Davis School District in Utah–a 70,000+ district north of Salt Lake City–has officially removed the Bible from elementary and middle schools. This may be the first official removal of the religious text from schools in the country following a district’s review process. The decision comes after a parent complained about its vulgarity and violence. That parent was angry about the district’s previous decisions to remove books like Looking for Alaska and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian in accordance to Utah’s new sensitive materials law.

In their complaint, they noted the right-wing “parental rights” group Utah Parents United as prompting the creation of the law and the moral panic around books across the state, stating that the group’s pressure was undermining student education and their First Amendment Rights. The parent noted that the Bible was conveniently left off Utah Parents United’s naughty books likes, despite being “one of the most sex-ridden books around.”

The Bible will remain on shelves at district high schools, and an appeal has already been filed over the decision.

Although Utah’s 2022 sensitive materials law (House Bill 372) applied to the novels removed from the district, that was not cited as the reason for the Bible’s removal. Instead, the review committee found passages too vulgar and violent for those younger than high school age. The law allows committees to apply the standards as they see fit, and Davis District has exercised this flexibility several times. This is one of the reasons why such laws remain a concern: the latitude they offer districts means that a committee can make any decision they would like to, however they would like to, without consideration for the value of a text–nor how such decisions infringe on First Amendment Rights of students.

Whether or not the formal complaint filed against the Bible in December was satirical does not matter to the district. They followed the procedure set forth in their policy and treated it as real; the outcome was perhaps not expected.

According to KUTV, State Representative Ken Ivory, who supported Utah’s House Bill 372, did not see the removal of religious texts as a problem under the law. Moreover, he does not believe the removal of the book from Davis’s elementary or middle schools constitutes a book ban.

“No, not at all. What we’re looking at is ‘What’s age-appropriate?’ Many people have talked about book bans and this has nothing to do with a book ban. It’s about what’s age-appropriate for children in schools,” Ivory said.

The Bible is not the only religious text under fire in the district, either. Following the decision to remove the book, another complaint came in against the Book of Mormon on Friday. Although the district claims that privacy dictates they cannot disclose who the complaint came from nor what it contains, chances are that information will emerge in the coming weeks, thanks to the legal precedent of the Freedom of Information Act. The information about who creates a challenge and what they object to is not subject to nondisclosure, despite the district’s claim.

In the last year, several districts have faced challenges of the Bible, most done as a response from parents and activists who find the book review process and vague language around “inappropriate materials” applies to the religious text. Among the districts which have pulled the Bible include Keller Independent School District (TX), where it was returned to shelves and Escambia Schools (FL), where the state law has included language that specifically addresses the educational value of the Bible and thus, will not allow it to be banned. Escambia is currently being sued by PEN America, Penguin Random House, and several authors and creators over their book banning decisions.

Individuals have proposed challenges to the Bible across schools, too, in hopes of making a point about these laws. Those challenges, however clever they may seem, run counter to the pillars of the anti-censorship movement and instead create an opportunity for individuals to get a few minutes of fame about their behavior, rather than point directly to how book bans–”cleaning up books” or “curating collections,” in the parlance of censors–are antithetical to the First Amendment.

The banning of the Bible is not a win for anti-censorship, nor is it worth celebrating in any capacity. You don’t end book bans by banning books, even in jest. In fact, as Davis Schools show, you only end up banning more books.

What are the books everyone is reading this spring? Well, the best way to know is to check the bestseller list — except that they can’t seem to agree. A New York Times bestseller isn’t necessarily an Amazon bestseller. That’s why every week, we compile the top 10 from the four biggest bestseller lists to find the overlap, so you can see what the biggest books of the moment are.

To get these numbers, we look at the New York Times, both Combined Print & E-Book Fiction and Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction lists; Amazon Charts, both Fiction and Nonfiction; Publishers Weekly; and Indie Bestsellers, Fiction and Nonfiction, both Paperback and Hardcover. New additions to the list this week are bolded.

