"When I do not want to say things in real life I often say them here." — Mimi Smartypants
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Every year, during the lead-up to Banned Books Week, my newsfeed floods with stories of library read-ins, exhibits, and scavenger hunts for banned books. The normal flow of stories about actual book bannings, parental challenges to books, and censorship dries to a trickle. Why, it’s almost […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. YCTR! News From a “love letter” to librarians: I imagine librarians are also working on their Banned Books displays now. Banned Books Week is set for Sept. 24-30, celebrating our freedom to read and to seek and express ideas. My […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie will stay part of the ninth-grade English curriculum in Sauk Prairie, Wisconsin. Schlump: The tragic story behind a forgotten masterpiece, a fascinating bit of history about one of many […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. “Parthenon” made of banned books built at site of Nazi book burning: YCRT! News In 2012 YCRT! featured a story about the banning of books by the Tucson Unified School District, an infamous incident that exposed Arizona to national and international ridicule. […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. YCRT! News Colorado school district pulls library copies of “Thirteen Reasons Why” over concerns it sensationalizes suicide, later reinstates the book. This article, from the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Blog, celebrates public library programs (in San Francisco, New York […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book news and reviews. “The purpose of our elementary schools is to teach writing, reading and arithmetic, not to encourage boys to wear dresses.” “Jacob’s New Dress” pulled from 1st grade curriculum in North Carolina after teacher complains to state legislators. Arizona school district pulls “The […]
What can those opposed to book banning do? More of what we have been doing: sharing news of challenges and attempts to ban books, showing up at local school board meetings to defend books, teachers, and meaningful education; organizing banned book giveaways in communities that have succumbed to the forces of darkness. If we don’t want to lose the freedoms that define us as Americans, we must be prepared to fight back.
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. YCRT! Campus Thoughtcrime Report Have the University of Wisconsin campus thought police never read “1984”? ‘Bias Incident Team’: Students’ Three Blind Mice Halloween Costume ‘Makes Fun of a Disability.’ Meanwhile, at another University of Wisconsin campus, the chancellor reversed his Bias Incident Team’s recent order to take […]