In April 2023, 56 boos were pulled from shelves in Mat-Su Borough School District in Alaska. The school board selected a group of community members to work through four books each month to see if the books provide pornographic material to children under 16. Tiffany Jackson’s Monday’s Not Coming is among those on the list.… Read More 21 Feb: Black and Banned

In January, 2024, 689 books were removed from classrooms in Orange County Florida because they might violate HB 1069 that bans materials with sexual conduct from schools. What I find interesting about this, and similar legislation across the country, is that it prescribes a practice but contains no fines or other punishment. Coe Booth’s Bronxwood… Read More 20 Feb: Black and Banned

A Place Inside Me, A Poem to Heal the Heart, written by Zetta Elliott and illustrated by Noa Denmon, was challenged in a school libraries in Virginia in May and in Tennessee in October. The poem works through the feelings a boy has after a girl in his neighborhood is killed by the police. It’s… Read More 19 Feb: Black and Banned

Challenges to materials in public libraries accounted for 49% of documented library materials challenges in 2023, compared to 16% in 2022 according to the ALA. All Boys Aren’t Blue had been banned in 29 school districts across 8 states by mid 2023. While I can’t get an account of how often this has happened in… Read More 17 Feb: Black and Banned

There are so many different guidelines for challenges. While questioning the presence of a book in libraries had traditionally been handled at the local level, we’re beginning to see states legislate not only what types of books school and libraries should make available to young readers, but also what should be the process to ban… Read More 16 Feb: Black and Banned