This week has a few new additions, including Nora Roberts’s newest, Identity. Of course, no living author can compete with Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr Seuss at graduation time: it’s the overall #1 seller from last week on Publishers Weekly’s list.

This list continues to have a lack of diversity on many levels, including being disproportionately by white authors. Some Indie Bestsellers you should know about are Rogue Justice by Stacey Abrams, The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor, and This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.

Books On All Four Bestseller Lists:

Happy Place by Emily Henry (NYT #2, Publishers Weekly #3, Amazon #2, Indie Bestsellers #2)

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (NYT #4, Publishers Weekly #5, Amazon #3, Indie Bestsellers #1)

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover (NYT #3, Publishers Weekly #6, Amazon #6, Indie Bestsellers #7)

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (NYT #1, Publishers Weekly #10, Amazon #3, Indie Bestsellers #1)

Books On Three Bestseller Lists:

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann (NYT #2, Amazon #9, Indie Bestsellers #1)

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia and Bill Gifford (NYT #3, Amazon #4, Publishers Weekly #7)

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (NYT #7, Amazon #5, Indie Bestsellers #4)

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (NYT #10, Amazon #4, Indie Bestsellers #3)

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk (NYT #4, Amazon #7, Indie Bestsellers #6)

Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune (NYT #9, Amazon #8, Indie Bestsellers #4)

Books On Two Bestseller Lists:

Identity by Nora Roberts (NYT #1, Publishers Weekly #2)

Atomic Habits by James Clear (Amazon #2, Indie Bestsellers #6)

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr Seuss (Publishers Weekly #1, Amazon #8)

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (NYT #8, Indie Bestsellers #2)

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (NYT #6, Indie Bestsellers #4)

It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover (NYT #5, Publishers Weekly #7)

Spare by Prince Harry (NYT #7, Amazon #5)

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave (Amazon #9, Indie Bestsellers #5)

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (NYT #6, Amazon #10)

The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up by Andy Cohen (NYT #9, Amazon #10)

We’re almost halfway through 2023, which means booksellers, reviewers, and book lovers of all kinds are taking a moment to celebrate some of the amazing titles released so far this year. Every summer, bookselling titan Barnes & Noble joins the fun by releasing their “Best Books of the Year (So Far)” list. Last year’s list was a tidy collection of 10 books, dominated by fantasy and sci-fi titles with a smattering of romance, historical fiction, and literary fiction. But in this year’s “So Far” list released today, they’re trying something different. It’s a much wider list, consisting of over 100 titles organized into 50 mini-lists grouped by genre, topic, and/or general vibes.

Love stories about octopuses? Barnes & Noble has a few books you’ll love. Can’t get enough of messy protagonists? They’ve got you covered. Looking for foodie fiction? B&N has got that too.

Instead of browsing a long list of books, Barnes & Noble’s “So Far” list is clustered into groupings of three noteworthy books united by a common theme, from traditional categories like “The Best Literary Novels” to more unusual ones like “The Best Books to Make You Want to Hug Your Best Friend” and “The Best Books to Go Down the Rabbit Hole of Dark Academia.” All of the books included hit shelves between January and June of 2023.

It’s a new and effective format for getting great books into the hands of readers looking for something that fits their specific tastes. Here at Book Riot, we also make best books of the year and mid-year lists. It’s a challenging process. What makes a book the best? How do you compare a thought-provoking slice-of-life literary novel to an out-of-this-world sweeping sci-fi epic? Is an impeccably researched nonfiction science book that teaches you something new really better than a pitch-perfect romantic comedy that brings you immense joy? The truth is that “best book” lists are inherently subjective, and the books included often say more about the creator of the list than the books themselves.

That’s what makes Barnes & Noble’s new approach refreshing. It’s not a list of the most high-brow books being discussed by the literary elite. It’s not a roundup of bestsellers. It’s not even a handful of books determined “best” in their respective genres. It’s got something for everyone, presented in a helpful format for navigating some of 2023’s beloved new books based on your personal taste.

