According to Mike Jung, librarian, young adult author, and team member of the grassroots organization We Need Diverse Books, censors of Raina Telgemeier’s critically acclaimed graphic novel Drama got it all wrong. In a special Banned Books Week Virtual Read-Out,…
Our colleagues over at the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund are building a new database of dramatic works challenged or censored in the United States, and they need your help! DLDF describes the new initiative at their website: The Dramatists Legal…
The Tweeks are at it again! This time twin teen geeks, Maddy and Anya Ernst, sit down to talk about Raina Telgemeier’s modern classic Drama and all of the controversial drama surrounding this graphic novel in the latest edition of…
Raina Telgemeier’s Drama, a graphic novel about the joys and tribulations of a middle school drama troupe, received universal critical praise upon its publication in 2012. The book received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Media, Booklist, and School Library…
In 2014, Raina Telgemeier’s Drama made the American Library Association’s top 10 list of frequently challenged books due to a ban at Chapel Hill Elementary School in Mount Pleasant, Texas. The specific reason for the ban has not been publicly confirmed,…
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…
Granbury ISD, a district roughly 60 miles west of Dallas, is under federal investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights after 131 books were removed from the school library in January of 2022. Before the start of…
Mark your calendars and support Comic Book Legal Defense Fund this Giving Tuesday! This past year we have seen a dramatic increase in challenges and bans on graphic novels in schools and libraries. Looking at the numbers so far this…
Flamer is an award-winning graphic novel that tells the story of Aiden Navarro “as he navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can’t stop thinking about), he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and…
April ushered in two important reports on censorship in the past year. The American Library Association released its report on the “Top 10 Challenged Books,” and PEN America released its report “Banned in the USA: Rising School Book Bans Threaten…