On April 4, the National Coalition Against Censorship — of which CBLDF is a member — is partnering with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Civic Media at MIT to protest censorship in libraries. Dubbed 404 Day, April…
Category: Education
Who’s Afraid of Fun Home?
In light of the unprecedented and vindictive budget cut currently making its way through the South Carolina legislature as punishment for the College of Charleston encouraging (but not requiring) students to read Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, we thought we’d share…
CBLDF Joins Coalition Urging SC Senate to Restore Funding to Universities
Last week, the South Carolina House of Representatives passed a budget that punitively cut the budgets of two colleges that had incorporated LGBT-themed books into elective reading programs. CBLDF has joined a coalition of free speech advocates to urge the…
Using Graphic Novels in Education: Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong
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…
Kansas Lawmakers Consider Bill that Would Enable Prosecution of Educators for “Offensive” Material
Lawmakers in the Kansas Senate are considering a draconian new bill that would make it easier to prosecute educators and other school officials for using “offensive” materials in classrooms and libraries. Senate Bill 401 was proposed in response to controversy…
Japanese Vandal Targets Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl
An insidious sort of censorship is taking place in Japan: Someone has vandalized hundreds of copies of Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl at public libraries throughout Tokyo. The vandalism began early last year, with a copy The Diary…
VICTORY IN NORTH CAROLINA: The House of the Spirits Survives Final Challenge
On Thursday, February 27, nearly 200 people packed Courtroom 1 in the Watauga Country Courthouse to find out the fate of Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits. With a vote of 3-2, the school board elected to keep the…
Using Graphic Novels in Education: King
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…
True Tales of Censorship: Craig Fisher and His Stay in The House of Spirits
Craig Fisher is an Associate Professor of English at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, where he teaches film studies as well as comics classes. Although Fisher teaches some infamously challenged books in his courses, he had never experienced…
Fate of The House of the Spirits to Be Decided This Week
After months of contentious and sometimes divisive debate, the fate of Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits is set to be decided tomorrow evening. The award-winning novel was challenged in Watauga High School in Boone, North Carolina, and this…