“It is always a thrilling challenge to curate our Best Books list. This year has been an exceptional one for new publishing, with an embarrassment of riches across all genres,” said Jackie De Leo, Chief Merchandising Officer at Barnes & Noble. “By introducing a whole new collection of categories to this year’s list, our booksellers have been able to highlight magnificent books for every type of reader.”

You can find the full “Best Books of 2023 (So Far)” list on Barnes & Noble’s website. But below, you’ll see some of the most unique categories from the list and their corresponding books.

Best of the “Best Books of 2023 (So Far)” Categories from Barnes & Noble

The Best Unconventional Detectives

I love an untrained crime solver who can’t keep their nose out of a mystery. If you do too, check out Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina about a girl determined to find out what happened to all the women who have gone missing around her reservation’s new casino. Rounding out B&N’s amateur sleuth list are Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley about a teenager determined to return the remains of an ancestor dubbed “Warrior Girl” from a museum to her tribe and Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy, which stars a tattooed, chain-smoking queer nun who wants to track down the arsonist making her life hell at a New Orleans Catholic school.

The Best Hot Messes

Do you, like Marie Kondo, love mess? Barnes & Noble recommends Jen Beagin’s Big Swiss, a grippingly chaotic novel about a woman in upstate New York who takes a job transcribing appointments for a sex and relationship therapist and then keeps meeting the clients in real life. It’s garnered a lot of buzz and is currently being adapted into an HBO series starring Jodie Comer. Also recommended are Really Good, Actually by comedian and screenwriter Monica Heisey about a young divorcée messily embracing single life and The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue, which tells the story of a young woman who becomes infatuated with her married professor.

The Best Haunted Houses

Haunted houses aren’t just for October. B&N recommends She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran, set in Vietnam at a French colonial house currently under renovation and full of creepy crawlies and a ghost bride. You’ll find more haunting abodes in Grady Hendrix’s How to Sell a Haunted House, where two siblings encounter some unsettling puppets while trying to sell their deceased parents’ home, and Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury, which follows two teen girls in different timelines as they venture into a ghost-filled mansion in northern Ontario.

The Best Humor Essays That Hit Way Too Close to Home

Couldn’t we all use a laugh? B&N’s humor essays category celebrates the titles that makes us cackle and say, “Oh no, it’s me,” like Samantha Irby’s hilarious book Quietly Hostile about everything from the glamor of writing for the Sex and the City reboot to her battles with her misanthropic chihuahua. The category is rounded out by comedian Zach Zimmerman’s debut collection Is It Hot in Here (Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth)? and stand-up comic Jena Friedman’s Not Funny: Essays on Life, Comedy, Culture, Et Cetera.

The Best Con Artists

There’s nothing like a good con artist to take you on a twisty-turny adventure. This mini-list features Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, a novel that’s got the whole book world talking, starring an author who steals the unpublished novel of a more successful, recently deceased writer friend and passes it off as her own. Also included are true crime book Scoundrel: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free by Sarah Weinman and literary thriller The Guest by Emma Cline about a woman who fakes her way into a new life on Long Island.

The Best Books Starring Octopi

Octopuses were at the center of the literary scene last year with both Remarkably Brilliant Creatures and How Far the Light Reaches making big waves. (Pun intended.) They’re back on shelves this year in Sea Change by Gina Chung, which tells the story of a young woman who befriends a giant Pacific octopus at the mall aquarium where she works while struggling to come to terms with the disappearance of her marine biologist father. B&N also recommends fantasy adventure novel The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty, starring a middle-aged pirate who takes to the seas to save a missing teenager, and Many Things Under a Rock: The Mysteries of Octopuses by marine biologist David Scheel, a nonfiction science book that explores the fascinating lives of our favorite tentacled friends.

