Last year, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David K. Shipler’s book The Working Poor: Invisible in America was one of seven that were briefly suspended en masse from the school district curriculum in the affluent Dallas enclave of Highland Park. Although the…
Tag: north america
UPDATED: Michigan Superintendent Notifies Parents of Gay Character in Captain Underpants Book
A few weeks after the Parent-Teacher Organization at an elementary school in Monroe, Michigan banned the latest Captain Underpants book from a school book fair because it reveals that one of the main characters is gay, a school district on…
Middle School Censorship Plan Leaves New Jersey Community Torn
As a result of controversy surrounding Superintendent Joe Langowski’s knee-jerk decision to temporarily pull John Green’s Looking for Alaska from Lumberton Township, New Jersey, classrooms, the school board met to discuss the institution of some kind of rating system that…
CBLDF Signs on to Protest Illinois Ban of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
CBLDF today joined with other organizational members of the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Kids’ Right to Read Project in sending a letter of protest to the principal of Mattoon High School in Mattoon, IL, who ignored school district policy to…
Looking for Alaska Back in Lumberton, NJ Middle School Classrooms After Ban
John Green’s Looking for Alaska was briefly removed from middle school classroom reading collections in Lumberton Township, New Jersey, this week, but was soon reinstated by Superintendent Joe Langowski who says he has “learned much” from the ban — namely,…
CBLDF Joins Coalition Protecting Right to Read in NJ School District
In response to an online petition calling for the removal of Ariel Dorfman’s play Death and the Maiden and Bernard MacLaverty’s novel Cal from the curriculum at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School in Rumson, New Jersey, CBLDF today joined with…
High School Reading Assignments Challenged in Illinois, New Jersey
Banned Books Week is barely over, but book challenges continue around the country! Today we got word that Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was pulled from a high school English class in Mattoon, Illinois before students could…
13 Free Speech Victories for Banned Books Week 2015!
This year, CBLDF and its partners in anti-censorship advocacy have seen a dramatic increase in book challenges compared to last year. Fortunately, in most of those cases we and local free speech fighters have prevailed! Here are some free speech…
12 Challenged or Banned Summer Reading Books for Banned Books Week 2015!
In the past two years, we’ve seen a veritable explosion of challenges and bans to books assigned as summer reading in middle school, high school, and even college. Moreover, in many cases school districts or administrators seem unsure as to…
YA Author Urges Parents to Develop Understanding of Manga
In anticipation of the young-adult-themed Banned Books Week starting this Sunday, YA author Amy McNulty recently shone the spotlight on some of her favorite manga series for teens that have faced challenges in the United States. In a guest post…