Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I’m beginning this newsletter with a PSA of sorts. If you weren’t already aware, the Proud Boys disrupted a Drag Queen Story Time event at the San Lorenzo Public Library last Saturday. This is bad enough on its own, but some believe this may have been related to a recent post by the far-right, anti-LGBTQIA+ Twitter account, Libs of TikTok, which posted about the event on Twitter the week prior. If your library isn’t aware of this account, please take note. “Libs of TikTok” has been going after schools and public libraries that are offering LGBTQ+ programming, and even posted false information about a couple libraries very near where I work (including my former workplace) for their involvement with local Pride celebrations. Their goal appears to be to incite people to contact or otherwise protest these organizations, and some may choose to protest more violently and disruptively than others. So, please be aware and consider talking with your library about security measures your library can take preemptively.
Libraries & Librarians
News Updates
Maryland’s library eBook law has officially been ruled as “unconstitutional.”
Cool Library Updates
NYPL is giving away 500,000 books for free to help people build their at-home libraries.
The Johnson City (TN) Public Library offers a 14 week Librarian-in-Training program for up to a dozen kids, ages 9-12.
Branching out: a look at library plant swap programs.
Worth Reading
Book Adaptations in the News
Tessa Bailey’s It Happened One Summer is being adapted for film.
Matthew López is adapting Eric Cervini’s The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. The United States of America as a limited series.
Renegade Entertainment is developing a series based on Candice Fox’s best-seller, Gathering Dark.
Erin Young’s thriller The Fields is being adapted for TV.
The Lincoln Lawyer has been renewed for a second season with Netflix, and will be based on Michael Connelly’s book The Fifth Witness.
The trailer for the upcoming adaptation of Persuasion has been released.
Banned & Challenged Books
How Moms for Liberty’s book ratings system is entering school districts.
Who’s afraid of a rainbow flag? The censorship of library Pride displays.
Llano County (TX) approves allocating $150,000 to fight a lawsuit filed against the library for violating the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights.
I hate this headline: Abilene (TX) City Council hears arguments pro and con on LGBTQ materials in libraries. This isn’t a topic where both sides are on an equal playing field. “I don’t support or care about LGBTQ people” is not a stance that should be given any legitimacy.
Cy-Fair ISD (TX) sees an increase in requests to remove contentious books.
BookPeople and the Austin Public Library are holding a summer camp for banned books.
Tyler (TX) Public Library moves a PFLAG display to what some say is a less prominent and less visible spot.
Here is the problem with libraries aspiring towards “neutrality:” An interview with Lafayette (LA) Library Director Danny Gillane on book display censorship: “Anything that singles out a portion of the population, we are not going to do a display.”
Osceola (FL) library supervisor explains the process behind book selection to school board members as four books are currently being reviewed.
The Vonnegut Museum wants a meeting with the Brevard County (FL) Moms for Liberty chapter after MfL pushed for Bayside High School to remove Slaughterhouse-Five from the library and English curriculums. Meanwhile, the museum is offering to send up to 1,000 free copies of Slaughterhouse-Five to any students or parents who request one.
Ketchikan City Council (AR) declines to cancel a Drag Queen Storytime event planned by the public library, saying that doing so would step beyond the established role of the City Council.
The Missouri Library Association writes again to the Wentzville school board, where they have voted to remove Fun Home from school libraries.
The Chattanooga (TN) City Council wants more oversight of the public library to “ensure accountability.”
Emails show that the Rapid City Area School (SD) board members were aware of the decision to remove controversial books as early as August of 2021, despite statements to the contrary.
Nearly 100 people attended the Vinton (IA) Library meeting to discuss the director’s recent resignation. One member of the public said “This community has now run out two highly qualified highly credentialed library directors in one year. This library is indeed going to suffer but not because of diverse books or staff members that identify as LGBTQ+.”
This is in my neck of the woods, so I’m happy to report that the Downer’s Grove (IL) school board elected to keep Gender Queer in the high school library. You may remember this particular issue because the Proud Boys showed up at a school board meeting a few months ago to push for the book’s removal.
Ashland (OH) Public Library rejects a request to remove five books from the library, saying, “Censorship is a slippery slope.”
