Author: Caitlin McCabe

Committee Keeps Beloved On FL Summer Reading List After “Porn Content” Challenge

A unanimous committee vote kept Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel Beloved on a summer reading list in a Satellite High School in Florida despite a parent’s complaint over what he is calling the “porn content” of the novel. Hamilton…

Tennessee Parent Confuses “Gynecology with Pornography”

Upset over the graphic nature of a passage in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a parent in Knoxville, Tennessee is taking her complaint to the district level and attempting to have the book removed from all local county schools.…

NC School Board Changes Policy to Keep Challenged Books in Classrooms

The Kite Runner

Earlier this summer, a unanimous vote successfully kept Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner in Buncombe County, North Carolina, classrooms and initiated a necessary discussion about whether existing school policy about how to handle challenged books should be changed. In a…

Captain Underpants Creator Urges Parents to Make a Change For Banned Books Week

In 2012, Captain Underpants topped the American Library Association’s most frequently banned book list for its “unsuitable” content. It popped again as the #1 most banned book in 2013 for offensive language and violence. In light of the numerous challenges…

Cartoonist Bonil Keeps Up Fight Against Government Censorship

From exorbitant fines to charges of “socioeconomic discrimination” to threats from ISIS, cartoonist Xavier Bonilla, best known by his pen-name Bonil, and his work have been frequent targets of the Ecuadorian government. As we learn in a recent interview with…

Barefoot Gen Ranked #1 Most Affecting Manga in Japanese Poll

In a recent poll done by Japanese website Goo, Keiji Nakazawa’s semi-autobiographical manga anti-war Barefoot Gen ranked number one as today’s most “traumatizing” manga. The poll asked readers to rank the top 28 manga that left an indelible emotional impression…

Banned Books Quotes to Inspire You!

Banned Books Week is coming, and The Guardian has collected some quotes from authors, novels, and activists meant to inspire you to stand up for the right to read! One of the biggest obstacles faced by educators and authors is…