Authors & Illustrators

The new year brings new education laws to states across the country; a young publisher's posthumous fundraiser continues to help others; Jeff Kinney honored by the Educational Book and Media Association; BCALA seeks scholarship submissions; and more in this edition of News Bites.

The director of the Florida Freedom to Read Project discusses expectations for 2024, plus a look at new book-related laws for 2024, a Massachusetts police chief apologizes for an officer searching for a book at middle school, and the story of a Russian librarian who called out the fascism of removing LGBTQIA+ books.

From censorship and AI to book fairs and the state of middle grade publishing, it's been an eventful year. Among those driving SLJ's most viewed posts of 2023: Jeff Kinney, Moms for Liberty, and stellar librarians. Ah, and those Best Books.

Remembering those who died this year.

From intellectual freedom to AI, there was plenty to learn and discuss at the 2023 SLJ Summit in Atlanta. Here are just some of the ideas that came from those on panels and in breakout sessions.

PEN America's report, Spineless Shelves: Two Years of Book Banning, shows the spread of copycat book bans, as well as how several titles from an author were targeted after one of their works was banned.

We love our creators of children's and YA books and so do readers. Here are the five most popular stories centering writers whose stories inspired us over the past year. 

In his SLJ Summit keynote address, the best-selling "Wimpy Kid" author shared the memorable titles from his youth, as well as those that have opened his eyes to his privilege and the lives of those not like him.

“You've made it your life's work to make sure we see the humanity in one another,” author Jeff Kinney said, speaking at the SLJ Summit 2023 in Atlanta this weekend. “Books might be empathy machines, but librarians are the beating hearts of the communities they serve.”