Sponsored by Lerner Books
Celebrated author Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrator Floyd Cooper provide a powerful look at the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in our nation’s history. The book traces the history of African Americans in Tulsa’s Greenwood district and chronicles the devastation that occurred in 1921 when a white mob attacked the Black community. News of what happened was largely suppressed, and no official investigation occurred for seventy-five years. This picture book sensitively introduces young readers to this tragedy and concludes with a call for a better future.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. Today I asked myself, “Why do I feel so crappy today? My head hurts, I’m sneezing like crazy, my eyes itch, and my joints feel like I’m moving through gelatin.” And then I was like, “Maybe it has something to do with the enormous clouds of cottonwood fluffs drifting through the Chicago area!” So pardon me while I sit in a corner with some Advil and Zyrtec.
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
Drag Queen Story Time library event draws fire from some Haddonfield (NJ) residents.
A New York librarian has been accused of robbing a bank.
Cool Library Updates
So you’ve seen that viral video of the Linda Lindas playing their punk rock at the Los Angeles Public Library? Yeah, they’ve just signed a record deal!
Why more public libraries are doubling as food distribution hubs.
Toyota donated a brand new 2021 Sienna to the LAPL after the library system retired its Toyota minivan last year.
Worth Reading
Countering anti-Asian hate in the library.
The REALM project: what they’ve learned and what’s next.
Summer reading realities in this second pandemic summer.
Conducting a diversity audit of adult biographies.
Book Adaptations in the News
Elizabeth Banks is directing and co-starring in a series adaptation of Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen.
Timothy Chalamet has been cast to play a young Willy Wonka in an upcoming prequel about Willy Wonka’s earlier years.
Tim Burton casts Wednesday Addams for the new Netflix live-action series.
Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy book series will be adapted for TV at Peacock.
Trailers for The Lost Symbol and the new Fear Street series.
How does a book get adapted for TV or film?
Shadow and Bone: Netflix vs. the books.
Books & Authors in the News
Beloved children’s author Eric Carle has died at 91.
“The book I wrote was just banned. Now I’m fighting to get it to every kid I can.”
Scarborough (ME) schools failed to follow policy in pulling the book Freak the Mighty from their seventh grade curriculum.
Loudoun County Public Schools and parents are at odds over “dirty” books: Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson and #MurderTrending by Gretchen McNeil.
Philip Roth’s estate is planning to destroy the author’s personal papers in accord with the late author’s wishes. Plus, how authors try to control their image from beyond the grave.
John Steinbeck’s estate is being urged to let the world read his rejected werewolf mystery novel. (Yes, you read that correctly.)
Breaking up with your favorite racist childhood classic books.
Numbers & Trends
RBG’s annotated Columbia Law School textbook has sold for over $18,000.
Award News
The 2020 Bram Stoker Awards have been announced!
Valeria Luiselli is the first Mexican author to win the 2021 Dublin Literary Award.
The British Book Awards have been announced.
Damon Young wins the Thurber Prize for American Humor.
The CWA Dagger Award shortlists have been released.
Alexandra Huynh has been named the National Youth Poet Laureate.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
A trove of unseen Brontë family manuscripts has been discovered.
Evelyn Waugh’s 12 bedroom house – complete with party barn – is now for sale.
On the Riot
To patrons who place library holds (and don’t pick them up).
13 movie and TV adaptations of horror novels and where to find them.
15 book club questions for Know My Name.
Here’s a review, go see a Star War.
Overanalyzing every book in Ted Lasso to predict Season 2.
A brief history of Reading is Fundamental.
The past, present, and future of BookTube, according to BookTubers.
Is StoryGraph good enough to replace Goodreads?
How shopping at a local indie bookstore made this reader feel whole again.
Can you be nostalgic for a book you never read?
How to read less (for real).
And now, I shall depart and sneeze myself into Memorial Day. Have a good allergy-free holiday weekend, everyone!
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.