This weekend, CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein will literally travel to the other side of the world — to Tokyo, Japan — for a series of lectures and meetings on manga and free expression, hosted by Comic Market (Comiket), Comitia,…
Category: Education
Obscenity Case Files: Memoirs v. Massachusetts
In 1966, eleven years after the decision in Roth v. United States held that obscenity was not protected by the First Amendment and attempted to define obscene speech, came the landmark case of Memoirs v. Massachusetts. This case is about…
CBLDF Joins Defense of The Bluest Eye and Speak
This week, CBLDF-sponsored Kids’ Right to Read Project sent two letters on behalf of challenged books: One defends the use of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye in schools in Colorado, and the second defends Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, which is…
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Removed From Queens Reading List
Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which CBLDF has defended from challenges in the past, was apparently removed from a sixth-grade reading list in Queens, New York, earlier this week after complaints from parents. Unfortunately the…
Using Graphic Novels in Education: American Born Chinese
Welcome to Using Graphic Novels in Education, an ongoing feature from CBLDF that is designed to allay confusion around the content of banned books and to help parents and teachers raise readers. In this column, we examine books that have been…
Jennifer L. Holm and Meryl Jaffe on RAISING A READER
During SDCC, CBLDF Board Member Jennifer L. Holm (Babymouse) and Raising a Reader writer Meryl Jaffe sat down with GeekRoom’s Tom Misuraca to talk about CBLDF’s new resource and how comics can be used to inspire kids to read. Jaffe’s…
South Carolina Group Challenges Fun Home as Pornographic
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home has been challenged once again, this time for it’s inclusion on a freshman recommended reading list at the College of Charleston (CofC) in Charleston, South Carolina. The conservative religious group opposed to the book has labeled…
Obscenity Case Files: Roth v. United States
It may come as a surprise, but the freedom of speech laid out by the First Amendment doesn’t actually include all forms of speech. Roth v. United States is a landmark case that held that obscene speech was a category…
Adult Anxieties Over Young Adult Fiction Endure
Every once in a while, some blogger or columnist garners a lot of pageviews by rekindling the simmering debate as to whether Young Adult fiction has become “too dark.” Two years ago, for example, this hand-wringing column from the Wall…
The Perks of Being a Wallflower Challenged Again
If you’re experiencing déjà vu right now, don’t worry because we are too! Just over a month after The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky was restored to classrooms in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, the popular teen novel’s inclusion…