Books

One of the many reasons book challenges have grown in the last year is that it creates tremendous paperwork and time investment on the behalf of a school district. This, in turn, allows those who challenge to point to inadequacies in how schools are being run because they’ve invested so much time and money into

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Jared Patterson, a Republican member of the State of Texas House of Representatives, sent a letter to school superintendents urging them to pledge not to buy books from any vendors that carry “pornographic materials.” The letter was signed by 26 other Republican lawmakers, saying “[W]e also acknowledge school districts have a lot of power in

The recent tsunami of book challenges, particularly to LGBTQ and POC books, has revealed the inner workings of library and school board meetings that usually go unnoticed. In Lafayette, Louisiana, years of the library board being “stacked” with conservative voices appointed by the Parish Council has resulted in a board that doesn’t serve its community

Breaking this afternoon, Amazon announced plans to close all 68 of its physical stores, pop ups, and other shops carrying books, toys, and home goods. This applies to those both in the US and across the UK. Amazon, which began with books, is choosing to pursue other offline ventures. They’re going to focus on opening

Shirley Hughes was the English author and illustrator of beloved picture books like Out and About, Dogger, and the Alfie series. She wrote more than 50 books, including novels, and illustrated 200 others, winning two Kate Greenaway Medals almost 30 years apart for her illustrations. She also won a BookTrust Lifetime Achievement award in 2015.

The 2022 PEN American Literary Award Winners have been announced! This year’s awards conferred $350,000 to writers and translators in eleven different categories that include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, biography, essay, science writing, literature in translation, and more. The winners were announced live at the PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony on February 28, 2022, at The Town Hall

Literature in Ukraine has survived over the decades despite years of censorship under the Soviet Union in particular — for example, the Executed Renaissance, a generation of Ukrainian authors in the 1920s and ’30s who died under Stalin. In the 30 years since Ukraine gained its independence from Russia in 1991, it has had a

Better Nate Than Ever, the upcoming Disney+ movie, is based on Tim Federle’s 2013 middle grade novel of the same name. It follows 13 year old Nate Foster, played by Rueby Wood, who dreams of being a Broadway star. He and his best friend Libby, played by Aria Brooks, travel to New York to audition

I’ve always been intimated by long books. I’ve started Moby-Dick three times, and despite thoroughly enjoying the first 70 pages every time (it’s so gay! how could I not?), I’ve never finished it. I encountered the same problem on my two attempts with Anna Karenina: I was invested and interested in what I read, but

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Picture this: gooey melted chocolate, gourmet marshmallows, and a bomb candle. You have all of this while listening to an audiobook. Or, how about you nibbling on a freshly baked cupcake inspired by Filipine desert while you tuck into a cozy mystery book? If you need either of these scenarios to happen, like, right now,

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This list of historical fiction novels was originally published in our historical fiction newsletter, Past Tense. Sign up for it here to get historical fiction recs straight to your inbox! It’s wild to think we’re a hundred years away from the Roaring Twenties–especially given the current state of the world. Not much roaring about the 2020s, yet,

This week, Oklahoma Attorney General announced an investigation into obscenity in books throughout the state’s schools and libraries. Fifty one titles were presented for review, the bulk coming from complaints by the group Reclaiming Oklahoma Parent Empowerment and the Tulsa chapter of Moms For Liberty. The entire list of titles under review are available here.

If you’re fired up about book challenges and want to do one actionable thing about it that requires little more than a few minutes of time, this one’s for you. One of the several possible ways to fight book challenges is being tuned into your local school and library boards. School boards tend to be

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Let’s set the scene: you walk into a used bookstore that is covered in piles of books on every surface. You spend a leisurely hour browsing through, carefully shifting stacks and flipping through pages to see which books will be coming home with you. You select a few books you’ve heard good things about, and

Since 2010, Save the Children has operated a “four-legged library” in Ethiopia, delivering books by camel to children. Until recently, the camels have carried boxes filled with hundreds of books to hand out. These camel libraries are now going solar-powered: the camels carry tablets loaded with ebooks instead of paper books. The camels also carry

If you’ve been a fan of comics for a long time, you know the joy of someone finally agreeing to give them a try. Comics and graphic novels often get a bad rep. Some people think they’re childish, while others think they’re too complicated. Often people assume comics are only about superheroes without understanding the

Following Texas lawmaker Matt Krause’s circulation of a list of 850 books he would like to see removed from schools, the Dallas Morning News and University of Texas at Tyler conducted a February 2022 survey of 1,188 registered voters (33% Democrat, 41% Republican, 26% neither) about various topics of Texas politics, including book bans. In

The oldest children’s books in print might not be flying off shelves these days, but somehow they’ve endured. Though it’s hard to imagine, children’s books have not always been around. While oral storytelling traditions have always included tales to interest the young, printed books for children are a relatively new phenomenon. The invention of the

In the wake of the end of Britney Spears’s 13 year long conservatorship, as well as a public feud with her sister Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney is writing her own tell-all memoir. The book sparked a bidding war between several publishers, ending with a $15 million deal from Simon & Schuster that is one of

I believe in magic. I have always believed in magic. Sure, the belief has taken different forms and come to me in varying degrees throughout my life, but it’s always been there. However, every so often, if I find myself stuck in the weeds of the mundanity of adulthood or in a period of crisis

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This post illustrating the wonderful life of Ashley Bryan was originally published in our Kid Lit newsletter, The Kids Are All Right . Sign up for it here to get the latest in children’s book releases, reviews, deals, and more! Like many members of the kid lit community, I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of

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Earlier this month, we reported on an appeal sent to the Walla Walla, Washington, school district, following the Library Materials Committee decision to keep four books on shelves. The board met last week to consider the appeal and agreed to keep The Bluest Eye, All Boys Aren’t Blue, Gender Queer, and The Hate U Give

I, like most of you I’m sure, associate annotation with school. You might think of studying in the lecture hall, late-night cram sessions, or reading and rereading an assigned text over and over again. However, annotation is an incredibly useful tool. Before we dive in, here is a brief clarification on annotating versus note taking.