Censorship

This is not the year for reflection, but a call to action. 

In the latest Censorship Roundup, books are coming off the shelves and "safe space" stickers being removed to comply with state legislation; there is one big win for Barnes & Noble (and Maia Kobabe and Sarah J. Maas), but many more battles being fought district by district.

In the past year, school librarians have faced coordinated, hate-filled censorship campaigns that impact available books and collection development decisions. Here, they share their stories.

Samuels, the former Katy (TX) ISD student who led the student protests against censorship, talks about the fight for intellectual freedom and what Banned Books Week means to them.

“If not me, who else?” Given the abuse Amanda Jones suffered—she was publicly accused of promoting pornographic materials in the library’s children’s section—“Why me?” might have been more like it. Instead, the school librarian took measure.

New policies are impacting school library purchases in Pennsylvania and Florida; one Texas district cancels its Scholastic Book Fairs for the year; and a South Carolina state senator threatens to eliminate the salaries of public library executives in his county in the latest Censorship Roundup.

Censorship continues to dominate news and reader attention on SLJ.com.

"America's Censored Classrooms" looks at state legislation around the country that is aimed at limiting what K-12 educators can teach about subjects such as race, gender, and American history.

The Louisiana librarian is taking her harassers to court.