Public Libraries

Ring in 2024 with these skillful compositions and top-notch vocal and instrumental performances, perfect for story hours, classrooms, or family time, including an album of songs based on banned books. 

Children are eager listeners—of audiobooks, according to a new Library Journal / School Library Journal survey. Libraries are keeping up with the demand as formats evolve.

Librarians, individuals, and grassroots organizations are on the offensive against censorship attempts.

Author Tae Keller speaks with DiCamillo about her latest book, Ferris, and the hallmark themes in her work. 

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.

A complaint to the police sent a plainclothes officer to the school in Great Barrington, MA, but Gender Queer was not there; hundreds of books get removed in a Florida district; and Books Save Lives Act was introduced in Congress.

From petting zoos to field trips, these initiatives forge strong ties with communities.

These nine works for elementary students to teenagers use visual strategies to convey inner thoughts, feelings, and emotions.