The Best Poetic Celebrations of Joy

Readers love books that bring them joy, but how about books that beautifully explore the concept of joy? This category features the powerful and moving essay collection The Book of (More) Delights by poet Ross Gay, out in September, which discusses the places where we find and spark joy. It also includes Clint Smith’s poetry collection Above Ground, which explores the joys and fears of fatherhood, and Kwame Alexander’s Why Fathers Cry at Night: A Memoir in Love Poems, Recipes, Letters, and Remembrances, a multimedia collection celebrating the people we love.

The Best Books That Put the “Fun” in Dysfunctional

Dysfunctional families make for some of the funniest and ultimately most healing stories. You’ll certainly find an entertainingly messy family in Deepa Varadarajan’s Late Bloomers, where one Indian American family is rocked by the dissolution of the parents’ 36-year-long arranged marriage. For even more delightful dysfunction, read Jenny Jackson’s Pineapple Street, following three women struggling to follow the rules of their extravagantly wealthy New York City family, and Tara Conklin’s Community Board about a young woman trying to get her life back on track while dealing with not just a messy family, but a whole messy community in Murbridge, Massachusetts.

You might also enjoy:

How Should We Feel About Barnes & Noble Now?

What Is Going On With Barnes & Noble?

How Queer-Owned Bookstores Are Celebrating Pride Month

This week, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón in conjunction with the Library of Congress announced that NASA’s Europa Clipper will be launching on its mission in October 2024 with “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa.” The poem, written by Limón, will travel 1.8 billion miles through the galaxy. It will be engraved on the space craft.

There has long been speculation of life on Europa beneath its ice-covered ocean. Whatever that life might look like is yet to be known, but the mission will provide vital information about the moon’s inhabitants, culture, terrain, and potential for supporting life. The Europa Clipper is expected to land on Jupiter’s moon in 2030.

More, you can have your name included as part of the mission. Anyone who’d like to sign the poem as it hurtles through space may do so at NASA’s Mission in a Bottle website. Every name included before December 31, 2023, will be engraved on a microchip to accompany the poem.

“Writing this poem was one of the greatest honors of my life, but also one of the most difficult tasks I’ve ever been assigned,” Limón said at an event held at the Library of Congress to announce the project. “Eventually, what made the poem come together was realizing that in pointing toward other planets, stars and moons, we are also recognizing the enormous gift that is our planet Earth. To point outward is also to point inward.”

NASA has launched similar projects before, allowing anyone who wished to send their name into space to do so with Artemis I and several Mars spacecraft. The current Mission in a Bottle efforts are similar to the Golden Record sent aboard the Voyager, which sent into space an array of sounds and images from across the globe into space.

“Ada Limón is a brilliant poet whose work often connects readers with the natural world, so her Poem for Europa is powerful in communicating our human instincts for art, science and exploration,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden during the announcement of the initiative. “Sending a poem into space on a mission to explore our solar system is an incredible opportunity for us all to reflect and sign on to Ada’s poem as a ‘Message in a Bottle’ from Earth.”

Find below the announcement of the program, where Limón unveiled the poem and performed it.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.

This week, book banners showed up to the Douglas County Public Library board meeting in Colorado to protest books in the system’s collection. It is not the first time they’ve done it, and it’s also not the first time counter protestors have shown up to push back. None of this is news nor is it all that interesting; at this point, it’s pretty standard, even if there are still folks choosing to ignore this is happening in their own back yards at their public library.

What is more interesting than that, though, is looking at how these crisis actors are presenting their message and courting people to their cause. Propaganda works when an uninformed public — usually folks who aren’t engaged in the inaccurately named “culture wars” online — sees it and is appalled by what is presented. Good propaganda works because it’s convincing and presented in such a way as to appear authoritative. But y’all, this isn’t even close to good, and the book banning bigots do not even care. By presenting their false narratives in the most outrageous manner, they’re able to stoke anger and fear in new ways…and it is working.