Hillsdale (MI) residents go to the City Council asking that the Hillsdale Library Board member calling for restrictions on library materials be removed.
After emotional testimony, Carroll County (MD) school board bans Pride flags. (Not a book ban, but very much related in terms of harming the LGBTQIA community.)
Greensboro (NC) teacher Holly Weaver fights for the right to teach Salvage the Bones in her AP English class.
Citing threats of violence, Apex (NC) has canceled its Drag Queen Storytime during its Pride Festival.
A Pride Month display at the Macon County (NC) Library has drawn criticism from the community.
Catawba County (NC) Schools have reviewed 8 of the 24 challenged books so far. None are being removed, but three will be moved out of middle school libraries: Monday’s Not Coming, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Looking for Alaska.
Marshall Elementary School (VA) administrators are standing behind their librarian who recently read Prince & Knight to the school in honor of Pride Month.
Elizabethtown (PA) Area School District elects to keep Me and Earl and the Dying Girl in the library.
Erie County (PA) school district appears to have removed Gender Queer, although the motivation and discussion behind the decision remains unclear.
The Peekskill and Cortlandt (NY) communities rally to help replace 30 LGBTQIA children’s books that went missing recently from The Field Library.
A Massachusetts Secretary of State candidate is building her campaign by targeting queer books and Pride-themed displays.
The ongoing saga between an angry parent and the Gorham (ME) school board continues, with the Committee chairperson recusing herself from an upcoming hearing.
The Flathead (MT) Library Board doesn’t understand constitutional rights.
Nampa (ID) librarian tells the school board that fewer books are not the answer.
Book banning is a “lazy response” to ideas that scare us.
ACLU threatens legal action if the Kent School District (WA) removes Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts).
The drag queen who was reading at the San Lorenzo Library when the Proud Boys stormed in speaks about the experience.
Newport-Mesa Unified School District (CA) officials are reviewing their library book policies after parents complain about the graphic novel Flamer being in an elementary school library.
Newbury Park Elementary School (CA) reported graffiti on its front wall, reading “Pervs wk here,” which came shortly after a parent complained that their third grader was shown a video discussing transgender identity.
Chilliwack (BC) school trustee suggests that some within the school district are “grooming” children, and references All Boys Aren’t Blue to make her point.
5 ways to access books after they’ve been removed from your library.
13 banned LGBTQ+ books to read right now.
How librarians are supporting students amid anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation and book challenges.
“It’s embarrassing.” LeVar Burton fires back at the rise in banned books.
Across the country, educational equity was in vogue. Then it wasn’t.
Books & Authors in the News
James Patterson says that older white male authors experience “another form of racism.” James. Patterson. The most prolific author in the world who consistently takes up multiple shelving ranges in public libraries by himself thinks that older white men are being discriminated against. Not surprisingly, there was a pretty quick backlash to his remarks, and he has since apologized. Sort of.
Roundup of book club picks for June.
A roundup of the books that colleges are assigning their incoming students.
Numbers & Trends
LGBTQ fiction sales are surging in the US, doubling from 2020 to 2021, and increasing 39% from January to May of this year.
A copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio is estimated to reach $2.5 million at auction in New York.
The weirdly specific title trend that’s taken over a lot of literary fiction geared towards women readers.
Award News
The 2022 Lambda Literary Awards were announced.
The James Beard Awards have been announced.
The Ladies of Horror Fiction nominees were announced.
The Costa Book Awards have come to an end after 50 years.
Pop Cultured
Amazon renews The Boys for Season 4.
What to read, watch, and listen to after Gaslit.
On the Riot
How local libraries help welcome refugees.
How to run a successful ComiCon in your library.
On enjoying book adaptations for what they are.
Why your favorite author wants to connect with you.
Patricia Highsmith and her snails.
Small fun ideas for how to read like a kid again.
Here’s Dini telling me how snuggle-deprived he’s been. My husband is staying at his parents’ house this week while his older sister and his nephew are in town, so it’s been quieter than usual in the Horner household. This also means that the cats aren’t getting their usual snuggles while I’m at work, so now when I get home, they fling themselves into my lap and tell me just how neglected and deprived they’ve been.
Hopefully everyone gets a chance to enjoy some nice weather this weekend. I’ll check in again on Tuesday.
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter.