What does the removal of Art Spiegelman’s Maus from the eighth-grade public school curriculum in McMinn County, Tennessee, mean for the future of comic arts censorship? How should concerned members of the comics community respond? The following are excerpts from…
Banned Books Week starts this month, running from September 26–October 2. Each week leading up to the event, we will profile one of the many spaces in the United States where books are banned. We’ll examine who is banning and challenging…
Banned Books Week starts this month, running from September 26–October 2. Each week leading up to the event, we will profile one of the many spaces in the United States where books are banned. We’ll look at who is banning…
The American Library Association (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has released its 2020 Banned & Challenged Books list and 2020 Field Report. Each year, since 1990, the ALA has documented the attempts across the United States to remove books…
On Wednesday, the Lincoln Parish Library Board in Ruston, Louisiana, voted ‘yes’ to keep contested books on its shelves. This decision came on the heels of recent community complaints about the books. This is one of several recent attempts at…
As Banned Books Week draws to a close, it’s crucial to remember that this celebration is to draw attention to the challenges and bans that happen all year long. To keep the spirit of free expression going from this Banned…
Last week news came out of Marion County School District that the school board and Superintendent were standing behind Toni Morrison’s Beloved and The Bluest Eye, as well as Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia. These three books were challenged again after…
Rumford Public Library in Maine successfully defended itself and its displays again this year, after a local politician declared the librarians and the public displays were a way to politicize the library on the “town’s dime.” “I thought we had…
Last week American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom announced their annual list detail the most frequently challenged and banned books based on those reported throughout the previous year. Here’s some of the responses from the creators whose work was…
We spend a lot of time extolling the virtues of reading here on the CBLDF News Blog. Reading improves vocabulary, increases empathy, parents who read to children, even after the children can read on their own, are more likely to…