More than twenty years ago, Laurie Halse Anderson exploded on to the literary scene with her YA book Speak, an award-winning tale the New York Times said, “opened the door for more novels exploring the deeply felt and deeply personal…
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…
Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia, ended a book fair early when a school’s administrator demanded they pull Richard Peck’s The Best Man off the sales floor, despite previously having agreed it could be displayed and sold. The book, which centers…
Mary Jo Little thinks that The Glass Castle is inappropriate reading for ninth graders at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina.“There’s rape. There’s assault. There’s drunk driving. It’s just not appropriate in this age group,” Little told Channel 9. The Glass…
Although book challenges often come from parents and adults who claim to be looking out for the well-being of children in their communities, a recent project by the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Joan Bertin and the National Council of Teachers of…
Jeff Smith’s acclaimed, and sometimes controversial, comic series Bone celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. With the upcoming release of Bone: Coda, Playboy talks about the history of the series and Smith’s take on how the comic and graphic novel industry in general…
Toronto Public Library recently released their yearly Reconsideration of Materials Summary, recapping the books and movies challenged in one of Canada’s largest library systems, and two graphic novels were among the books challenged. Similar to the American Library Association’s yearly…
The school year may be winding down for students across the United States, but upset parents in Chesterfield County, Virginia, have been hard at work the past few months in a successful campaign to have titles they call “pornographic,” “vile,”…
In a recent editorial piece on The Huffington Post, author and high school teacher Peter Brown Hoffmeister discusses the hot topic of banning books and explores the dangerous implications and imminent pitfalls of censoring the materials teenagers have access to…
Interested in finding the best starter graphic novels for teen readers? The Guardian has compiled a list — including several award-winning titles that have been challenged or banned — on their Children’ Books Discussions blog to help everyone from reluctant readers to curious…