Author: Patricia Mastricolo

Moms Start Book Club For Controversial Assignments

Some parents in Springfield, Missouri decided the best way to handle recent controversial school reading assignments was by arming themselves with first-hand information. Megan Cook and Marissa Griffin decided to create a Facebook book club for Springfield parents that tackles…

Missouri School Pulls The Hate U Give for Review

Missouri Middle School pulls critically acclaimed YA novel after pressure from local lawmaker. Reed Academy in Springfield, Missouri pulled the book twice recently, in order to review it after concerns regarding an ineffective permission slip and the book’s profanity were…

Russia Raids Movie Theater Showing Historical Farce

Last week Russian Ministry of Culture officials revoked the distribution license for Armando Iannucci’s satire, The Death of Stalin, based on the Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin’s graphic novel of the same name. When the Pioneer cinema in Moscow proceeded…

Beetle Bailey Cartoonist Mort Walker Dies at 94

Mort Walker, a prolific comic strip artist, advocate for comic history preservation, and the creator of world famous Beetle Bailey, passed away Saturday, January 28, 2018, from pneumonia at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. Walker lived to be 94 years…

District Policy Ignored in YA Book Ban

The principal at Fort King Middle School in Ocala, Florida may have pulled YA novel The Facts Speak for Themselves by Brock Cole from the library without following the official district book challenge policy. The initial report from Spectrum News…

Thai Political Cartoon Goes Mysteriously Dark

Thai political cartoon, Khai Meaw, disappeared from Facebook on January 18, 2018, without attribution or explanation. The popular cartoon never employed speech or thought bubbles but was clearly critical of the military junta. The Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand claimed…

Mom Says The Glass Castle is Too Far for Freshmen

Mary Jo Little thinks that The Glass Castle is inappropriate reading for ninth graders at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina.“There’s rape. There’s assault. There’s drunk driving. It’s just not appropriate in this age group,” Little told Channel 9. The Glass…

Parent Challenges Harper Lee Classic in Classroom

To Kill A Mockingbird is under fire again, this time in Wisconsin. Tumjama Kameeta, submitted a request to the Monona Grove School District in Wisconsin, asking administrators to remove To Kill a Mockingbird from the school curriculum, citing, among many…