Category: Authors
Happy Birthday, Stephen King!
Not only is today Stephen King’s birthday, but Banned Books Week is also just around the corner! Throughout his entire career, King has been a frequently challenged and banned author. Let’s all take a moment to reflect on and celebrate the King of modern American horror.
Exploring Social Justice through Sci-Fi & Fantasy
I personally really enjoy (if “enjoy” can be considered the right word) the exploration of tough social justice issues through the lens of fantasy or science-fiction – often through the vehicle of anti-magic prejudice. I feel the fantasy context allows the reader to take a step back from the real world, while allowing the reader to think critically about equality and justice in a less personally challenging way.
Authors New to the Challenged List: Jarrett J. Krosoczka & Meredith Russo
Of the 377 challenges reported in 2019, there were 229 separate authors included. In this post I would like to highlight a couple of our “Banned Freshmen:” Jarrett J. Krosoczka and Meredith Russo.
Fighting Censorship & Challenges to Powerful Teen Texts
Literature can provide youth and their teachers with meaningful tools for coping, discussing, and understanding. Library professionals have a duty to protect that access.
Woody Allen’s Book Cancellation is Apropos of Today’s Discourse
The ability to stymy humiliation, to withhold judgement about intellectual pursuits is a pillar of intellectual freedom. Hachette’s recent move to cancel Woody Allen’s memoir represents an irreparable crack in this pillar as it buckles to sentiments anathema to an adult’s right to read.
Happy Birthday, Ellen Hopkins!
Ellen Hopkins is a frequently challenged author of young adult books. March 26th is her birthday and we would like to celebrate with this blog post! Ellen’s work has helped shatter societal stigma against people with substance abuse disorder, among other mental health issues.
Green-Dots Mean Go, Part Two: An Interview with Kate Klise, Author of Don’t Check Out This Book!
By: guest contributor Brian E. Wilson, ALSC Liaison for the ALA Committee on Professional Ethics. Acclaimed children’s author Kate Klise talks about how Cathy Evans’ “green dot collection” inspired her and her sister M. Sarah Klise to create the hilarious and inventive new novel, Don’t Check Out This Book!.
Happy Birthday, Dav Pilkey!
Dav Pilkey, the extremely successful yet often banned or challenged author and illustrator of the Captain Underpants (1997) and Dog Man series (2016), advocate for children’s right to read and create, celebrates his 54th birthday on March 4, 2020.
A Birthday Letter to Jacqueline Woodson
Dear Jacqueline Woodson, I’m so happy to celebrate your birthday with you today, and so are my two kids, my students, and my colleagues in the worlds of children’s, young adult, and adult literature! Thank you for your books, your voice, and all the ways that you elevate the experiences of youth, particularly youth of color.
Happy birthday, Virginia Woolf
Woolf had a keen sense of the need for equitable access, access to both a physical space for thinking and to intellectual nourishment, in order for women to be empowered to create.