Before an overflow crowd of community members, the public library board in West Chicago, Illinois voted 6-1 last night to retain the LGBTQIA-themed children’s picture book This Day in June by Gayle Pitman in the children’s section. A West Chicago…
Author: Maren Williams
TONIGHT: West Chicago Library Board Considers Challenge to This Day in June
Two parents in West Chicago, Illinois want the LGBTQIA-themed children’s picture book This Day in June by Gayle Pitman removed from the local public library, and the anti-gay Illinois Family Institute is encouraging supporters to attend a library board meeting…
UK Woman Who Faced Police Questioning Over Book Wants Independent Investigation
A British Muslim woman who was detained and questioned at a Yorkshire airport last year for reading a book about Syrian art and culture is still pushing for an independent investigation into the incident. Despite ample evidence that South Yorkshire…
Fanny Hill: The ‘Ban’ That Wasn’t
It was a story made for sensational headlines and easy clickbait: Fanny Hill, John Cleland’s 1748 faux memoir of a London prostitute, was supposedly banned at a modern British university for fear of offending delicate millennial students. But close on…
Judge Rules Arizona Ethnic Studies Ban Unconstitutional and Discriminatory
A federal judge ruled yesterday that Arizona’s ban on ethnic studies curricula is both unconstitutional and designed with discriminatory intent. Judge A. Wallace Tashima has not yet issued a final ruling on the next steps, but academic freedom advocates are…
Egyptian Cartoonist Continues to Highlight Women’s Issues in New Book
As one of the few professional women cartoonists in the Middle East, Egypt’s Doaa Eladl has been the target of threats from fundamentalists and even a lawsuit for blasphemy. Undeterred, she has just released a new book of cartoons dedicated…
Indiana School Board Member Wants Kite Runner Pulled from AP Class
A school board member and parent in Fishers, Indiana is pushing for Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner to be removed from Hamilton Southeastern Schools’ AP Literature and Composition curriculum after her daughter was assigned to read it over the summer.…
To Cultivate Lifelong Readers, Look Beyond the Numbers
There is no doubt that in the proper pedagogical context, reading level scores like Lexile and Accelerated Reader can serve as useful tools for measuring young readers’ progress compared to their peer group. All too often, though, students are restricted…
Zunar Sues Police Over Books Lost in Raid
Once again, Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar has filed a lawsuit against police seeking the return of books and t-shirts that were seized in a raid of one of his public fan events. He also wants to recoup lost sales of…
VICTORY in California: Conejo Valley Board Finally Approves Part-Time Indian
After a two-month delay, the Conejo Valley School Board in Thousand Oaks, California finally voted 4-1 last night to approve Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian as part of the 9th grade curriculum. The holdup was…