News & Features

Thirty-six schools will receive grants to purchase Mathical Book Prize titles.

November's starred offerings include nonfiction by Kwame Alexander and Andrea Davis Pinkney, as well as a professional reading title about Judy Blume.

Utah has added Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott to its list of books banned at all public schools; the Texas state board of education wants legislation giving it  control of school library collections; and Crank by Ellen Hopkins remains on South Carolina high school shelves, but students will need parental permission.

Shifa Saltagi Safadi's novel in verse about an immigrant family, the 2016 Muslim ban, and a boy trying to balance school and family earned the prestigious prize.

Among this year’s outstanding listens—with publication dates from November 2023 to October 2024—are two picture books, two volumes of a graphic trilogy (they count as one entry), a head-smack must-read history, and several laugh-out-loud novels. 

The South Carolina Board of Education allowed three classics to remain in libraries and classrooms but removed seven titles from all public schools; Arizona district pays nearly $90,000 to settle book ban lawsuit; 25 books and graphic novel series removed from a Pennsylvania district. 

In this Q&A series, SLJ poses five questions and a request for a book recommendation to a debut YA author. In the latest installment, Wen-yi Lee shares about The Dark We Know.