Censorship

New Jersey high school librarian Martha Hickson suggests keeping track of reviews, awards, and places where a book has been retained on the shelves to help when the title is challenged in your library.

SLJ's most viewed stories of the past seven days address peer-to-peer advice for school librarians and the impact of censorship.

Explore the latest resources for education's hottest topics: banned books and artificial intelligence.

Newbery Honor and Stonewall Award–winning children's author Kyle Lukoff focused only on the creative work at a weeklong youth literature workshop at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA.

Books were removed in Texas, Florida, and Tennessee, but libraries in Colorado and Maine retained challenged titles. Plus, Rutherford County, TN, may change library cards to keep limit access for minors, and updates on the lawsuit over And Tango Makes Three and a fight in Iowa over Friday Night Lights.

Thirty percent of challenges led to a book’s removal in 2023. And while 34 percent of librarians who experienced challenges have considered leaving the profession, 65 percent are motivated to fight censorship.

In Saline County, AR, a judge can now hire and fire the county’s public librarians; authors discuss having their books pulled from shelves; Illinois libraries face bomb threats; and more. 

Booktalks are brief, in this case uber-brief, pitches to “sell” young readers on a given title. We invite readers to give it a shot, submit a stellar video booktalk for potential publication on SLJ.com and our social channels.

An Iowa school district asked ChatGPT to find books in its collection that had sexual content, Fort Worth ISD closes libraries for inventory after board removes three titles, "Heartstopper" books pulled in Mississippi, and John Green's 'Fault in Our Stars' may return to YA section in Indiana.