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…
Category: Education
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…
Turning Struggling Students into Superheroes: Comic Books as Teaching Tools
With publications like Raising a Reader! How Comics & Graphic Novels Can Help Your Kids Love To Read! and CBLDF Presents: Manga and our ongoing “Using Graphic Novels in Education” column, the Fund advocates for the use of comics to…
Using Graphic Novels in Education: Nat Turner
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…
Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn: 129 Years of Rabble Rousing
Since its first American publication on February 18, 1885, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been the subject of praise and controversy. Following the adventures of Tom Sawyer’s lively comrade Huck Finn, the novel is among the first…
Youth Fight Video Game Censorship in NCAC Film Contest
Each year, the National Coalition Against Censorship sponsors the Youth Free Expression Project Film Contest. This week, NCAC released the videos for the 10 semifinalists, which run a gamut of film styles but all make powerful statements against censorship of…