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Books of 2024!
Jun 26 2024
After announcing their formation earlier this year, Authors Against Book Bans (AABB), a nascent organization of creators committed to defending the freedom to read, announced its official launch this week. In a release, reps said that the group of “writers, illustrators, and creators" in both the children’s and adult sectors will work to “organize authors on the national and local levels" to support "grassroots groups already fighting book bans and challenges" around the country.
Jun 11 2024
A book about book bans has been banned in a Florida school district.
Ban This Book, a children’s book written by Alan Gratz, will no longer be available in the Indian River county school district since the school board voted to remove the book last month.
May 10 2024
After a string of wins, significant developments loom in several book-banning lawsuits. Amid a three-year nationwide surge in book bans, 2024 began on a hopeful note for freedom-to-read advocates, with legal victories in book-banning lawsuits in Iowa, Florida, and Texas. But after some early successes, several cases are poised to enter a critical next phase. As the wheels of justice grind on, PW rounded up the status of some of the more closely watched book-banning suits.
Feb 21 2024
The American Library Association’s Unite Against Book Bans initiative has unveiled a new free resource—a collection of “book résumés.” Created in collaboration with dozens of publishers, Unite Against Book Bans book résumés are easy-to-print documents that summarize a banned book’s significance and educational value, including a synopsis, reviews from professional journals, awards, accolades, and more. The book résumés also include information about how a title has been successfully retained in school districts in the face of demands to censor it. ALA officials said that the PDFs can be downloaded and printed for easy sharing with administrators, book review committees, and the public at local school and library board meetings...
Jan 19 2024
In a major victory for freedom to read advocates, the Fifth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals on January 17 upheld a lower court decision to block key provisions of HB 900, Texas’s controversial book rating law, finding that the law likely violated First Amendment protections against compelled speech.
In an unequivocal 36-page decision, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit—viewed by many as the most conservative court in the nation—easily dispatched with the state’s key legal arguments (that the plaintiffs lacked standing, that the case was not ripe, and that the plaintiffs’ claims were barred by sovereign immunity) and made it only to the first of the plaintiffs’ multiple constitutional claims—that the mandatory book ratings at the heart of the law represent compelled speech.
Oct 25 2023
Amid a chorus of criticism from authors, librarians, educators, and freedom to read advocates, Scholastic this week said it would stop offering an optional collection of diverse books at its book fairs, and apologized for the loss of trust and “the pain caused” by the exclusionary policy.
“I want to apologize on behalf of Scholastic,” Scholastic Trade Publishing president Ellie Berger wrote in the letter addressed to authors and illustrators, which was shared on social media on October 24. “Even if the decision was made with good intention, we understand now that it was a mistake to segregate diverse books in an elective case.”
...Berger added that the company's "commitment to BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors and stories remains foundational" for the company.
Oct 19 2023
At this week's Frankfurt Book Fair, Publishers Weekly asked Richard Ovenden, director of the Bodleian Libraries of Oxford University and author of Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge (2020) for his take on book banning in America.
The surge in book banning today has been described as unprecedented. But as somebody who studies the history of book banning and destruction of knowledge, is it?
Absolutely, yes, I think it is unprecedented. In the last year or two I’ve seen a distinct change in how access to knowledge or ideas has become weaponized. Books have become a new battleground with librarians in the frontline trenches. And I struggle to draw a historical comparison because this is quite a unique set of circumstances. Books and libraries have become a focal point in a culture war that falls within the framework of a broader political battle. But there is a reason the focus is on libraries, I think—I have been telling my colleagues in the profession that it’s evidence that we’re doing a good job. They wouldn’t be attacking us if we weren’t connecting people with knowledge and with ideas.
Continued...
Oct 17 2023
Scholastic has responded to accusations of censorship at its book fairs stemming from the creation of a new diverse stories offering, called "Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice," which librarians and school officials hosting fairs must decide whether to offer or not.
In a statement late last week, Scholastic said that it created the collection for U.S. elementary school book fairs as a way to continue providing diverse books, as a number of states and localities pursue legislation or other policies around content selection that could put librarians and school officials in jeopardy.
“There is now enacted or pending legislation in more than 30 U.S. states prohibiting certain kinds of books from being in schools—mostly LGBTQIA+ titles and books that engage with the presence of racism in our country," the company said late last week. "Because Scholastic Book Fairs are invited into schools, where books can be purchased by kids on their own, these laws create an almost impossible dilemma: back away from these titles or risk making teachers, librarians, and volunteers vulnerable to being fired, sued, or prosecuted.”
Among the 64 books in the Share Every Story case are the picture books Change Sings by poet Amanda Gorman, illustrated by Loren Long, Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall, and disability-positive titles You Are Enough and You Are Loved, by Margaret O’Hair and Sonia Sanchez, illustrated by Sofia Cardoso. Graphic novels in the set include Booked by Kwame Alexander, Freestyle by Gale Galligan, The Tryout by Christine Soontornvat, and Parachute Kids by Betty Tang.
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