Happy Sunday, kidlit friends! This is Margaret covering for Karina while she’s on tour for Vanderbeekers Ever After. The weather has been glorious, and even though I have a cold (thanks to back-to-school germs), I’m enjoying it. Today is the first day of Banned Books Week, and I’m reviewing four children’s books that have been banned in my state of Tennessee, as well as two great new releases.
Autumn is here, which means it’s time to curl up with a great read and get cozy — whatever your version of cozy looks like. Whether it’s romance, creepy reads, modern classics, or escapist reads you crave, TBR can help you find the perfect books for your fall reading, with options curated to your specific reading tastes.
Bookish Goods
Spooky Read Banned Books T-Shirt by FlowerFashionShirts
This T-shirt is perfect for both Banned Books Week and spooky season! $12+
New Releases
A Few Beautiful Minutes: Experiencing a Solar Eclipse by Kate Allen Fox, illustrated by Khoa Le
With solar eclipses visible in the U.S. both this year and next, this is a perfect book to have on hand. It’s a lyrical and gorgeously illustrated picture book portraying families in multiple locations looking up for a few beautiful minutes and watching a solar eclipse. I am not on the path able to see the eclipse this year, though I was in 2017.
Spin to Survive: Pirate Peril by Emily Hawkins, R. Fresson
My daughter cannot get enough of the Spin to Survive series. This is the third in the series, and after the second book came out last year—Spin to Survive: Deadly Jungle—we commented about how the next one should be a pirate one. And here it is! We called it. These interactive books allow kids to choose the path of their adventures with a compass. In this book, readers can choose to be pirates in search of treasure or in the navy hunting pirate ships. There are lots of nonfiction survival techniques, pirate and naval history, and more on every page. It’s a lot of fun!
For a more comprehensive list, check out our New Books newsletter
Riot Recommendations
It’s the first day of Banned Books Week, and if you’re not already, I recommend signing up for Book Riot’s Literary Activism newsletter, where Kelly Jensen discusses the latest banned book news and how to push back against the rampant censorship.
I live in Tennessee, and while we’re not the worst state in terms of book banning, it’s definitely a problem here. TN lawmakers have made it a felony for book distributors or sellers to sell ‘obscene’ books to schools. TN also passed the Age Appropriate Materials Act, where all books in schools must be reviewed for “appropriateness,” and an online list must be available to parents of all books in schools. I’m happy to say my daughter is still finding diverse books in her school’s library, which I’m very thankful for. I took a look at some books that have been banned or were considered for banning in TN. Most are young adult, but I found quite a few picture books and middle grade as well. Unsurprisingly, most books had LGBTQ+ characters or BIPOC characters. Here are four I love.
Stella Brings the Family by Miriam B. Schiffer, illustrated by Holly Clifton-Brown
Stella has a problem. Her class is having a Mother’s Day celebration, but she has two dads. Who can she invite? This is a lovely, sweet picture book. A librarian in Hamilton County had planned to use it in a Mother’s Day lesson about diverse families, but the lesson was canceled when Moms for Liberty got involved.
Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins
The other picture book Moms for Liberty complained about that the librarian had planned to use was this one, about a grumpy bear that adopts some goslings. It’s a hilarious book and the first in a series. It’s frequently read in schools. It’s hard to imagine what could possibly be offensive about either book, though I imagine if this one had not been paired with Stella, it would’ve slipped through.
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears by Verna Aardema, illustrated by Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon
I remember reading this one in elementary school. This Caldecott Award-winning picture book was taken off the shelves in Williamson County, though it has since been recommended for return. This is right next door to where I live in Nashville. If you’re unfamiliar with the book, it’s a retelling of a West African folktale. The complaint against it was that it was too violent and scary. That review is likely to get more children to read it rather than less.
Front Desk by Kelly Yang
This is another award-winning children’s book. It’s about Mia, a middle schooler and Chinese immigrant who lives in a motel where her parents work. She helps manage the front desk and dreams of becoming a writer. There are five books in this fantastic series. I love this reel Yang posted with her daughter discussing her mom’s books being banned.
Though I was sick over the weekend, we briefly stopped at a pumpkin stand and picked up a few pumpkins. My daughter dressed up in her dragon hat. She was hoping to scare the stand employees with her fierce dragon roar, but I’m afraid all she got were smiles and laughs. Maybe the purple wings were just a bit too silly? She did win at pumpkin bowling, however.
If you’d like to read more of my kidlit reviews, I’m on Instagram @BabyLibrarians, Twitter @AReaderlyMom, and blog irregularly at Baby Librarians. You can also read my Book Riot posts. If you’d like to drop me a line, my email is kingsbury.margaret@gmail.com.
All the best,
Margaret Kingsbury