Censorship

See what Pat Scales has to say on questions about Banned Books and censorship. More...

We just passed out information about our public library’s summer reading program, and a parent has already complained because it excludes 12-year-olds. She thinks this is a form of censorship. What’s your advice? I assume More...

One of our parents returned from a religious retreat with a 10-page list of books that elementary school children shouldn’t read. When she asked me to remove them from the library, I said, “No.” Now More...

SLJ talks to Rick Riordan about his latest bestseller 'The Red Pyramid,' book one of the Kane Chronicles. More...

If you're planning to attend this week's BookExpo America conference in the Big Apple, don't forget to order theater tickets. Adam Rapp's Off Broadway play, The Metal Children, deals with a subject that's sure to More...

A coalition of free speech groups is protesting the recent banning of the book Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology (Alyson) from New Jersey's Rancocas Valley High School library following a complaint by a More...

For years I've worked at a school that serves seventh and eighth graders. But recently, we've also added sixth grade. For the first time in my career, I feel as though I'm guilty of self-censoring. More...

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Dixie Fechtel wants to know the kinds of books her daughters check out of the local public library's YA section. That's why the Leesburg, FL, mom of two is pushing for labels on any book More...

A book about slam poetry and the history of spoken word has come under fire in Abilene, TX,where a parent and the Abilene School District's superintendent both have questions regarding the language and content of More...

Lauren Myracle's hugely popular ttyl (Abrams) series-written entirely in IM format-tops the American Library Association's Top Ten List of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2009, with complaints ranging from offensive language to nudity contained More...

It looks like Lois Lowry's Newbery Medal-winning Number the Stars (Houghton, 1989) may be caughtin the middle of an international storm between the United States and Turkey. Lowry wrote in a blog postdated March 9 More...

Ann Brashares may have imagined a sisterhood of girl talk, romantic angst, and friendship-but one mother in Fond du Lac, WI, believes her child, and potentially others, shouldn't experience this relationship until high school.'I know More...

In my last column, I asked readers to write me if they had reversed their school's practice of putting Accelerated Reader (AR) labels on library books. I was surprised by how many librarians responded. Here's More...

Quiet Culpeper County, VA, was thrown into a national uproar last month over allegations that the school district banned of a version of Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl. Now school officials say More...

It's more than a case of mistaken identity. Bill Martin, Jr. is just the latest casualty in the storm surrounding the state of Texas as its State Board of Education revamps its social studies curriculum More...

Mere days before the announcement of the new children's book ambassador, speculation was still running wild. Who would they tap for the prestigious two-year position? And, even more to the point, who could possibly measure More...

Copies of the Merriam-Webster's 10th Collegiate Edition dictionary (Merriam Webster, 2000) are back on classroom and library shelves at Oak Meadows Elementary School in Riverside County, CA, after being temporarily removed.Officials at the Manifee Union More...

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers is changing the covers on Trenton Lee Stewart's "Mysterious Benedict Society" series, following complaints that the character Sticky Washington, described as having light brown skin, appears on all three More...

Despite one father's attempt to remove And Tango Makes Three (S & S, 2005) from his city's school system, the North Kansas City Schools Board of Educationrecently voted 3 to 2 to keep the story More...

I was surprised to discover that my new school district doesn't have a library policy, especially since we're considering unblocking some social networking sites. I'm especially troubled that there's no Internet-use policy. After meeting with More...

A lesson on censorship took a disapproving turn after parents complained about a middle school librarian who used profanity and wrote it on a board during a lesson on controversial books.Parents complained when the school More...

The West Bend Community Memorial Library, located just outside of Milwaukee, WI, is makingnews again-but this time it's being honored for defending intellectual freedom in the face of a library challenge that gained national attention More...

The superintendent of Kentucky's Montgomery County Schoolshas removed several controversial YA novels that were being used along with classics like Beowulf and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales in some sophomore and senior accelerated English classes.His reason? More...

Following the firing of two of its circulation staffers for barring an 11-year-old access to the graphic novel, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier (Wildstorm, 2008), the Jessamine County Library in Kentucky has re-catalogued More...

Two Sioux Falls, SD, middle schools have pulled Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age (Viking, 2007) from their general collections, giving only teachers access to the graphic novel anthology but not More...

School board members in Miami have won their fight to keep Vamos a Cuba (Heineman, 2001) off school library shelves because the book paints too rosy a picture of life in the communist nation.The U.S. More...

Only juniors and seniors at Virginia's Roanoke County Public Schools can check out Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower (MTV, 1999), but freshman and sophomores will need parental permission to take out the More...

The Illinois Family Institute (IFI), a conservative organization dedicated to upholding and reaffirming marriage and family life, has called for a boycott of Scholastic following the company's decision to include Lauren Myracle's controversial Luv Ya More...

Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower (MTV, 1999) is in trouble again-and this time it's been removed from shelves as it goes through the review process outlined by Virginia's Roanoke County Public Schools.'At More...

Two circulation staffersat the Jessamine County Public Library (JCPL) in Nicholasville, KY, have lost their jobs for refusing to let an 11-year-old girl check out a book in the graphic novel series "The League of More...

A parent of one of our eighth graders came into the library and began pulling books off our shelves. She ended up stacking 15 books on the circulation desk-including The Giver, The Chocolate War, Monster, More...

Scholastic has reversed its decision to censor Lauren Myracle's controversial Luv Ya Bunches (Abrams/Amulet, 2009) from school book fairs and will make a slightly sanitized version of the title available at middle schools in spring More...

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) this week celebrated 35 years of defending free speech with a gala ceremony honoring celebrated author Judy Blume.Judy Blume (left) with actress Rachel Dratch. The event brought together a More...

Don't expect to seeLauren Myracle's new book Luv Ya Bunches (Abrams/Amulet, 2009) at Scholastic school book fairs this year. It's been censored-at least for now-due to its language and homosexual content.Luv Ya Bunches, about four More...

Seems like Stephenie Meyer's Twilight (Little, Brown, 2005) series is a lightening rod for ire.Just in time for Banned Books Week brings word that the popular vampire series is being cast out of schools-this time More...

Young adult author Ellen Hopkins was recently banned from speaking at Whittier Middle School in Norman, OK, following a parental complaint over one of her books, a semiautobiographical account of her daughter's battle with a More...

Laurie Halse Anderson's books seem to be causing a stir around the country, just in time for Banned Books Week.Anderson tweeting at the Brooklyn Book Festival earlier this month. California's Temecula Valley Unified School District More...

The recent book-banning controversy over Tintin au Congo (Little, Brown, 2005) at New York's Brooklyn Public Library is yet another reminder of the importance of Banned Books Week, an event in which thousands nationwide will More...

I'm about to replace an elementary school librarian who has had the job for 35 years. When I visited the school, I noticed that the picture books and fiction were shelved on the bottom three More...

Tintin, the 80 year old Belgian comic book character, is in trouble again-but this time it's a book banning controversy.A public outcry of censorship began after the New York Times recently reported that the New More...

A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit against two Tennessee school districts for agreeing to stop using Internet filters that block access to information about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues (LGBT). The Metropolitan Nashville More...

As part of a program for young people, we'd like to adapt a children's book for Readers' Theater. The resulting script will be presented in a school or public library. I've come across a lot More...

Story from Publishers Weekly: Fifteen years ago, critics accused Time magazine of racism when it darkened O.J. Simpson's mug shot. Fast forward to the latest cover-and-race controversy: bloggers are making similar charges against Bloomsbury Children's More...

The Washington, DC, school district that had previously scrubbed gay-themed books from its summer reading list has restoredall of thetitles following objections from librarians and the capital's gay and lesbian community.The District of Columbia Public More...

I live in fear that someone will challenge one of our books. I'm not very confident about dealing with censorship because I didn't have a single course about it in library school. Now that I'm More...

You won't see books like And Tango Makes Three (S & S, 2005), The Geography Club (HarperCollins, 2003) or any other gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLTB)-themed title on the summer reading lists for the More...

Famed authors Toni Morrison and Fran Lebowitz gathered at a New York City cocktail party last week to talk about book banning-in libraries, schools, and stores. Joan Bertin (from left), executive director of theNational Coalition More...

A list of sexually explicit and gay-themed titles will remain on the YA shelves of Wisconsin's West Bend Community Library following the board's unanimous vote to reject efforts by local parents to restrict access to More...

Access to online information about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) issues has been restored to dozens of Tennessee schools.The move comes just weeks after a school librarian, three high school students, and the American More...

The four board members of Wisconsin's West Bend Community Memorial Public Library who were likely to vote against moving sexually explicit YA books to the adult section won't be reinstated-a move that the library'sdirector finds More...

A media specialist and several high school students are suing two school districts in Tennessee for unconstitutionally blocking access to online information about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) issues.Librarian Karyn Stort-Brinks, students Keila Franks More...

'Are you there, God? It's me, the anti choice extremist who sent a death threat to Judy Blume'; is a tweet circulating on Twitter. This came after the National Planned Parenthood Organization reported that Blume, More...

The library board that's supposed to determine the fate of a major book challenge at Wisconsin's West Bend Community Memorial Public Libraryis having a hard time doing its job. That's because the city's Common Council More...

Like many of you, I became a librarian after the profession had been significantly shaped by Judith Krug. In fact, Krug, who died last month, had an influence on American librarianship that was so profound More...

