All posts tagged: book bans

American Library Association says book ban challenges in 2023 broke new record

American Library Association says book ban challenges in 2023 broke new record

Published by skeptic

A record number of books were challenged in school and public libraries in 2023, according to the American Library Association (ALA).  The ALA announced Thursday that 2023 saw 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship, up 65 percent from the previous record in 2022 of 2,571 unique titles.  “The reports from librarians and educators in the field make it clear that the organized campaigns to ban books aren’t over, and that we must all stand together to preserve our right to choose what we read,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.  Among the more than 4,000 books targeted for censorship, the ALA documented 1,247 demands to remove library books, materials and resources.  The organization highlighted four trends it saw in 2023, including a rise in censorship efforts against public libraries.  In 2023, titles targeted at public libraries increased by 92 percent, while at school libraries it increased by 11 percent.   Groups often targeted dozens to hundreds of books at a time, according to the ALA, along with 47 percent of …

Black History Month in the Age of Book Bans

Black History Month in the Age of Book Bans

Published by skeptic

Nearly a century ago, the historian Carter G. Woodson started a movement to teach Black history in America’s schools. First called Negro History Week and now Black History Month, it has been an oasis amid curricula that have too often and for too long either completely ignored Black people or treated them as subordinates. Even though Black History Month can sometimes be commemorated in ways that have turned rote and bland, many enterprising educators, librarians, and parents have used the occasion to bring stories, new interpretations of the past, and intellectual challenges to students of all ages who wouldn’t encounter them otherwise. And books have always been at the heart of their efforts. Today, however, the books that have been deployed by adults to help in this passing on of history and sensibility are disappearing from school libraries. Led by mostly conservative lawmakers across the country, at least 12 state legislatures or school boards have formally restricted discussions and books that point to the existence of racism in America, under “critical race theory” bans; and …

The ABCs of Book Banning Depicts Subject From Child’s Perspective

The ABCs of Book Banning Depicts Subject From Child’s Perspective

Published by Sam

“When we finished the film, there were 2,000 banned books, and now there are 6,000,” says Trish Adlesic, one of three directors of the Oscar-nominated short The ABCs of Book Banning.  The documentary, which is the directorial debut of veteran doc executive Sheila Nevins and is also directed by Nazenet Habtezghi, looks at America’s book-banning endeavors through the eyes of school-age children. The short is bookended by someone on the other end of the generational spectrum: Grace Linn, the 101-year-old free speech advocate whose visit to a Florida school board meeting went viral after she showed a quilt she had made displaying the titles of banned books and compared banning to the Nazis’ burning of books. “Both are done for the same reason,” Linn said. “Fear of knowledge.” Adlesic talks to THR about making the short and her hope to screen it for a book-banning organization. When did you and the other filmmakers start to consider making a doc about book bans in America? We were paying attention to the Don’t Say Gay bill [the …

The year’s best movies, TV shows, and books

The year’s best movies, TV shows, and books

Published by skeptic

Spend time with our writers’ picks this weekend. Universal Pictures December 29, 2023, 5 PM ET This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. This was the year of the sold-out stadium tour, double-feature mania, celebrity memoirs (and documentaries), and superhero fatigue. It was also the year of the Hollywood strike, controversy over book bans, and the rise of AI music. The Atlantic’s Culture team looked back on 2023 and compiled lists of the year’s best movies, TV shows, albums, books, and podcasts. Spend some time with their picks this weekend. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: Best of 2023 Dusty Deen for The Atlantic The 10 Best Films of 2023 By David Sims “I opted for a mix of old and new, small and giant … from a modest YouTube documentary to a near-billion-dollar-grossing dramatic extravaganza. The business is still figuring itself out, …

What Gen Z is finding at the library

What Gen Z is finding at the library

Published by skeptic

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. In the smartphone era, libraries might seem less central. But it turns out that young people actually use them. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: A Third Place Spending time at my local library branch in elementary school, I felt like a little grown-up. I’d march up to the desk and tell the librarian all about the chapter books I would be reading that summer. (“Absolutely Normal Chows,” I told her once, holding up a copy of the Sharon Creech novel Absolutely Normal Chaos.) I value public libraries for the resources they offer but also because of how these spaces have always felt to me: like a community of people who care about learning new things, and who simply want to spend time in public. Libraries, and the people who keep them running, have had a …

A MAGA Judiciary – The Atlantic

A MAGA Judiciary – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

Thanks to Donald Trump’s presidential term, the conservative legal movement has been able to realize some of its wildest dreams: overturning the constitutional right to an abortion, ending affirmative action in college admissions, and potentially making most state-level firearm restrictions presumptively unconstitutional. That movement long predates Trump, and these goals were long-standing. But, like the rest of conservatism, much of the conservative legal movement has also been remade in Trump’s vulgar, authoritarian image, and is now preparing to go further, in an endeavor to shield both Trump and the Republican Party from democratic accountability. Explore the January/February 2024 Issue Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read. View More The federal judiciary has become a battleground in a right-wing culture war that aims to turn back the clock to a time when conservative mores—around gender, sexuality, race—were unchallenged and, in some respects, unchallengeable. Many of the federal judges appointed during Trump’s presidency seem to see themselves as foot soldiers in that war, which they view as a crusade to restore …