Kara Yorio

Overall, “joy and celebration” prevailed at the event, the first in-person ALA conference since 2020.

The ALA community was elated to be face-to-face again, talking about issues that matter to the industry. Comments made during a Unite Against Book Bans panel set off a Twitter firestorm that laid bare the emotion and complexities of the censorship discussion.

School librarians await the interpretation of three new laws that will impact what and how they teach as Florida Freedom to Read Project founders fight for books to stay on the shelves.

The Uvalde shooting reignited the debate to allow educators to carry weapons in school. The new law signed this week by Governor Mike DeWine makes educators and staff eligible to carry weapons on campus with much less training than previously required.

It's Jewish American Heritage Month, and SLJ spoke with authors about the importance of writing Jewish characters and stories.

The letter, signed by 1,300 children's and YA authors and read into the record at a congressional hearing, spoke of the harm to kids from book censorship.

In response to a new Utah law regarding "sensitive materials in schools," the state's attorney general's office issued an official memorandum that outlines the constitutional protections for students and library materials. Educators can use it as a tool to push back against district attempts to remove books from the shelves.

It Fell From the Sky by Terry Fan and Eric Fan and Cougar Crossing by Meeg Pincus are this year's winners. Three silver medalists were chosen for each award.

After Google pulled the interactive reading app from its store because of the inclusion of Dawn McMillan's I Need a New Butt in its collection, Library Ideas appealed and won. The iVOX app is available again in the Google Play store.