine, the U.S. editor of Harry Potter—and I have three copies to give away this week!
For the fourth time, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s And Tango Makes Three, based on the real-life story of two male penguins who raise a chick from an orphaned egg, tops the American Library Association’s (ALA) latest Top Ten list of the Most Frequently Challenged Books. The penguins take over again after slipping to number two
