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 […]
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
In the same month that the American Library Association came out with its annual list of the Most Frequently Challenged Books, two Florida moms have stepped up their campaign to have libraries put a “Warning: Mature Content” label on any young adult books that refer to illegal acts or contain “inappropriate” content and to segregate
Author Lauren Myracle’s young adult series ttyl has topped the American Library Association’s (ALA) Top Ten list of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2009. A “challenge” is a formal, written complaint to a library or school, “requesting that materials be removed or restricted because of content or appropriateness.” Ttyl gives us a look at
(Originally published as my Mombian newspaper column.) The American Library Association’s Rainbow Project has just published its third annual Rainbow Bibliography, a list of recommended, LGBT-inclusive books for readers under age 18. Nel Ward, head of the Rainbow Project, says one of the biggest problems librarians have with including LGBT-inclusive books in their collections is
The North Kansas City Schools Board of Education recently voted 3 to 2 to keep And Tango Makes Three on the shelves at Bell Prairie Elementary School, despite a parent’s request that the book be removed, reports School Library Journal. I’m annoyed every time a children’s book with LGBT content is challenged, but I’m especially
Gay penguin dads Guido and Molly of the East London Aquarium in South Africa have been caring for their unnamed chick since it was born five months ago, reports The Sun. The pair began to incubate the egg after an opposite-sex couple rejected it. (Molly was originally thought to be female, hence her name, but
This seems a good point to take a look at some of the further coverage of the Scholastic saga and their request that author Lauren Myracle change the lesbian moms of one character into a mom and a dad. The company will now carry the book (with moms) in its middle school book fairs, though
There’s always more to do. Reader Jersey Mom astutely pointed out in a comment (as did a reader over at Change.org) that Scholastic has only agreed to carry Lauren Myracle’s Luv Ya Bunches in their middle school Book Fairs, not their elementary school ones, even though the book is listed as appropriate for ages nine
Many of you have been following the story of Scholastic and their request that author Lauren Myracle change the lesbian moms of one character into a mom and a dad. According to the original article on this by School Library Journal, Scholastic would not consider the book for its book fairs unless the change was
