Welcome to Check Your Shelf. Is anyone else super into the latest season of True Detective?? I’m loving all of the references to The Thing, and even though we’re still in the middle of winter, I’m making a list of creepy snowbound thrillers to read once the season is over. Also, I love the fact that it added the word “corpsicle” into my vocabulary. (Iykyk, but if you don’t know, I don’t recommend Googling it…)
2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
American Libraries has a roundup of last week’s LibLearnX programming.
The Lafayette Parish Library (LA) may not require library director applicants to have a master’s degree from an ALA-accredited school.
The Dallas Public Library has increased service hours and hired 65 additional staff.
Cool Library Updates
Minneapolis schools added more librarians, and now books are flying off of the shelves.
Book Adaptations in the News
David Grann talks about seeing Killers of the Flower Moon on the big screen.
Speaking of KotFM, Lily Gladstone is starring in the adaptation of The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
HBO is developing a limited series adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places. After their phenomenal adaptation of Sharp Objects, I’m very much looking forward to this one!
Amanda Seyfried is starring in the Peacock adaptation of Liz Moore’s Long Bright River.
Teaser trailer for Apples Never Fall.
The 10 best Harlan Coben book adaptations ranked.
Censorship News
A brief history of the grand old American tradition of banning books.
A secret shelf of banned books thrives in a Texas high school, thanks to the efforts of several students.
Katy ISD (TX) is requiring parents to sign permission slips for their students to visit the school book fair. As Kelly Jensen points out in her roundup, “apparently ‘not giving kids money’ isn’t enough parental input on the matter,” so I have to assume that parents are afraid their kids might catch a glimpse of an LGBTQ character on a book cover or something.
A high school teacher in the Conroe ISD (TX) shared photos of all the books they had to box up and send to the district for disposal.
A transgender student at Sherman High School (TX) was removed from the school’s upcoming performance of Oklahoma! and then reinstated. “The student was first removed from the production after Sherman ISD school board members voted to require each cast member to play characters whose sexual identities matched the actors’ sex assigned at birth.” You really have to go out of your way to be this bigoted.
A Florida subcommittee approved a proposed law that would impose a fine on anyone who submits more than five challenges to school instructional materials in a calendar year if they don’t have a student enrolled in the district. On the one hand, this is surprisingly progressive for Florida. On the other hand, this only applies after the fifth challenge ($100 per additional challenge) and only applies to people who don’t have students registered in the district, so the impact isn’t as large as it may seem.
After deciding to retain Identical, the Hillsborough County School District’s (FL) decision was challenged, so now they’re re-evaluating their decision.
Brevard County Schools (FL) will retain The Kite Runner and Slaughterhouse Five.
A Broward County (FL) school board member challenged two books, even though one of the books wasn’t actually available or in the library.
Indian River County Schools (FL) banned Alan Gratz’s book Ban This Book because it made mention of the ALA. The same district also banned The Banned Book Club.
“The committee ended up tabling the approval for the town library budget, stating it wanted to see a full list of every book the librarian intends to purchase.” This is in Lebanon, Maine.
New Hampshire legislators have proposed a bill that would require a book rating system in schools.
Several new Vermont bills target book bans in schools and public libraries.
“A book removed from a North Attleborough [MA] elementary school library will be returned to the shelves amid dismay from the community, the superintendent said.” The book in question is Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice.
What you can’t read behind bars in New York.
The Freedom to Read Act has been reintroduced in New Jersey.
West Virginia legislators are trying to lift criminal liability protections for schools and libraries that carry controversial books.
Rockingham County (VA) students staged a walkout in protest of their school board’s recent book bans.
Catawba County Schools (NC) will retain Nineteen Minutes.
Georgia GOP senators target the American Library Association with a new bill.
The Alabama Public Library Service has officially cut ties with the American Library Association.
“Orange Beach [AL] school libraries reconsidering books with LGBTQ characters.” I hate these passive headlines.
The Livingston Parish Library (LA) continues to face pushback over funding and LGBTQ books. “I just don’t think we should be giving [the library] that much money to be ruining our children’s lives when that is the parent’s responsibility.” One of the parish council members also said that although the community narrowly voted to continue funding the library, residents don’t want to “over-support” the library. I didn’t even know “over-supporting” a library was a thing.
The Rolla Public Library (MO) will keep The Every Body Book in the children’s department.
The Camden County Library District (MO) has removed two titles (Flamer and It Feels Good to Be Yourself) until they figure out what to do with the two books. Yep, that’s censorship.
The Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp (IN) will be reviewing People Kill People.
A new Illinois bill looks to address threats made to library workers.
The Iowa teachers union calls on schools to restore banned books since a federal judge issued an injunction against the state’s new legislation. Some districts are already complying.
OpEd: Oklahoma’s association with Libs of TikTok creator is an embarrassment to the state.
Colorado saw a 500% increase in challenges to books and library services between 2021 and 2022.
A new proposed law in Utah would require schools to remove specific books from their shelves if at least three other schools in the state have done so. I’m sorry…wtf kind of nonsense is this?
After the Bible was challenged and retained at the Davis School District (UT), the district also determined that the Book of Mormon and the Quran will stay on school library shelves.
The ImagineIF Library Board (MT) has added obscenity language to their collection development policy, which library staff say is “unnecessary and redundant.”
Billings (MT) will retain Assassination Classroom in school libraries.
“Huntington Beach [CA] is moving ahead with creating a parental committee that would review and possibly stop children’s books it deems offensive from entering the public library.” Yeah, it’s not up to parents to decide that.
The Washington Senate just voted to make it more difficult to shut down libraries. The legislature also just introduced a bill to crack down on school book bans.
The Ketchikan Public Library (AK) will keep Flamer and Red Hood in the teen section.
Books & Authors in the News
Pulitzer Prize-winning Indigenous author N. Scott Momaday has died at 89.
Horror and thriller author J.D. Barker has apologized for a “creepy” marketing request that was sent exclusively to young female BookTok influencers. His agent has since dropped him as a client.
How Sarah J. Maas became “the mortal queen of faerie smut.”
Numbers & Trends
The best-selling books of the week.
Award News
The NAACP Image Award nominees have been announced.
The 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award finalists have been announced.
Bookish Curiosities & Miscellaneous
Defunding liberal arts is dangerous for health care.
On the Riot
The world’s most surprising fiction writers.
9 of the best books that won awards in 2023.
Look at this sunshiny Doodle! We haven’t had much sun around here lately, so Dini was very happy to have some sun on his face!
All right, friends. I’ll be back on Tuesday. Have a good weekend!
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.
