Editors' Picks

SLJ and NCTE have revealed the 2023 round of “Refreshing the Canon” selections. Use these multimodal recommendations to contextualize and extend the messaging of Virginia Hamilton's acclaimed Black folklore collection The People Could Fly.

Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro's middle grade adventure receives a star this month, as do a Jarrett Lerner early reader and the Nintendo game Metroid Prime Remastered. 

Fantasy or contemporary, funny or serious, these books show characters of different cultural backgrounds, skin colors, and gender identities, demonstrating the many ways in which Jews can be intersectional.

National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's poem from President Joe Biden's inauguration has been restricted to older grades in one Florida school district; New Jersey legislators introduce law to prohibit book banning based on "partisan or doctrinal reasons”; and more in Censorship News.

Some Florida districts have ordered their teachers to remove titles until they are deemed appropriate. In others, teachers are acting proactively to avoid consequences. But how do you teach with empty shelves? Three teachers share their stories. 

Julie Stivers’s library at Mount Vernon Middle School in Raleigh, NC, empowers academic-recovery students to “be brave together.”

More librarians find their work challenging, but most still love what they do, the latest LJ/SLJ Survey shows.

Some Florida districts have ordered their teachers to remove titles until they are deemed appropriate. In others, teachers are acting proactively to avoid consequences. But how do you teach with empty shelves? Three teachers share their stories. 

Greater representation serves young library users and the profession. But more effort is needed to bring in—and retain—Black librarians.

Modernizing the library and creating a collection to match her community's needs has been key for Quilantan-Garza at Jaime Escalante Middle School in Pharr, TX, where most students are predominantly Spanish-speaking.

For the first time ever, SLJ is offering reviews of video games. Here, we review Pokémon Scarlet, Pokémon Violet, Pokémon TCG Live, and Marvel Snap.

Elementary and middle grade fans of this coming-of-age classic will love these recommendations.

Gotta sing? Gotta dance? Gotta run away fast? This collection may help children who have never stood up in front of big or small crowds quell those butterflies, take deep breaths, and take their first steps toward the footlights.

The report “Banned in the USA: State Laws Supercharge Book Suppression in Schools,” released Thursday, shows a 28 percent increase in book bans over the last six months, reflecting the impact of state legislation on censorship efforts across the country.