But let’s break down what is truth here and what is spin (spoiler alert: it’s all spin). The purpose of sharing this is twofold: first, exposure matters since too many folks who care about the First Amendment Rights of all and the freedom of access are putting their heads in the sand and not looking at this stuff and second, this will help in your own talking points with friends, family, board meeting members and attendees, educators, and legislators, debunking fact from fiction.

Because sorry, that’s your job, too. You can’t not look and pretend it is not happening.

The background of the poster is our first sign this is going to be about fear mongering: it’s the Pride flag. Even better, it’s almost the entirely inclusive Pride flag; it’s missing the intersex inclusive element, introduced in 2021.

Layered immediately on top of the flag is the problem identified by the book banners. It reads “Child’s Porn @ Douglas County Library.” There is no such thing as “child’s porn.” Pornography is created and distributed for those 18 and older. Anything that would be called pornography and attempt to be distributed to anyone under the age of 18 would be deemed obscene and would never 1. make it through the publishing ecosystem, 2. let alone be printed, 3. or be distributed in any capacity. For a public library to retain funding and their status as government organization, no pornography would be collected, cataloged, and distributed, period, let alone “child’s pornography,” which does not exist.

More simply, “Child’s Pornography” would not be covered by the First Amendment Right of Freedom of Speech.

Beside the misleading, factually incorrect concern on the poster is a phrase that might be easy to miss. It reads “The weak and confused are easy to control.” Who are the weak and confused? The poster does not explain who that might include, but if we want to make the leap and assume it’s minors, then that is also factually incorrect. Let’s come at this in two ways: by experience and by science.

Anyone who has ever worked with young people knows that they will not do something they are not ready for. This includes reading. If a kid does not want to read a book, whether assigned in the classroom or sitting on a public library shelf, they simply won’t. Kids are excellent self-censors. If they’re not ready for the book or they’re not engaged with it, they’ll just stop reading.

I know. I cite a librarian there, and the rest of the stories in that New York Times carousel include authors and other so-called “indoctrinators.” So let’s move to the science part of the argument.

Kids are not “weak and confused.” Indeed, children are resilient humans. This is because their minds are still developing and with the support of caring adults in their life, they can overcome hardships and strengthen the neurological muscles that help them thrive. But the key here is needing a stable adult in their lives who believes in their capacity to do this; calling children “weak and confused” may not be the best indicators of what these adults believe of children.

If your frame of mind is that children are weak and confused, it won’t matter what they are or are not “exposed” to. Your belief in who they are absolutely undermines any potential they have for developing resiliency, self-awareness, self-esteem, and every other positive quality that are waiting to be shined and honed.

As a parent, your literal job is to set the limits and boundaries of what your “weak and confused” are and are not allowed to do. If you can’t make a trip to the library with them one where they do not peek at books you don’t like or you are unable to keep them from attending an event at the library where there might be a drag queen storytime, sounds like you’re not upholding your end of the “parental rights” bargain here. Maybe you just need to do your parenting work a little better.

And if your signaling here is in reference to Jesus being a shepherd for the “weak and confused,” per the Bible, if you’re putting yourself in the role of Jesus, seems like you know what you need to do already. Jesus put queer people on Earth too, and he gave them the capacity to make art. Wild, eh?

Moving down is the first — only? — truth on this flier is the time, date, and location of the Douglas County Public Library Board Meeting. People are being encouraged to attend to “stop propagandizing our children.” What exactly is the library propagandizing to children? The non-existent “child’s porn?”

Or do you mean the list of books helpfully listed along the left side of the poster? The ones which each have a title and an age rating? Don’t those age ratings do precisely what you expect them to do and “rate” the content of the books for appropriateness? So where’s the propagandizing?

Is it the set of images from Gender Queer? Two pages from a 250 page graphic memoir, pulled out of context and made to look far more salacious than they are within the comic? Because this is a dream sequence between two consenting adults, not “propaganda.” You’d know that if you read it, but we already know that hasn’t happened.

