Welcome to Check Your Shelf. Our new fiscal year has finally started, which means that I have a giant cart of adult fiction books ready to order through Baker & Taylor the moment I come into work this week. I’ve already preemptively apologized to our cataloger for the havoc I’m about to wreak, but not much I can do about it at this point.
I just finished listening to Ocean Vuong narrate his latest poetry collection on audio. Ugh, it’s so incredibly beautiful, and there’s nothing like listening to a poet narrate his work. Time Is a Mother was written after Vuong’s mother passed away, and it’s full of longing for the person he loved most.
I ADORED The Astonishing Color of After, so I’ve been waiting SO LONG to listen to this one. An Arrow to the Moon is Romeo and Juliet meets Chinese mythology, which is 100% in my wheelhouse.
I’ve posted enough adorable photos of my cats over the last few weeks…now here’s a doofy one. This is Gilbert’s true essence, and often the first thing I see when I wake up.
Stay cool, all you cats and kittens. I’ll see you on Friday.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. As I put together this newsletter, my husband and I are recovering from what we think was food poisoning. Thankfully, the worst of it only lasted 24 hours and I didn’t have it as bad as Blaine did, but yesterday was not great.
So while I try to rehydrate myself, let’s talk about libraries.
PEN America released a statement, a new Index of School Book Bans, and an accompanying report, Banned in the USA, which documents the book bans that have occurred over the last 9 months. They discovered 1,586 book bans in 86 school districts, and 1,154 unique titles being challenged.
After the Derby School District (KS) removed The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian from a list of approved classroom materials, a former member of the Derby City Council asked the district to review and remove the Bible from its approved classroom materials as well, in an effort to highlight the consequences of censorship. She cited references to murder, masturbation, genocide, incest, and other “mature topics.” The Board refused to remove it, but other committee members have questioned the decision to remove The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian.
One mom in Broomfield, Colorado is upset over Gender Queer and Lawn Boybeing available to high school students, even though Gender Queer isn’t held at any of the district school libraries.
Remember Gilbert’s resting head portrait from the last newsletter? Well, here’s Dini’s version. Those are my feet he’s resting on, and he stayed that way just long enough for Blaine to take the picture.
It’s the weekend, thank goodness. I’m going to be pretty careful about where we get takeout from for awhile…hopefully all of your culinary adventures will be satisfying and not illness-inducing.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I seem to have two operating modes in life: mostly engaged (usually at work) and completely switched off (usually at home, sometimes at work). There’s no in-between where I can come home and take care of basic household stuff without feeling like the weight of the world is going to crush me. Sometimes I’ll have a couple good days, and then I’m right back to staring at the garbage, wondering how long I can let it sit before I absolutely have to take it out. It’s maddening! I need to figure out a better way to divvy up my mental spoons, I think…
This issue’s cat photo was a no-brainer! My husband was holding Gilbert the other night, and I wanted to play around with the Portrait setting on my iPhone. The result was this angelic and slightly dramatic photo of Gilbert looking at me for extra snuggles, even though Blaine was already holding him like a baby. But how can you say no to those eyes?! I’m a complete sucker for Gilbert’s wide-eyed over-the-shoulder look, and he knows it.
That’s all I’ve got for this issue. I’m going to try and muster up the motivation to unload the dishwasher. It may take all week.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I know this newsletter is supposed to be about books and stuff, but I’m just SO EXCITED about the new Lego Star Wars game finally being released this week! I’m a sucker for kid-friendly video games, especially the Lego series, so I made sure that game was preordered and downloaded by the time I came home from work on Tuesday! I also saw this shared on the Twitters today, and I’m wondering how it came to be that the main menu of a video game gave us better Finn/Poe relationship content than Disney.
An open letter to library trustees: your job is not to review challenged books yourselves, and you need to support and trust your staff, who have the appropriate knowledge, context, and perspective of what’s happening in their community and their profession.
Flagler County Schools (FL) roll out a new circulation policy that allows parents to restrict books for their own kids on a broad scale. Level 1 represents open access (although not really, because middle school students still need a parent’s permission to request a high school book), Level 2 access allows 5 titles to be blocked from a student’s account, and Level 3 access only allows students to check out books on a parent’s pre-approved list. I can’t begin to tell you how much I hate this policy. It is NOT the library’s place to implement or enforce such a policy, and it tramples all over students’ rights.
Ridgeland (MS) leaders are withholding library funds until the library signs a memorandum saying that the library will be required to appear before the board of aldermen before they adopt a budget, and that they will develop a system in writing for addressing complaints by the public. Which, okay, fine, but then the last line of the article says, “City leaders said it is not their intentions to ban or remove any content but they do want the library to use more discretion about what types of books that are openly displayed.” Yep, that’s still censorship.
Here’s your biweekly cat photo! I know I’ve shared pictures of Gilbert wrapped up in a blanket before, but I can’t overstate how much he loves being burritoed. When you see him with those fancy paws outstretched, that’s how you know he’s fully relaxed. It must feel like a weighted blanket or a thunder shirt for him.
All right, Imma fire up the ol’ PS5 and start doing Lego battles in a galaxy far far away. Do something fun for yourself this weekend, and I’ll catch you on Tuesday!
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. This week is very exciting because Thursday is OPENING DAY for baseball, and after a three month lockout, I wasn’t even sure if baseball would be happening this month. I’m still not over the Cubs trading their Big 3 last year, but I am looking forward to baseball. Baseball also means the end of sports that I’m not interested in watching, specifically football and college basketball.
