Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar won a long-awaited victory this week when a High Court judge agreed he was entitled to compensation for books and original art seized by police in 2010. Although the judge awarded him 18,000 Ringgit (about $4,000)…
Author: Maren Williams
What Do We Know About the Top Ten Challenged Books of 2016?
It’s that time of year again: This week, the American Library Association released its list of the top ten most challenged books for 2016. CBLDF has joined in the defense of several titles on the list, so today we’re taking a…
Florida Classroom Censorship Bills Pass Through Committee, Await Final Hearing Before Vote
The two nearly identical bills in the Florida legislature that would facilitate challenges to classroom materials have both advanced through the Education Committees in their respective chambers, despite warnings from CBLDF and our partners in the National Coalition Against Censorship…
Musa Kart Indicted After Lengthy Detention, Could Face 29 Years in Prison
Five months after Turkish political cartoonist Musa Kart was arrested along with several of his colleagues from Cumhuriyet newspaper on suspicion of supporting Kurdish militants and the Gulenist movement, they finally were formally indicted this week. If convicted, Kart could…
Bradbury Biographer Warns of Dystopian Future Without School Librarians
Few would disagree that in the current context of rampant misinformation, students in public schools must be trained to seek out reliable facts and assess sources. Nevertheless, every year more and more school librarians–the professionals who teach those exact skills–are…
New Jersey Parents Accuse School District of ‘Islamic Indoctrination’ via Animated Video
Two parents of public school students in Chatham, New Jersey have hired lawyers to represent them in a fight against what they label “Islamic indoctrination” in a middle school geography unit on world religions. In particular, Libby Hilsenrath and Nancy…
Arizona School District Pulls Kite Runner from Curriculum Mid-School Year
Students at Williams Field High School in Gilbert, Arizona are looking for answers after Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner was abruptly pulled from the curriculum district-wide, just as Honors English 10 classes were to start reading it. Higley Unified School…
She Changed Comics: Women in the Underground
With the rise of the raucous, raunchy, male-dominated Underground Comix scene of the 1960s and ’70s — itself a backlash against the sanitized books that passed Comics Code Authority muster — came another backlash of sorts, from women galvanized by…
Alison Bechdel Named Vermont Cartoonist Laureate
Alison Bechdel, creator of Fun Home and Dykes to Watch Out For, will be honored as Vermont’s new Cartoonist Laureate at a ceremony in the state house next month, followed by a presentation of laurels at the Center for Cartoon…
School Asks Author to Stop Discussing Her Book Mid-Visit
Sadly, the phenomenon of authors being disinvited from previously scheduled school visits because of their writing or opinions is nothing new–in the past few years, it’s happened to Rainbow Rowell, Phil Bildner, and Meg Medina, to name just a few.…