It’s Banned Books Week once again — a national celebration of the freedom to read! Check out these children’s and young adult books that have been challenged in the past year because of gay- or lesbian-related content.
This week marks the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week, bringing issues of LGBT content in children’s books once again to the fore.
It’s Banned Books Week, the annual celebration of the freedom to read! In honor of the event, here’s a video of gay dads Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, authors of And Tango Makes Three, reading from their book, which for several years topped the American Library Association’s list of most challenged books.
“We tried to incubate a rock and that didn’t work,” jokes Justin Richardson, one of the authors of And Tango Makes Three. The truth is, however, that he and his co-author and partner, Peter Parnell, became dads themselves back in February, as the New York Times reports today. Gemma Parnell-Richardson doesn’t have feathers like Tango,
Helen and I celebrate Banned Books Week with old and new LGBT-themed children’s books that made the American Library Association’s Most Challenged Books list (as well as a children’s book that was challenged in 1959 for promoting (gasp!) interracial marriage). We also commend President Obama for including same-sex-headed families in a recent proclamation. After that,
More words of wisdom on banned books, this time from acclaimed young adult author Julie Anne Peters: You can’t ban a book that never makes it into a library. When I hear about authors who are up in arms about their book being banned, or removed from reading lists, I confess to a sliver of
My favorite Banned Book Week quote so far: When we ban a book about a kid on the outside, we’re taking a step toward banning the kid. —Chris Crutcher, whose books have several times landed him on the American Library Association’s list of Top Ten Most Challenged Books (sometimes for homosexual content). He was speaking
I first had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Brannen when her children’s book Uncle Bobby’s Wedding launched early last year. I wrote about the right wing’s first attack on the book, which involved shameless plagiarism of my earlier piece by ultra-conservative writer Brent Bozell III at Town Hall. I then followed the story as the
Continuing my posts in honor of Banned Books Week. This is a slightly updated version of a piece I wrote for Bay Windows during last year’s Banned Books Week. If you haven’t yet read it, try to guess which children’s book featuring rabbits was challenged in 1959 for promoting (gasp!) interracial marriage. And come back
Continuing my series of posts in honor of this year’s Banned Books Week, here’s a public service announcement about it from the American Library Association. It’s aimed at helping kids understand the meaning of the week, and why banning books is un-American.