Here’s a bit of a throwback – if you look closely, you can see Gilbert splooted in my lap while I’m crocheting a baby blanket. If the blanket had been farther along, Gilbert would 100% have been napping on it. Which is why if you ever get a blanket from me, it will have a non-zero amount of Gilbert fur.
All right, friends. I’ll catch you on Friday. (And PLAY BALL!)
The Grandbury ISD (TX) superintendent’s leaked comments, telling librarians to pull books on sexuality and transgender people, raise constitutional concerns.
A woman running for the Southwest Allen County Schools Board (IL) is organizing a group of “book investigators” to monitor and document “harmful” titles at all four Allen County public school systems.
The Wicomico School District (MD) pulled All Boys Aren’t Blue from library shelves. The district superintendent even said “I went so far as to check on how many students had checked the books out because I was concerned. One, since it’s been here. One too many.”
The 42nd Razzie Awards have been announced, and I’m pleased to see that Jared Leto won Worst Supporting Actor for his role in House of Gucci. I liked the movie, but his performance was astonishingly bad.
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
Here’s a cat picture! This photo is actually doing double duty, since Blaine asked if I could put him in the newsletter. So you see that sliver of white t-shirt on the side? That’s my husband. (And fun fact…that white t-shirt is actually a Book Riot t-shirt! He’s a wonderful supporter.) And Dini of course is being ridiculously cute and extra, as always!
It’s Friday! I’m feeling hungry right now, so let’s all vow to eat something tasty this weekend!
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I know social media stuff differs, but if your timeline is anything like mine, it’s probably been flooded with memorials to Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. My husband and I dealt with our shock in the only way we knew how — buying books. But we did listen to the Foo Fighters the whole way to the bookstore, and we did try to find one of their albums on vinyl to add to our collection (alas, no success). What I’m trying to say is that buying books can heal a lot of what ails us.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. This week really did not start out on a good note, but things seem to be on an upswing. I’m writing this newsletter on a Wednesday and don’t yet have the ability to see the future, but hopefully we’ll be doing all right by the time you read this on Friday. (If not, just know I’m going to have a stiff drink with my name on it as soon as the work week ends.)
Significant policy differences were on display at the ImagineIF (MT) library board retreat. This is an illustration of the types of fundamental philosophy differences we’re seeing in general between library staff and library boards, and it’s troubling.
Hamilton County (TN) book review committee members make recommendations for potential policy changes for the selection of instructional materials. One committee member cited their Christian religious views as a reason for removing multiple titles from the curriculum.
Ohio County Schools has decided to keep all of its challenged curriculum materials, but with some modifications, such as shelving some of the books on higher shelves that only the teacher can reach. (Spoiler alert…that’s still censorship.)
The Oley Valley School Board (VA) heard pushback from parents regarding The Perks of Being a Wallflower being assigned to freshmen. Community members speaking out against school materials have also reported being harassed, so the School Board will now have a police officer stationed at each future meeting.
Mein Kampfwas challenged at the Haliburton County Public Library in Ontario, with the suggestion that the library replace it with a recently published annotated version. However, the library was unable to find a copy of the annotated version in English, and so the book remains off the shelf.
Dini loves you THIS much! (Actually, you wouldn’t want to hug him when he gets like this…he has sharp claws and likes to grab onto anything within paw’s reach.) But he’s so damn cute!
All right, let’s take a breather this weekend. I’ll see you all on Tuesday.
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently reading The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. As I write this on my laptop, Gilbert is determinedly trying to crawl into my lap, even though I have my legs crossed and the laptop hoisted up higher than normal. He’s splooted right over my wrist, thinking that this will get me to stop typing and start snuggling him. Anyway, the point of this is to let you know that I will keep my eyes out for typos, but if you do see one, just know that it was Gilbert’s fault.
If it looks like Dini is chewing on a banana, that’s because he is. My mom found these banana-shaped cat toys made of some type of material that’s supposed to be good for their teeth, so she got a single banana for Dini and Gilbert to share. As you can tell from the photos, Dini’s not great with sharing. We put the banana between the two of them, they both sniffed it, and then Dini smacked his paw down and went to town on the banana.
I’ve been exercising my reading muscles a lot over the last few days, and it really feels good, so I’m going to try and keep the momentum going! Let’s all try to read something good this week, shall we?
Catch you on Friday!
—Katie McLain Horner, @kt_librarylady on Twitter. Currently gushing about Her Name is Knight by Yasmin Angoe.
Welcome to Check Your Shelf. I don’t know about you all, but Daylight Savings Time is kicking my butt this week. I greatly appreciate the extra daylight later in the day, but the disruption to my sleep is no bueno. I’m staying up too late because it doesn’t feel like it’s time to go to bed, and I’m waking up too early because what do you mean my alarm just went off?? Hopefully I’ll be more accustomed by this time next week, but in the meantime, my caffeine intake is going wayyy up.
An assistant principal in Mississippi was fired for readingI Need a New Butt! to a second grade classroom. And here’s the kicker…no parents ever complained about the book.
A group of Lower Township, NJ parents is pushing to removeBlack and White by Paul Volponi from the school library. As a side note, I hate that the featured photo for this article is a smiling photo of all the parents (and their children) who are pushing to have the book removed.
The Dedham Public Library (MA) refuted a claim on social media that the library had removed diverse books from its children’s section.
A Little Free Library offering LGBTQ+ books in Waltham, Massachusetts has had its entire stock removed three times in a month. This is happening alongside an ongoing debate of whether or not LGBTQ+ books should be removed from the Waltham School District, and they believe the two issues are related.
The Leavenworth (KS) School District has responded to comments made by a former board member, who said that the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian was inappropriate for high schoolers because it mentions masturbation.
