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As much as my younger self loved final girls like Gerda from The Snow Queen, Buffy Summers, and Clarice Starling however, these characters didn’t exactly reflect my lived experience. They were all white women and they were all at least coded as being Christian, if not outright stated to be so. So in 2019, I decided to write a final girl who was like me: Ilana Lopez, the biracial heroine of The Ghosts of Rose Hill. 

With the message "Open books, open doors," this beautiful poster by Rafael López is available to SLJ subscribers and here, as a download. Created by SLJ, supported by Penguin Random House, and in partnership with NCTE, NCAC, PEN America, FReadom, and Library Journal, the powerful image promoting free expression is also available as social graphics for sharing on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.    

I like to think series books are the “Comfort Tacos” of the book world; they pull you in and swaddle you up in a world where you know you belong, know you feel comfortable, and where everything is just a little easier.

EVERY type of hair is worthy to be praised and celebrated!

To support teachers and librarians in the face of ongoing censorship, School Library Journal and Penguin Random House—in partnership with PEN America, NCAC, NCTE, FReadom, and Library Journal—have created a poster that vividly illustrates the importance of intellectual freedom.

Rewriting and subverting the familiar has been a literary trope for centuries. These authors  found inspiration in their Asian heritage, and their books exemplify a fluidity of countries, cultures, and identities.

The authors of THE AGATHAS talk about their experience writing their book, a story about two teen girls who go rogue to solve the disappearance of Brooke Donovan, the richest and most popular girl at their high school.

Karen Jensen and Kathryn King from Fort Worth Public Library present about doing a children's collection diversity audit

Here’s to many come outs. Here’s to not having to come out at all. Here’s to coming out for your own reasons, on your own timeline. Here’s to our bookshelves and our libraries reflecting all of this—and much more!