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…
CBLDF Joins Defense of The Bluest Eye and Speak
This week, CBLDF-sponsored Kids’ Right to Read Project sent two letters on behalf of challenged books: One defends the use of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye in schools in Colorado, and the second defends Laurie Halse…
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…
Stokoe, Roy, and Graham Deliver the Goods!
From the Great White North, hidden deep within the mysterious world of our northern neighbor Canada, three outstanding artists recently took time to sketch some bookplates for CBLDF, and the results were spectacular….
Singapore’s State Prosecutor Drops Sedition Charges Against Cartoonist
Sedition charges against Singapore cartoonist Leslie Chew, have been dropped. Back in May, we reported that Chew had been arrested for alleged racial insensitivity and sedition as a result of a complaint about one of his Facebook comic strips called…
Using Graphic Novels in Education: American Born Chinese
Welcome to Using Graphic Novels in Education, an ongoing feature from CBLDF that is designed to allay confusion around the content of banned books and to help parents and teachers raise readers. In this column, we examine books that have been…
Jennifer L. Holm and Meryl Jaffe on RAISING A READER
During SDCC, CBLDF Board Member Jennifer L. Holm (Babymouse) and Raising a Reader writer Meryl Jaffe sat down with GeekRoom’s Tom Misuraca to talk about CBLDF’s new resource and how comics can be used…
South Carolina Group Challenges Fun Home as Pornographic
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home has been challenged once again, this time for it’s inclusion on a freshman recommended reading list at the College of Charleston (CofC) in Charleston, South Carolina. The conservative religious group opposed to the…
SDCC 2013: THANK YOU!
CBLDF has another Comic-Con International under our belts, and what a show it was! We had a great showing at the biggest comic book convention of them all, and there are a lot of people to thank for their support:
Artists Take On Banned Books for CBLDF
“Draw your favorite character from a banned book” were the marching orders for artists at this year’s CBLDF Banned Comics Jam. A Comic-Con tradition, at each year’s Banned Comics Jam creators reveal their creative processes and share their stories about…
Japanese Editor Arrested for Distributing Obscene Images
Three people, including Akira Ōta, who heads the editorial department at Core Magazine, have been arrested in Japan amid accusations of obscenity. Those arrested are being accused of selling magazines and manga that had sexual content which was insufficiently censored, a…
Obscenity Case Files: Roth v. United States
It may come as a surprise, but the freedom of speech laid out by the First Amendment doesn’t actually include all forms of speech. Roth v. United States is a landmark case that held that obscene speech was a category…
Now Available in the Rewards Zone: SDCC 2013 Premiums!
The CBLDF Team just got back from a hugely successful (and deliriously fun) trip to San Diego for Comic-Con International, but we’re not going to let a little jet-lag stop us from making the premiums we debuted at SDCC 2013…
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…
The Perks of Being a Wallflower Challenged Again
If you’re experiencing déjà vu right now, don’t worry because we are too! Just over a month after The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky was restored to classrooms in Glen Ellyn,…