A parent who objected to one of the titles in an eighth-grade classroom collection has recruited a group of parents to search for other 'objectionable'; titles in the teacher's collection. I'm the school's librarian, and More...

For the third year in a row, a picture book about two male penguins who care for an orphaned egg has topped the American Library Association's Top 10 list of the most frequently challenged books.Justin More...

A school librarian and two high school students from Tennessee have sought the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, saying that their school district has blocked access to online information about lesbian, gay, bisexual More...

A magazine cover of a woman holding a gun has led a middle school principal to pull it from the media center, over the objection of the librarian.In September, Brian Sharosky, principal of Roxboro Middle More...

I heard a speaker say the Supreme Court had ruled that as long as schools and other public entities have CIPA safeguards in place, they can't be sued if a minor accesses an 'inappropriate'; Web More...

The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library board has agreed to restrict minors' access to four books:Sex for Busy People; The Lesbian Kama Sutra; The Joy of Sex; and The Joy of Gay Sex.The move, More...

People can't get enough of Neil Gaiman these days. That's why SLJ has collected a list of interesting resources on the author/graphic novelist, from our own articles and reviews of his work, as well as More...

There's no question that kids are wild about the latest Newbery winner, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins, 2008). Public libraries across the country are reporting that all of their copies are checked out, and, More...

Illustration by Brian Stauffer When Barry Lyga finished writing his second young adult novel, he knew there'd be trouble. After all, Boy Toy was about a 12-year-old who has sex with a beautiful teacher twice More...

A 10th-grade English teacher received an advanced reader's copy of a novel, and she'd like me to purchase it when it's available. While thumbing through her copy, I spotted the F-word on one of its More...

Why did someone at New Rochelle High School in Westchester, NY, tear out a chapter dealing with oral sex from Susan Kaysen's Girl Interrupted (Turtle Bay, 1993)?'The material was of a sexual nature that we More...

What's it like at Alaska's Wasilla Public Library 12 years after Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin (then Wasilla mayor)asked former library director Mary Jane Baker about the book-banning process? Library Journal finds out fromdirector KJ More...

Aconservative Christian organization recently rallied outside a Fairfax County high schoolin Virginia to protest the decision by high school librarians to reject donated books, some of which argued against same-sex marriage.'This was simply about freedom More...

There's nothing like a good vampire novel to draw concern - and Stephenie Meyer's best-selling Twilight series (Little, Brown, 2005) is no exception.After noticing the large number of students requesting the books from the middle More...

From LibraryJournal.com: Given the controversy over the gay-themed titles that allegedly raised the ire of some Wasilla, AK, residents, and the inquiries by then-Mayor Sarah Palin about the library's procedure for banning books, LJ decided More...

The city of Lewiston, ME, has decided not to pursue further prosecution of a woman who refused to return a library book on sex education she calls obscene.JoAn Karkos still has to pay a fine More...

Mary Ellen Baker, the librarian at the center of the Sarah Palin book-banning controversy, may not be talking to the press, but librarians around the country are voicing their concerns about having an alleged censor More...

Interested in finding out what other librarians and bookstores are doing during Banned Books Week? You're in luck.The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the American Library Association (ALA) have just launched a More...

The Child Online Protection Act (COPA) has been struck down again. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has upheld a lower court ban on the controversial law, which would criminalize constitutionally More...

J. K. Rowling added her name to the long electronic petition on NoToAgeBanding.org, alongside other heavyweights in the business such as Anthony Horowitz, Terry Pratchett, and Alan Garner. Illustrators of children's literature, including Quentin Blake, More...

The Fighting Ground (Lippincott, 1984) by Newbery Award-winning author Avi was banned from all elementary library shelves at Florida's Bay District Schools in Panama City.The school board voted 3 to 2 to remove the book, More...

Every year, the PTA sponsors a book fair at our middle school. Lately they haven't been pleased with the selections they've received from the book-fair company. Although I'm the school librarian, I'm never included in More...

The Fighting Ground (Lippincott, 1984) by Newbery Award-winning author Avi was banned last week from all elementary library shelves at Florida's Bay District Schools in Panama City.The school board voted 3-2 to remove the book, More...

The Menasha Board of Ed in Wisconsin recently decided that a profanity-laced book documenting hip-hop culture will remain in a limited-access area of the Maplewood Middle School library.The board decision was in response to a More...

The Toronto District School Board recently withdrew author and lecturer Barbara Coloroso's Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide (Penguin, 2007) from a high school curriculum after it was deemed inappropriate.The book, which details genocide More...

A Missouri mother who allegedly created a MySpace account and used it to cyber-bully a 13-year-old girl who later committed suicide should not have been indicted by the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, says More...

