News

Censorship Battle Flares Up in Tucson School District.  From PW. 

Well, that didn't take long. FOX options John Green's The Fault in Our Stars.  From PW. 

An essay on the 50th anniversary of A Wrinkle in Time.  From The New York Times. 

It is now official.  DC will publish Before Watchman.  From The Beat.

SLJ's Battle of the Kid's Books is soon to kick off.  I am especially happy to see OK For Now, A Monster Calls, Chime, and Daughter of Smoke and Bone on the list.  I hope one of them wins! 

School library petition asking the Obama Administration to make school libraries a national priority exceeds 25,000 signatures. From SLJ.


I just don't think sex-themed books at Urban Outfitters are going to be the main place that her teenager might get her "young mind [is] bombarded with hard core sex."  Nice job Dedham police department for not going crazy.  From DedhamPatch.


Do I want the Collected Amethyst Princess of Gemworld when it comes out from DC?  I sure am.  From The Beat.

Censorship

Let's start the month off right with book censorship. The offender: good old The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian which was pulled from a school in Georgia after complaints. The best part: superintendent Shawn Tobin's proposal that “Employee[s] will confirm reading material is free of vulgar language, sexual content, racial insults or demeaning religious connotations.” So that leaves...nothing. Nothing at all. Despite his statement that " “Do I want to ban books?  Absolutely not. I’m not trying to get rid of Huckleberry Finn,”if his proposal should pass than Huckleberry Finn would be right out.

Americus by MK Reed, art by Jonathan Hill

Neil and Danny are growing up in a small American town.  Their favorite books are a fantasy series called The Adventures of Apathea Ravenchilde.  Unfortunately, Danny's mother hates the series, and forbids Danny to read it, saying that reading about witches is blasphemous.  When he's caught reading the newest book, Danny gets set off to military school, and now Danny's mother is trying to get the town library to ban the whole series.

When I first heard about this book, I was intrigued but cautious.  I wanted to know how it was going to be handled.  Was it all just going to be a gigantic stereotype with crazy religious fanatics trying to ban fantasy books because they might lead the children astray?  And yeah, it pretty much was.  But as I read it, I was thinking, "Well, it's certainly the extreme, but that doesn't make it untrue."  Because sadly, in some places, this totally happens to the kind of extremes portrayed in the book.  Harry Potter, anyone (which I assume is what Apathea Ravenchilde is suppose to parallel)?  There were absolutely groups that tried to get Harry Potter banned because learning about witchcraft was satanic and it was going to turn the children into worshipers of Satan.  It's sad and unfortunate, but it's true.  So yes, an extreme picture of someone who is religious and intolerant of other people is shown, but I don't think it was an untrue point to make.

News

YA comes of age.  From PW.

Defining the Printz award.  From SLJ.

This looks great: Tales for Little Rebels.  From Brain Pickings.

Q & A with Philippa Gregory about her new YA series.  From USA Today.

Sigh.  Meg Rosoff event  gets cancelled over her "blasphemous" book There is No Dog, and a Russian priest is calling for schools to ban books by Vladimir Nabokov and Gabriel García Márquez because they "justify pedophilia." From The Telegraph and The Guardian.

Because I Love a Good Kerfuffle...

And also love any excuse to use the word "kerfuffle."

This just in!  YA literature is destroying the children!  Again.  It all started on June 4, when Meghan Cox Gurdon of The Wall Street Journal wrote this amazingly ill-informed article.  In a nutshell: YA literature is too dark and violent and actually encourages children to self-harm.  Will no one think of the children?!

The Internet struck back in full force!  Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon wrote a thoughtful rebuttal, as did Vulture and lots and lots of bloggers and writers.  Bookshelves of Doom has a nice roundup of posts.  And Judy Blume, ever adorable, tweeted this reply to being named a symbol of virtue in children's writing.  Judy Blume is, of course, one of the most banned writers ever.

News

The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries, with an interesting military comparison.  From The New York Times.

Upcoming sequels.  From PW.

Umm, this is dumb.  An English teacher is also an erotic romance novel writer.  Apparently that's not allowed.  From WNEP.

No, there is not going to be another Harry Potter book.  From USA Today.

First Second now has a webcomics imprint.  From PW.

111 Male Characters of British Literature, In Order of Bangability.  I have some SERIOUS issues with this list (Colonel Brandon is less bangable than King Lear?  Come on!), IN PARTICULAR the person they put at number one, but still, pretty funny.  From The Awl.

ALA Top Ten List of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2010

It's that time again!  The annual release of the top ten most frequently challenged books.  And Tango Makes Three is still going strong.  You'd think it'd fade out, but apparently not.

