In response to concerns about the inclusion of Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things on a high school summer reading list, Superintendent Jim Powell of the North Ridgeville, Ohio, school district said that controversial books should be assigned only during the school year, when teachers are readily…
Category: Education
Tell Us About Your Banned Books Week Plans!
Banned Books Week 2014 is coming up in less than a month, and this year the focus is on comics and graphic novels! As a sponsor of the annual week celebrating the freedom to read, CBLDF wants to hear from…
On the Border of Fourth Amendment Rights
As evidenced by the Ryan Matheson case, one of the risks we face as comics fans is the search and seizure of electronic devices such as cell phones and laptops when we cross international borders. Two recent decisions in Riley…
Pennsylvania School Board Rescinds Ban of The Handmaid’s Tale
A Pennsylvania school board, which last month voted to ban Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale as a high school summer reading book, has reversed that decision at its subsequent meeting, the National Coalition Against Censorship has learned. As in so…
Using Graphic Novels in Education: Amelia Rules!
Welcome to Using Graphic Novels in Education, an ongoing feature from CBLDF that is designed to allay confusion around the content of graphic novels and to help parents and teachers raise readers. In this column, we examine graphic novels, including…
In Defense of Smoking Scarecrows
Last week, we reported on the controversy that erupted over Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s The Scarecrows’ Wedding, which depicts a smoking scarecrow. Donaldson and Scheffler are also the creative force behind The Gruffalo, one of the most beloved children’s…
Brunswick County Superintendent Stands Behind Part-Time Indian
This week, Superintendent Edward Pruden released a letter that he sent to Frances Wood, the woman who is leading a campaign against Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian in Brunswick County, North Carolina. In the letter,…
CBLDF Executive Director to Speak About the Comics Code at London’s Orbital Comics
Next week, CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein takes the fight for the freedom to read to London, where he’ll speak at the British Library on August 17. At 7:30 p.m. on August 14, he’ll join comics fans at Orbital Comics…
Parents Fume Over Smoking Scarecrow
First it was Santa Claus, then Bone. Now some parents are calling for the censorship of a new book by British children’s author Julia Donaldson because it shows a scarecrow smoking a cigar. Even though The Scarecrows’ Wedding portrays smoking…
CBLDF Executive Director Takes Fight for the Right to Read to London
On August 17, CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein will take CBLDF’s fight for the freedom to read on another international trip, this time to the United Kingdom for “Sex, Censorship and Sensibility” at the British Library Conference Centre in London.…