You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. The ALA video, above, highlights student activism in the face of censorship and book-banning attempts. Here’s one activist student’s story, and it’s an inspiring one. Long as I’m throwing lists at you, here are the top 40 censored movies. Decades of […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials #3)

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic column featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. YCRT! News The N-word strikes again: Harper Lee and Mark Twain pulled from Minnesota classrooms. Does this mean Duluth students will be left to read lesser literature? In Missouri, “… a significant uptick in efforts to outlaw books following the 2016 […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials #2)

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic column featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. YCRT! News Roundup This news roundup leads off with prison book banning: The draconian New York state prison book ban I described in the previous YCRT! turns out to have been a limited test program, shut down the minute controversy erupted. […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1)

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic column featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. YCRT! News A federal judge has ruled that Arizona’s ban on ethnic studies classes (and the associated wholesale banning of books in the Tucson Unified School District) was motivated by racial discrimination, a potentially lethal blow to the ban. I say “potentially” because as […]

You Can’t Read That!

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. YCRT! News A public library in Lexington Park, Maryland, observed Banned Books Week with a display of 34 banned and challenged books, covering each book with brown lunch bags labeled “Do Not Read This. Lift to see the banned book, you rebel, […]

You Can’t Read That!

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Many schools and school districts in the United States have adopted procedures to follow when parents or community members demand the removal of books from classrooms, school libraries, and reading lists. Challenged books are reviewed by committees, which recommend retention, removal, […]

You Can’t Read That!

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! Banned Book Review Lookback: James and the Giant Peach

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 […]