SLJ staff

The lawsuit against the Mat-Su (AK) School District claims the protagonists in the challenged books are people of color or LGBTQ+ characters. In other censorship news, a public library in Kansas was forced to remove all LGBTQIA+ children's books in order to keep its lease, PEN America names director of Florida effort to fight book bans, and MTV's new documentary, The ABCs of Book Banning, is now available to stream on Paramount+.

A survey from SLJ revealed the extent to which individual librarians have faced hostility from community members, organizations, and in some cases, their administration.

Six educators share tips and tools, from utilizing ChatGPT to help write college recommendations to using voice technology to make poetry more engaging for students. 

Esteemed editors, authors, and translators discuss their work behind the scenes to bring children's books from all over the world to the U.S. market. Foremost on their minds? Young readers. Join the live program December 14.

There is confusion over who placed the restrictions on Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, authors of His Name Is George Floyd; Pink to distribute banned books at Florida concerts; and more.

We Need Diverse Books offers a new website with resources for librarians and educators about books by Native creators and how to use them in the classroom; Newbery-winning author Susan Patron has died; YALSA releases Teen Top 10 list; federal education employees will create AI guidance and policy for K-12; and more in this edition of News Bites.

Leah Johnson, author of You Should See Me in a Crown, has opened Loudmouth Books, a bookstore in Indianapolis dedicated to the titles often targeted by bans; former Central  York, PA, students get a book deal to tell their stories; a video on the mental health impact of book bans; Kentucky district returns more than 100 books to the shelves; and more.

Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond and Wayward Creatures by Dayna Lorentz, the 2023 Orbis Pictus and Charlotte Huck Award winners, will be honored at the NCTE annual conference.

In Connecticut towns, book banning has become a key issue for school board candidates; a Michigan judge ruled 14 titles had literary merit and dismissed a lawsuit to remove them from a district's library; and as one South Carolina district retains five challenged titles, another removes an LGBTQIA+ history book and restricts other books.