SLJ Staff

These three disparate middle grade titles that feature plotlines informed by pandemics are especially relevant in the age of COVID-19.

If you’re a school, children’s, or teen librarian going to Chicago for the American Library Association conference, these are just some of the sessions that may be of interest.

The Margaret A. Edwards Award winner took over SLJ’s Instagram for a live Q&A that spanned his books, inspiration, censorship, and AI. Here's what he shared.

Three Arkansas parents are suing, alleging that the relocation of LGBTQ+ books in the public library is unlawful censorship. Meanwhile, book ban battles continue in New York, Connecticut, Alaska, and Washington.

SLJ columnist Pat Scales will receive the 2023 Roll of Honor Award; 2021 School Librarian of the Year Amanda Jones is writing a book about her experience standing up to book banners; Follett to host ReadingCon 2023; and new offerings from Gale and EBSCO in this edition of News Bites.

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.

The lawsuit against Escambia (FL) County School District includes authors David Levithan, George M. Johnson, Ashley Hope Pérez, and Kyle Lukoff as plaintiffs. In other censorship news, a judge removed parent groups from another Florida lawsuit; titles were taken off the shelves in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and more.

The Children’s Book Committee at Bank Street College of Education announced the winners of the Josette Frank Award, the Flora Stieglitz Straus Award, and the Claudia Lewis Award; ALA honors Jewish librarian Susan Kusel with Equity Award; NCAC opens submissions for its young filmmaker contest; and more in this edition of News Bites.

Parents in Pickens County, SC, along with the NAACP, are suing the district and charging that the removal of Stamped is a violation of their children's First Amendment rights; a Nebraska high school librarian resigns in protest over a new book policy; book banners threaten publishers and public library funding; and more.