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Students hated ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ Their teachers tried to dump it.
MUKILTEO, Wash. — Students first told Shanta Freeman-Miller about how it hurt to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” five years ago. The stories came out during Wednesday meetings of the Union for Students of African Ancestry, a group that Freeman-Miller, one of the only Black teachers at Kamiak High School, founded at teens’ request. Students…
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3 New Middle Grade Science Fiction Novels Disturb and Delight
Jeanne DuPrau’s “Project F,” Patricia Forde’s “The Girl Who Fell to Earth” and Donna Barba Higuera’s “Alebrijes” answer the question, Could this be the beginning of the end? Worldwide flooding. Massive Canadian wildfires. Monster hurricanes. Record-breaking heat waves. Sauna-level sea temperatures. The loss of billions of tons of Arctic and glacial ice. The existential question…
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Pantheons of the Past in the Present: A Reading List of Modern African Books Based on Mythology
Every society, civilization and culture has mythologies and cosmologies; they make up a corpus of ancient and sacred narratives that help give meaning to the world. Passed down through generations, myths educate and clarify our place in a world full of things and forces that are larger than us. At their most simplistic level, myths…
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John Grisham on Writing Page-Turning Fiction About Big Issues
On this edition of The Literary Life, John Grisham is live at Books and Books in Coral Gables for a great night with a room full of readers, basking in the brilliance of a master storyteller. John’s new book is The Exchange, and he brings back Mitch McDeer, the hero of The Firm — and…
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Author John Irving speaks on his craft and his latest novel
Author John Irving speaks on his craft and his latest novel Published 12:10 am Friday, November 3, 2023 SALISBURY — John Irving has been one of the preeminent voices in literature for over half a century. His novels have become bestsellers and have been adapted into Academy Award-winning films. He won an Oscar for adapting…
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Brenham ISD pulls 32 books from high school library after resident complaints
BRENHAM, Texas (KBTX) – The Brenham High School library pulled 32 books from circulation after two residents raised concerns about their content during an Oct. 16 board of trustees meeting. The titles will undergo a formal review process to decide whether or not they’ll be allowed back on library shelves. Brenham residents Brit and Eddie…
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9 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times. Every week in this space, we quote from our reviews of the books we recommend — but we rarely quote from the books themselves, largely because the reviews we link to do such a good job of that on their own, and with context…
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Letter to editor: Are townships really defunding the library?
There was an article written in The Reporter in October about the Telford Borough and the supposed “defunding” of the Indian Valley Public Library and the “banning of books.” Now I know for many of you, including myself, the library is a nostalgic place with fun community programs and quiet desk places to work. The…
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Perspective | Locked up in an Egyptian prison, I found solace in the library
In 2016, Ahmed Naji served 10 months of a two-year prison sentence in Egypt for “violating public decency” in his novel “Using Life.” He reflects on his time in prison in his new memoir, “Rotten Evidence” (translated by Katharine Halls), describing the everyday experience of oppression and confinement. In this adapted excerpt from “Rotten Evidence,”…
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New
Angeline Boulley, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Debbie Reese discussed Native work for young readers—and Boulley made a big announcement. Best-selling authors Angeline Boulley and Cynthia Leitich Smith discussed the responsibility of writing Indigenous characters and storylines in children’s and YA books and literary devices used by Native authors in SLJ ’s “Native Storytelling in Children’s…
