Overdue News Tidbits

The International Children’s Digital Library looks like a fun way to browse children’s books in digitized form. There are a lot of really cool-looking images from early 20th-century books and even earlier. As more and more books from around the world are added to the library, it seems like this could turn into a great resource, not only for seeing what’s been published, but also for getting ideas and inspiration.

The ALA has released its list of the 10 Most Challenged Books of 2005. What fascinates me are the books that seem to crop up in this context again and again over the years: Judy Blume’s Forever, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, and Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War. Apparently Captain Underpants has joined that illustrious list. But plenty of young adult authors are up in arms about this, and have formed a blog called AS IF! Authors Support Intellectual Freedom. Be sure to check it out–members include Chris Crutcher, Jeanne DuPrau, Laurie Halse Anderson, David Levithan, Gregory Maguire, Scott Westerfeld, and dozens of others.

Read about the latest Newbery and Caldecott winners, Lynne Rae Perkins and Chris Raschka.

About the author

Sarah Jamila Stevenson is a writer, artist, editor, graphic designer, proofreader, and localization QA tester, so she wears a teetering pile of hats. On any given day, she is very tired. She is the author of the middle grade graphic novel Alexis vs. Summer Vacation, and three YA novels, including the award-winning The Latte Rebellion.

Comments

  1. Heh. Captain Underpants. Now we’ve just gotten dumb…

    Thanks for finding “As If.” What a great place to read and comment about censorship. I can’t believe some of what is there – it’s hilarious to me that people are just now getting to banning The Handmaid’s Tale. What it means to me is that some people are just now reading it… isn’t it amazing that the banners are ever so often the people who don’t actually read?!

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