Happy Friday! Kim here. This week was pretty uneventful but tomorrow is my sons 8th birthday. We plan to take him to a production of Treasure Island. Very excited for that. With not much else to say this week I thought I’d share some recent book news that caught my eye…
ONE. Maus joins list of banned books. Holocaust graphic novel, Maus by Art Spiegelman has now been added to list of books that a Tennessee school board deems “inappropriate” for the classroom. We’re talking about a Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel here. The school cites the books’ use of inappropriate language and nudity. The bottom line is that the book shows a reality that many people would like to gloss over. And unfortunately Maus was not the only target as of late.
TWO. JSTOR Daily Celebrates Black History Month. JSTOR has compiled a list of essential reading that includes stories of the historical legacies of Black diaspora. The list includes everything from the Origin of Black History Month to a story on the first Black owned book store. Also shared: Tuskegee University Archives just recently finished digitizing their extensive collection of hidden audio recordings from the Tuskegee Civic Association. These include interviews with prominent civil rights workers of the time. I’ve bookmarked these to go back and listen podcast style.
THREE. GLAAD Award announces the nominees for Outstanding Graphic Novel. GLAAD is an organization that monitors media portrayal of LGBTQ people. I read a lot of graphic novels and comics and lately I’ve been reading quite a few with Queer representation that have quickly become favorites. I’m very excited to work my way through this list of nominees and read those I haven’t read yet.
FOUR. Audie Award Finalists are announced. You know we’re big fans of audiobooks here at GXO so we’re particularly interested in this list of 2022 finalists. I recently finished reading The Charm Offensive, Alison Cochrun and was kind of surprised to see it listed as a finalist under the romance category!
FIVE. 8 Year Old Boy Secretly Adds His Book to Library Stacks. And in your feel good story of the week, 8 year old Dillon wrote a book for Christmas. Wanting to make sure that others could read it, he snuck it on to his local libraries shelves. The staff found it, tacked a barcode on to it and now it has a mile long waiting list!
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