Yesterday we told you about Seattle area resident Travis de Nevers, who asked the King County Library System to change its circulation policies for minors after his unsupervised 10-year-old niece checked out the yaoi manga Hero-Heel 2. In response to…
Category: Education
Sherman Alexie: Censorship of Any Form Punishes Curiosity
According to critically-acclaimed author Sherman Alexie, “Book banners want to control what every child reads,” and that “censorship of any form punishes curiosity.” In an interview with Ed Winstead of Guernica Magazine, Alexie discusses being the author of banned books…
BE COUNTED: Join The CBLDF Today!
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund needs your support! Our program activity is increasing, and we need your membership contributions this October to help pay for this important work. Comics are threatened more frequently than you may think, and the…
NYCC: CBLDF’s Massive Hometown Showing!
Signings! Free gifts for members! Charlie Adlard original art raffle! Programming! Friday night rock concert! Discounts at NYC Comic Stores! Grab bags! The best selection of signed comics in the nation! It’s NYCC weekend, and the CBLDF is bringing out…
NCAC Interviews SIDESCROLLERS Creator Matt Loux
The National Coalition Against Censorship’s blog has a new interview with Matt Loux, whose graphic novel SideScrollers was recently removed from an Enfield, Connecticut, high school’s summer reading list after one resident complained of profanity and sexual references. CBLDF and…
Otaku: Japan’s Favorite Scapegoat — and Tourist Draw
Japan has long had a checkered relationship with its subculture of otaku, a word whose nuances cannot easily be translated to English but which more or less means “geeks whose hobbies border on the fanatic” (Ito). More often than not,…
Nudity a Frequent Target for Book Challenges
A frequent cause for the contention when it comes to comic books and graphic novels has been the age-old, yet incorrect, idea that all comics are for children. In this light, it is not hard to discern why books featuring…
Robie Harris Speaks Up On A Career’s Worth Of Challenges
Robie Harris knows more than most people about book banning. Her children’s books on sexual health and family life are perennial standards on challenged and banned lists across the country, accused of being everything from age-inappropriate to “obvious child pornography.”…
What Gets a Book Banned in Texas? How Bone & More Were Taken Off The Shelf
Each year, the ACLU of Texas contacts the 1,000+ school districts in the Lone Star State to find out why books are banished from classrooms, library shelves, and reading lists. For 2011-2012, they were excited to find that book challenges…
Honest Teen Life Stories Among Frequently Banned & Challenged
Nothing gets a parent quite so anxious as their child’s teen years. Burgeoning adulthood comes with sexual awakening and an introduction to smoking, drinking, and any number of other vices. For many parents it can seem easier to limit a…