Welcome to Check Your Shelf. How are we all feeling after midterm elections? Maybe it was because I’ve had so much other stuff going on at work, but I felt like I hardly had time to feel stressed out about the elections, and thankfully the results have so far helped with that. On a separate note, I learned that I was not selected for the permanent director position that I interviewed for, but I’m honestly okay with the decision. I received glowing reviews for my performance as interim, I get to return to my previous role as department manager, and I’m excited to work with the candidate who was hired for the position. And now that the waiting and the ambiguity is gone, I feel like a weight has been lifted.
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
Here’s an initial report on the midterm library ballot measures.
Cool Library Updates
LibraryPass and Image Comics team up to add digital comics to libraries and schools.
Worth Reading
Love your library? Vote with your feet.
Book Adaptations in the News
The Sandman gets renewed for a second season with Netflix.
Sam Miller has been hired to direct A Gentleman in Moscow.
Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education is being adapted for film by Universal Pictures.
Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal is getting a TV adaptation from Sky and Peacock.
Clown in a Cornfield is getting an adaptation!
Helen Fielding teases a possible fourth Bridget Jones movie.
Here is the official trailer for Lady Chatterly’s Lover.
And here’s the official trailer for Kindred.
Banned & Challenged Books
The biased online book ratings systems that are undermining professional review sources.
Paywalled: An update on the Llano County Library (TX) lawsuit.
The classroom culture war comes to Round Rock (TX), where far-right religious candidates are “swamping school boards with book bans and sex panic.”
Arlington Public Library (TX) advisory board “compromises” on Pride Month displays.
Longview ISD (TX) superintendent discusses how library books in the district are regulated. From the article: “If it deals expressly with alternative lifestyles or sexual preference, then that’s not something that we want our students reading on our watch. Their parents can provide them with any kind of material that they want, but if it’s coming through us, we want to make sure it’s appropriate.”
North Lamar ISD (TX) ruled against a book grievance complaint made against In Cold Blood and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
In some Texas school districts, parent complaints were more bark than bite.
Anti-LGBTQ groups are helping enforce a book ban law in Florida.
A Seminole County (FL) school board member raises concerns over several books in school libraries, including Lucky, Push, and Let’s Talk About It. However, this article also mentions that the school is using BookLooks, a Moms for Liberty-created review site as an authoritative resource, which is extremely concerning.
Flagler County (FL) school district has been quietly removing multiple books since the summer in a bow to Moms for Liberty.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower has been removed from Escambia County (FL) schools for sexual content.
Slidell (LA) residents push for the library to remove books they claim are explicit and promote pedophilia. One of the unnamed books is in the adult section, but several people are pushing for it to be removed entirely. But I bet if you asked these people, none of them would say that they’re advocating for book banning.
The Owasso School Board (OK) upheld a ban against a parent who has disrupted previous board meetings. However, the courts have ruled that the school cannot ban him from the property, although he can be removed if he disrupts any future school functions.
Half of the 18 Southern gubernatorial candidates support classroom censorship policies.
A Tennessee woman goes viral for defending the LGBTQ+ community, following the resignation of the Maury County library director.
Williamson County (TN) school board will only hear potential complaints over board-approved educational materials if they are made by a current WCS parent/guardian, employee, or student.
Two Hendersonville (TN) high schools have removed Lawn Boy after they decided the book violated the school board’s obscene materials policy.
Lexington-Richland 5 (SC) school district has removed the book Black is a Rainbow Color, although the specifics of the complaint have not yet been released.
Right-wing legislators admit editing audio used in a Fox News report attacking South Carolina schools.
Parkersburg (WV) City Council withdraws its resolution to censure the Parkersburg & Wood County Public Library over the placement of Gender Queer in a Banned Books Week display, but the situation is still drawing debate.
The 1776 Project PAC has backed several Bentonville (AR) School Board candidates, saying that these candidates are fighting “progressive activists” seeking to indoctrinate children.
RSU1 (ME) votes to retain Beyond Magenta in the school libraries.
Another Maine school district has requests to remove books from the library; this time the books are Gender Queer and White Fragility.
Enfield (CT) Board of Education member says that she’s not trying to ban books — she’s just trying to set guidelines that will protect students. But they’re never trying to ban books, are they?
A teacher with the Hollidaysburg Area School District (PA) is facing public scrutiny after she reportedly brought a copy of Gender Queer to her classroom.
Two dozen books have been challenged at Big Walnut High School in Delaware.
Book banning resonates as an issue in Maryland school board races.
Michigan GOP candidate Tudor Dixon wants schools and libraries to remove books that feature divorced characters. Now, while she (thankfully) was not elected, we definitely need to be viewing this as a preview for how these bans are going to shift…no books that contain anything other than white, cisgender, heterosexual Christian characters.
The Jamestown (MI) library has been defunded a second time over LGBTQ books, and will likely close.
Bay City Public Schools (MI) deny a parent’s request to ban a list of books from school libraries.
The ACLU sent a letter to public school districts in Michigan: support LGBTQ+ students and the First Amendment, not censorship and book banning.
Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric roils Wisconsin, providing political fuel for the right.
What the Missouri Senate Bill 1224 looks like in the Rockwood and Parkway school districts.
An article that looks at the book bans happening across Nebraska as if these are fair and reasonable requests.
Pierre Library (SD) Board votes unanimously to keep Push in the library; however, they did ask the director to move the book from the teen section to the adult section.
Facing another book challenge, the ImagineIF (MT) library board votes to retain the title.
Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Brian Schroeder sponsored an event advertised as a “discussion of the sexualization of children in Wyoming’s schools,” and included misinformation, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, and this alarming statement: “You have now been recruited. You are a part of the army.”
After a controversy over “sexualized” books, the Gillette (WY) Public Library votes to cut ties with the American Library Association. They also added the words “while reflecting community standards” to their mission statement, which feels like an extremely slippery slope.
Mount Shasta (CA) parents are outraged over The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, saying that it includes “inappropriate racial slurs, sexual content, profanity, and vulgar jokes about sex with an animal,” and “teaches students about masturbation and sexual experiences.”
Orange County (CA) Education Board considers banning communist indoctrination, “despite trustees not providing clear cases of indoctrination happening in local schools.”
The school library used to be a sanctuary. Now it’s a battleground.
Want to read books from this newsletter? You can, for free! Get three free audiobooks with a trial to Audiobooks.com. Claim your 3 free audiobooks now!
Books & Authors in the News
JD Vance has won his Ohio Senate race.
Numbers & Trends
The best-selling books of the week.
Award News
The 2022 World Fantasy Awards have been announced.
Suzette Mayr has won the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize for The Sleeping Car Porter.
The Southern Book Prize finalists have been announced.
On the Riot
3 tools for teaching digital citizenship to kids.
An unexpected compendium of Lord of the Rings adaptations.
The best places to donate kids’ books.
This may look like an ordinary cat photo, but this is actually a picture of Dini hard at work, supervising the maintenance worker who came by our apartment to install a new water heater. Dini stayed by the door, checked the guy’s work when he left to grab something from the van, and sat at the bottom of the stairs waiting for him to return. Thankfully, the guy found it amusing rather than annoying.
It’s the weekend. Let’s all get some rest, shall we? I’ll see you on Tuesday.
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.