Over half of U.S. teenagers have sex before the age of 18. Pictured on the right is This Book Is Gay, recommended for ages 14 and up; included are images of physical body parts. Imagine a teenager preparing to have their first sexual experience and knowing anatomical terms for themselves and their partners! Imagine them being informed of how to keep themselves safe!

Of course, it is two pages in a 320 page book. But context doesn’t matter, does it?

Speaking of context: the quote on the left is an excellent example. This is a song from the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. Notice the ample use of “…” to omit what the poster maker doesn’t want you to know! But it is worth noting this is a real song, sung by this very real choice.

And it’s complete satire.

After the song’s YouTube debut in 2021, the Choir received numerous death threats from across the country, and the song became a right-wing talking point for weeks, prompting their think tanks to declare the implicit message despite claiming they understand it to be satire or tongue in cheek.

Nothing more really needs to be said here, other than the poster makers did a bang up job conflating a satirical song from a gay choir with books that have age ratings on them with “child’s pornography” and “propagandizing children” at the public library.

As for the images? The individual beside the lyrics is a member of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, while the drag queens in the back are just that: drag queens. One of them came from Adobe Stock!

All of this is to say that literacy is a real issue across the country, and the book crisis actors are taking deep advantage of it to push their christofascism upon as many as possible. Books like those listed on the side of the poster, as well as comics like those included on the poster, are incredible tools to help fight misinformation and this deep issue of illiteracy.

Douglas County has never held a drag queen story time. But what it has held are meetings featuring a lot of white people showing up and screaming at board meetings in 2023.

But even if the library had held Drag Queen story time, I feel a hell of a lot safer letting my “weak and confused” child spending an afternoon with the drag queens than I do with the angry cis white people. The drag queens bring books. Who knows what the white people are packing, but it looks far more dangerous.

