Classroom

This year's SLJ Best Books cover, was created by Guojing, author/illustrator of The Flamingo, a 2022 SLJ Best Book. Guojing is the 25th cover artist in an annual tradition of Best Books covers that began in 1998.

 For our September issue, journalist Martha Hinton reported on new approaches to teaching the topic of slavery in U.S. classrooms. 

For our October cover on horror comics, Stephen Giplin depicted a child reading Mark Fearing's graphic novel Welcome to Feral, while the classic monsters in the bedroom look on in terror.

Graphic novels deliver on the thrills and chills, and middle grade readers have plenty to choose from. Brigid Alverson examines the format and recommends 13 titles that deftly blend scary and fun.

The first comprehensive look at book bans in the 2021-22 school year breaks down the numbers by state, author, title, content, and legislative pressures. 

Children can handle the hard truths about slavery, say educators.  Literature can help the conversation.

These 10 Spanish-language and bilingual early readers are perfect for early elementary kids starting to read independently.

SLJ has proudly partnered with We Are Kid Lit Collective to share and promote the group's annual summer reading recommendations. These 21 middle grade titles include nonfiction, fiction, graphic novels, and even workbooks and theater scripts. A PDF of the full list is also available for download.

As book censorship efforts in the U.S. reach new heights, are you amplifying your Banned Books Week efforts or scaling back? Be part of our reporting.