For the second year in a row, And Tango Makes Three tops the American Library Association's "10 Most Challenged Books" annual list.The 2007 list, which tracks challenges made to school and public libraries, then filed More...

I've written books for young readers for more than two decades, and I once ran an imprint that published edgy titles, like Gary Nash's Forbidden Love (1999), which is about America's secret history of race More...

When I was in high school, I don't remember anyone ever challenging the books we read in English class. Why has there been a sudden increase in the number of challenges? And what do I More...

If you're a librarian in Oklahoma, Internet safety organizations need your help. The reason: Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has placed a "hold" on a Senate bill that would authorize $50 million over a five-year period More...

A parent of a fourth grader recently asked if it was appropriate to have Judy Blume's Blubber in our collection. I was totally shocked. Why are people still getting riled up over that book?Blubber (Atheneum, More...

"Ineffective'; and 'unconstitutional" are some of the unflattering terms two First Amendment watchdog groups use to describe a new crop of congressional bills that aim to protect children on the Internet. To make sure librarians, More...

Ellen Wittliner's Sandpiper (S & S, 2005) will stay on the shelves at Brookwood High School in Tuscaloosa, AL, following a school board decision to uphold a committee's recommendation. 'Our board upheld the First Amendment More...

The children's gay-themed picture book King & King will not be withdrawn from the Lower Macungie (PA) library despite a local couple's objections. After local township supervisors considered Jeff and Eileen Issa's request to remove More...

Young people'sauthors like Rodman Philbrick, Chris Crutcher, and Christopher Paul Curtis are rallying behind a California librarian who allegedly lost his job over a disputed book.In a letter dated November 20, librarian Richie Partington, best More...

Oprah Winfrey's move last week to withdraw her recommendation of The Education of Little Tree (Delacorte, 1976), an award-winning young adult novel by Forrest Carter, has ignited controversy within library circles, with an outspoken professor More...

A U.K. high court judge says Al Gore's film about global warming could be distributed to schools only if teachers issue a warning before showing it to students, reports the BBC and the Daily Mail.The More...

The St. Louis County Library in Missouri says it believes a patron recently created an unauthorized YA book display of controversial books-and then accused the library of distributing pornographic materials to minors.Alocal resident allegedly pulled More...

When a Smyrna High School official in Tennessee prohibited student Dani Super from wearing a "Free the Jena Six" T-shirt to school on September 20, the move may have seemed like a case of outright More...

A question about whether a book dealing with same-sex marriages should be available to children may have gotten mixed responses from presidential hopefuls-but most librarians say these kinds of titles are essential to learning."Librarians are More...

The Lewiston Public Library in Maine is expecting several donations of Robie Harris's It's Perfectly Normal (Candlewick, 1994), thanks to the actions of a local woman who refuses to return the book because she's 'horrified'; More...

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision that Alaska school officials did not violate a student's free speech by suspending him for acontroversial banner is a setback but not a serious loss for student rights, say More...

Although the Wake County Public Library system in Raleigh, NC, is seeing positive results since blocking MySpace.com in March, a North Carolina officer of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says it was the wrong More...

A history teacher at Horace Mann High School in Bronx, New York, has lost his job after poking fun, in his 2006 book, Academy X: A Novel (Bloomsbury) at a prep school that sounded very More...

Illinois librarians have something to be happy about. A bill in the state Senate that would have required filters on public library computers has stalled, makingpassage of the law unlikely.But the fight isn’t over. Opponents More...

Sometimes, a book challenge can end up with the disputed book being withdrawn from the library’s collection. Here’s one challenge that resulted in a book returning to the library shelf—and back on the summer reading More...

Readers of the new Chinese version of World Book Encyclopedia are in for some major changes. For one, it makes no mention of the 1989 government crackdown in Tiananmen Square and the arrest of Falun More...

Readers of the new Chinese version of World Book Encyclopedia are in for some major changes. For one, it makes no mention of the 1989 government crackdown in Tiananmen Square and the arrest of Falun More...

A Southwick, MA, school librarian says she fears losing her job after introducing a class of second graders to And Tango Makes Three (S & S, 2005)—the fictionalized children’s picture book based on two real-life More...

The Wisconsin Dells School District has banned middle-school children in the sixth grade from accessing the young adult novel, What My Mother Doesn’t Know (S&S, 2001) by Sonya Sones, following a parent’s complaint about the More...

Twin Spruce Junior High School in Gillette, WY, plans to review a mother’s request to remove a school library book that she says taught her 14-year-old son to sniff nail polish remover. Sherri Walter says More...

Just when you thought last year's Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) was dead, it's resurfaced again. This time, the bill is being reintroduced by Representative Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK). The act More...

In a blow to the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), a federal judge yesterday struck down the 1998 law, saying that it violates constitutional free speech. COPA is designed to keep Internet porn away from More...