Library Censorship News

Happy spring!

Prickly writers also bloom beautifully!

Happy spring!

I’m celebrating with a full week of hanging out with old friends. Lots of talk, good food and drink. But not so much writing.

Nevertheless, I do want to wish you a happy spring and give you the links for what I found most interesting this week in the library/book battle front. I also thought you’d like to see this photo of a barrel cactus beginning to bloom.

Being prickly may create the space needed for creative fulfillment. That’s today’s inspiration.

Library News

Books allegedly tossed in the trash at NYC school sparks investigation

“The New York City Department of Education is investigating claims that hundreds of new books -- many that were about people of color and LGBTQ identities -- were thrown in the trash at a Staten Island school after the NYC news outlet The Gothamist first reported the discovery.

The outlet reported that several of the discarded books, found at PS 55 The Henry M. Boehm School, had notes written on them potentially citing reasons for their removal.

For example, a book about Native American history called "We Are Still Here" had a note that read "negative slant on white people," while a note on the immigration story "My Two Border Towns," read "our country has no room and it’s not fair," according to The Gothamist. The outlet stated that another book thrown out was about singer and activist Nina Simone, which had a note that read: "This is about how Black people were treated poorly but overcame it. (Can go both ways)." ABC News could not independently verify this information.”

The above resulted in this:

Publishers condemn 'silent' censorship of books trashed at Staten Island school

“Because school libraries play a crucial role in providing families with access to books, removing titles makes it difficult or even impossible for students to encounter information and ideas that are necessary to their intellectual development,” read the letter written by Skip Dye, who chairs Penguin Random House's Intellectual Freedom Committee.

Authors Against Book Bans, Candlewick Press, Charlesbridge, Hachette Books, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebooks also signed on.

Gov. Cox signs bill making it easier to ban books from Utah schools statewide

The new law allows for a single book to be removed from all Utah public schools if a threshold number of schools or districts determine it amounts to “objective sensitive material.”

“That effectively means less than 10% of Utah school districts and charter schools combined can trigger a book’s statewide removal.”

The costs of banning books looking into the economic impact of book bans for schools and blacklisted authors.

In Virginia, Censors Attempt to Axe 'Wishtree' 

Floyd County Public Schools suspended a community reading of Katherine Applegate's 2017 novel following complaints that the novel depicts a monoecious red oak—a tree with both male and female reproductive parts

Fired Autauga-Prattville library director tells CNN’s Kaitlan Collins his role was politicized

‘Ban on book bans’ introduced in Minnesota Legislature

“I’ve got three daughters, and my goal as a parent is to make sure they’re critical thinkers, make sure that they can take care of themselves, make sure they can think for themselves, make sure they can challenge when they need to challenge,” said Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, the author of the House bill.

Florida school principals whipsawed on book bans | Editorial

Pity the thousands of public school principals who labor in Florida. Two years ago, the state Legislature ordered them to make sure students weren’t exposed to books with objectionable content, kicking off a huge book-banning controversy that has made all Floridians look like a bunch of nutty blue-noses.

Now, at the direction of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who propelled this embarrassing effort because he thought it would help his failed run for president, Florida officials have a new message for principals: You could soon face state penalties if you illegally prevent students from looking at library books in your schools.

Good Library News

A Nebraska bill to subject librarians to charges for giving ‘obscene material’ to children fails

But as a part of the above: The following is horrible, but it deserves our attention:

Lawmaker apologizes after inserting colleague’s name into book rape scene

I know there’s been lots in my posts about Ron DeSantis’ policies, but the following article has a funny story about how the author (an English professor) became a reader:

First Amendment guarantees right to read

“All that changed after school one day when I took the usual shortcut home through the alley behind Sherwood’s Hamburgers, and I spotted a book lying on the ground next to Sherwood’s dumpster.

As soon as I saw the cover, a tri-color drawing of a scantily clad, terrified woman staring into the barrel of a gun, beneath the title, "Hot Dames on Cold Slabs," I thought I had  found the answer to my adolescent hormonal dreams. 

Initially, I was disappointed when I looked inside and found no other pictures.  Curiosity, however,  about its potentially alluring truths led me to  finish reading the first entire book of my life, making the ragged, 128 page detective novel by Michael Storme, with a cover price of just thirty-five cents,  worth a million times more than that to my future.”

What I’m reading

I mentioned last week that I was reading The Other Americans by Laila Lalami. I finished it. Very satisfying.

I’ve started Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon. So far, so good! If I hadn’t read it was a modern telling of Persephone and Demeter, I’m not sure I would have guessed. That would have been completely on me because there are many nods to Greek mythology and the underworld. I’m just not sure I would have thought about it. I’m not far into the story, but I’m enjoying it.