• “We’re not banning books. We’re trying to clean things up a little bit,” Cold Harbor District representative Steve Ikenberry said during a May 9 School Board meeting. He named 17 books he said should not be available in schools. I’ll admit the phrase “clean things up a bit” is a new way to pretend it’s not book banning (Virginia). Also how little do you have to do in your role as a county supervisor that you’re telling the school board what to do about 17 books?
• Thursday night will be when Newtown, Connecticut schools determine whether or not to ban Flamer and Blankets and it’s not looking good for the books.
• Two board members in Newtown have resigned ahead of the vote.
• Brandon Schools (Manitoba, Canada) will be keeping LGBTQ+ books, despite a small, vocal group stealing their philosophies from south of the border.
• Books will not be banned in Rockwell Falls Public Library (NY), despite “concerns” from the community. You know the story isn’t original.
• This is how you show up to your school and library board. Even when there are rumors of protests, when you show up in support, the crisis actors don’t (Wenatchee, Washington).
• “The Fort Worth Public Library [TX] removed an LGBTQ reading challenge from its Mayor’s Summer Reading Challenge after city leadership received complaints.” But I thought this was not about getting rid of LGBTQ books? I’m so confused what this is all about if it’s not anti-LGBTQ and not book banning. (This is sarcastic — we know what it is about).
• Book crisis actors in Fremont, Nebraska, now want to revise the book selection policy at the public library since they’re not getting their way with the book challenges.
• “Under Orange County’s new policy, people who want to challenge a book, submit a form outlining why a book should be removed, and meet with a school administrator or principal. If they can’t come to an agreement about what to do with a book, the book is reviewed by a five person district-wide literacy council.” I’m sure there will be no issues with this, especially in Florida.
• In Ketchikan, Alaska, the city council plans to decide whether a couple of YA nonfiction books can remain in the public library’s YA section or need to be moved. The meeting was to happen this week but was postponed. Again: it’s the city council deciding, not actual professionals in the field. Again: it’s the public library.
• Three novels are under fire at Beavercreek Schools — Juliet Takes a Breath, Identical, and Impulse — while a biology textbook is current being challenged in Bellbrook Schools — it mentions biological things, of course (Ohio).
• Autauga-Prattville Public Library (AL) continues to be facing book challenges from the local bigots.
• “The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District [AK] got more than 300 applicants for a new library committee that will review dozens of challenged books in Alaska’s second-largest school district. But instead of using a random lottery selection, as district officials announced last month, each member of the seven-member Mat-Su school board will choose one person to help review a list of at least 56 volumes.” This is not going to go well. Especially given this district’s history.
• Sold is under fire in Berkeley County, South Carolina, schools.
• A nice story to read about a group forming in Wyoming to oppose book bans and censorship.
• If you haven’t been keeping up with the drama at Liberty Lakes, Washington’s, public library, here’s the whole story. It began over wanting to remove Gender Queer then the board voting themselves in charge of collection development before the mayor put the kibosh on it. This is how public libraries being taken over are having it happen — it’s not “just” school libraries.
• “The School Committee in Ludlow, Massachusetts, is scheduled to vote next month on a controversial proposal that could significantly alter the types of books and media allowed in the district’s libraries. It could also take away significant decision-making from librarians.” Remember, it’s not just the states you love to hate on.
• The latest proposal in Virginia Beach, Virginia schools to create a list of “lewd” books in middle and high schools so parents can opt their kids out.
• Students who shouldn’t have to are being forced to rally behind the teacher who assigned Angels in America for reading in an advanced drama class — a parent complained because it explores the AIDS epidemic (CA).
• The Central Arkansas Library System is suing the state over their new law that would criminalize librarians for doing their jobs.
• In Crawford County, Arkansas, a group of adults have filed a lawsuit against the library and its relocation of LGBTQ+ books for teens.
• “In the midst of ongoing attempts across the country to censor certain literary topics in schools — and in some cases public libraries — the Livingston Township Council has unanimously adopted a resolution affirming the township’s support of the Livingston Public Library [NJ] and the freedom of all readers to select their own material.” More of this please!
• The fuller story of book challenges happening at Caro Area Public Library (MI). Let me reemphasize it’s the PUBLIC LIBRARY.
• Recall the Wyoming public library board considering letting PATRONS create “trigger warnings” on books? Where anyone could just tag anything they want however they want at the public library? The vote is postponed.
• “I take exception to the May 25th commentary by Mr. Paul Miller labeling the exclusion of LGBT-themed books from Samuels Public Library [VA] a violation of the First (“Free Speech”)Amendment of the Constitution. The First Amendment prohibits Congress from restricting the right of the press and of individuals to write and speak freely. That has nothing to do with local public libraries where making decisions to exclude or include books is the right of library staff, directors, and boards.” Tell me you don’t know how the First Amendment works, Dick.
• The Upside of Unrequited will remain on shelves in Flagler Schools (FL). The statistic than more than half of the books don’t survive the challenge process should concern the hell out of anyone who cares about First Amendment rights.
• Over the school year, Spotsylvania County Public Schools (VA) yanked 14 titles from shelves, which amounted to 108 books.
• Getting news about book censorship from the high school newspaper and not regional or local papers is a reminder of how much the media cares. Roseville High School (CA) sees parental complaints about books in the library and materials used in the classroom.
• In Los Angeles, California, parents burned a Pride flag and have been protesting events, including one related to reading a book about queer people. This has resulted in a trans teacher being removed from the school for their safety.
• “The proposed policy states that no materials in the elementary school libraries should contain explicit written description of sexual acts or nude intimate parts, implied written description of nude intimate parts, visual or visually implied depictions of sexual acts or simulations of such acts and visual depictions of nude intimate parts or implied nudity.” The panic over this is so out of line. There are absolutely no books like this in any elementary library (Ludlow, Massachusetts).
• In Winnipeg, Manitoba, It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris and Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan were examples cited by right-wingers who want the books and books like them banned in public libraries (this article requires an email address, but it is not paywalled).