A little more than a month after Keiji Nakazawa’s manga classic Barefoot Gen was restored to school libraries in the Japanese city of Matsue, an English-language translator of the series has been abruptly disinvited from speaking at a junior high…
Author: Maren Williams
Banned Books Week Goes to College
Hi, CBLDF fans! This week I’m taking a break from writing about censorship and free speech elsewhere to tell you how we recognize Banned Books Week in the university library where I’m a Reference librarian. Now in its 31st year,…
Melinda Gebbie Discusses Lost Girls, Censorship at Edinburgh Book Fest
Lost Girls, the unabashedly pornographic update on characters from children’s literature classics as imagined by Melinda Gebbie and Alan Moore, is without a doubt one of the most provocative graphic novels published in recent memory. In recounting the sexual awakenings…
Ten Years of CIPA: Free Speech and Library Internet Filters
The issue of Internet filtering in school and public libraries has been getting a lot of attention lately, as we mark ten years since the Children’s Internet Protection Act was instituted. Unfortunately, the news is not good: Filtering software remains…
Alabama Lawmaker, Board of Ed Members Call for Ban on Bluest Eye
Only a few months after Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye was challenged in an Adams County, Colorado, school district, an Alabama state senator is calling the book “just completely objectionable” and says that it should be removed from classrooms…
Libraries Remind Parents of Responsibilities
Frequently, when a book or other material is targeted for removal from a public library, it’s because a minor managed to access something that does not meet the approval of his or her parents or guardians. Although most libraries do…
Barefoot Gen Pulled from Matsue School Libraries
Keiji Nakazawa’s internationally renowned manga Barefoot Gen, which depicts wartime atrocities from the perspective of the seven-year-old protagonist, has been pulled from primary and middle school libraries in the Japanese city of Matsue. Citing “portions that warrant consideration as appropriate…
HarperCollins India and the Pixelated Penises
When Canadian comics artist Chester Brown’s graphic novel memoir Paying For It — about his encounters with 23 different prostitutes — was first published in 2011, it received generally favorable reviews and was widely applauded for its honesty. But in…
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Removed From Queens Reading List
Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which CBLDF has defended from challenges in the past, was apparently removed from a sixth-grade reading list in Queens, New York, earlier this week after complaints from parents. Unfortunately the…
Adult Anxieties Over Young Adult Fiction Endure
Every once in a while, some blogger or columnist garners a lot of pageviews by rekindling the simmering debate as to whether Young Adult fiction has become “too dark.” Two years ago, for example, this hand-wringing column from the Wall…