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Offensive language, Racism, Sex Education, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group, Violence

3. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: Insensitivity, Offensive Language, Racism, Sexually Explicit

4. Crank, by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: Drugs, Offensive Language, Sexually Explicit

5. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group, Violence

6. Lush, by Natasha Friend
Reasons: Drugs, Offensive Language, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group

7. What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: Sexism, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group

8. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: Drugs, Inaccurate, Offensive Language, Political Viewpoint, Religious Viewpoint

9. Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit

10. Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Religious Viewpoint, Violence

Wicked Pretty Things Kerfuffle

Because I like using any excuse for use the word "kerfuffle."  Jessica Verday was asked to change her story for the anthology Wicked Pretty Things from two male characters in love to a male and female in love.  This happened at the very end of March, and I totally missed it.  Cleolinda sums things up nicely.  Sounds like things could have come to a mostly tidy end, and then Christopher Navratil went and riled everything up again by posting an amazing inaccurate article on PW.

Indiana District Removes 'Tyrell' From Elementary Schools

So my first question is, why was Tyrell in an elementary school in the first place?  It's a YA book, yes?  The article says that the librarian was ordering books for Black History Month and it was on the list.  Some elementary schools go up to 5th grade, but this is a book geared for high school students.  It doesn't seem like a good choice for an elementary school library.  That being said, I don't like how the parent handled it.  Instead of making a request to the library and the school board to have the book removed, she went to her lawyer who took it right to the media.  It seems like the intention was less about having the book removed than it was about making a scene.  Then the book was removed without a formal request, which I think was a poor choice on the part of the school board.  They should have made the parent file a request like everyone else, and then had their usual process for deciding if it should be removed or not.  Now the parent has more ammunition if she wants to go on to public libraries, which is mentioned.

Thoughts on Self-Censoring

Michael Chabon writes about his experience reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn aloud to his children in light of the upcoming publication of Huck with the word "nigger" replaced with the word "slave."

What would Mark Twain say?

Whoa....New edition removes Mark Twain's "offensive" words.  I know these are hard books to teach in the classroom.  And Huckleberry Finn is always going to be challenged.  But removing words that can offend does not seem like a solution to the problem.  Now it's just being ignored.  Isn't it important that people have such a strong reaction?  It signifies caring.  It's something that should be addressed, not glossed over.

News

Excellent news!  Independent bookstores aren't dying out!  Thanks in part to e-books, go figure. From NPR.

And, speaking of e-readers, now that some are in color, they're making the move to picture books. From The New York Times.

It's a Book continues to cause people to clutch their pearls in distress.  From UPI.com.  And, interestingly enough, the YouTube version omits the controversial last line.

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction shortlist announced.  From SLJ.

Upcoming books from authors you know.  From SLJ.

The Pretty Little Liars television show is doing well enough that Sara Shepard will be writing four new books.  From EW.com.

Censorship from the Library of Congress?

I was reading on Librarian in Black that the Library of Congress blocked access to Wikileaks on all of its computers.  The Library of Congress' official statement is “The Library decided to block Wikileaks because applicable law obligates federal agencies to protect classified information.  Unauthorized disclosures of classified documents do not alter the documents’ classified status or automatically result in declassification of the documents.”  But the New York Times claims there was no order to block the web site on government computers.  Hmmm.  Library of Congress, this sounds a awful lot like censorship...doesn't it?  Thoughts?

News

Scholastic's list of Ten Trends in Children's Books from 2010.  Like we didn't already know.

Brave New World will be kept in a Seattle school's curriculum.  From The Seattle Times.

Anita Silvey has a new blog!  The Children's Book-A-Day Almanac.  Now that's dedication.  Anita Silvey is magical.

Oh dear, Anna is about to be in a fight with Rockport.  They're barring It's a Book because it uses the word "jackass."  From Boston.com.

You go British writers!  British Children's authors protest library budget cuts. From SLJ.

News

Chicken Spaghetti has very thoughtfully made a list of a whole bunch of Best Children's Books lists.

Adult Books 4 Teens blog. Very cool.

Public libraries that are creating teen friendly spaces with gaming areas. From SLJ.

I heard on the radio this morning that The New York Times will start having a best seller list for ebooks. Interesting. I wonder how closely it will match up with the traditional best seller list? From NPR.

New mobile app for the ipad that makes reading a more social experience. From YPulse.

And in censorship news, at North County High in Maryland, a small group of parents feel opting out of reading A Brave New World isn't good enough and want the book pulled from the curriculum. From Maryland Gazette.

In case you were wondering...

Teacher's First Amendment rights stop at the school door. Well. That's...good to know.

And if you were curious what was going on with those parents having a sit-in to demand a library in a Chicago elementary school, this is what.

As Banned Books Week Comes to a Close...

Check out this interactive display of the most targeted books of 2009. From Good.is.


Ban the Banners! The fabulous Jo Knowles has started a meme in honor of Banned Books Week and #speakloudly, which goes a little something like this:

1. Go find your favorite banned book.
2. Take a picture of yourself with said book.
3. Give that book some love by explaining why you think it is an important book.
4. Post it to your blog.
5. Spread the word!

Reposted from Gwenda at Shaken & Stirred

For your viewing pleasure:

I know many of you have seen this, but it makes me giggle each time I see it. I think it is a goofy fantastic example of censorship.