School Libraries

Here we go! Readers let loose on the selection available in middle grade titles as well as disinvited authors.

The censorship-related legal battles continue as Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Club, Harper Collins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Sourcebooks, The Authors Guild, Julia Alvarez, John Green, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jodi Picoult, and Angie Thomas sue Florida; and the Department of Justice files a brief in support of the lawsuit against the Cobb County (GA) School District.

Created and hosted by Jordan Lloyd Bookey, co-founder of the reading motivation app Beanstack, that is used by schools and libraries worldwide, The Reading Culture podcast explores authors’ personal stories and their insights into motivating young people to read.

While book bans and other efforts to curtail free expression in schools have made headlines, canceled visits have gone relatively unmarked. SLJ spoke with authors about their experiences. 

From Quick, Draw! and DALL·E to Stretch AI, these tools provide fodder for idea generating, problem solving, and more.

Outstanding school librarians share new ideas, reboots, and advice for 2024–25.

School Library Journal is now accepting applications for the 2025 School Librarian of the Year award, sponsored by Scholastic. Let us know what you are doing in your school library and join an exceptional group of honored peers, including K.C. Boyd, Amanda Jones, Cicely Lewis, and Amanda Chacon.

The Francis Howell School District in O'Fallon, MO, passed a new policy to allow the removal of certain books and restrict gender identity conversation. Meanwhile in Texas, one district is considering banning books about gender fluidity and another seeks to alter its policy after Advanced Placement titles are removed from libraries.

Because of their inherent language constraints, many of the decodables being published today lack what children would consider an engaging and coherent storyline. But this is an area where New Jersey-based publisher ReadBright excels.