Joanne Jacobs
Empty shelves: School culls old books, can't afford new books
A Maryland elementary school's library has colorful posters urging kids to read -- but not many books on the shelves, writes Theresa...
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Joanne Jacobs
Oct 13, 20232 min read
Please, please, please don't politicize reading instruction
Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters declared the first week of October "Teach Kids to Read Week." This is controversial, reports Sarah...
Joanne Jacobs
Jun 4, 20232 min read
What books are best for children?
Which books should kids be reading, asks Robert Pondiscio. He talked to Casey Churchill, who runs Liberty Common School, a Colorado Core...
Joanne Jacobs
Jun 3, 20231 min read
Good Book or bad book? Bible is challenged in Utah
The Bible is off the shelves at elementary and middle-school libraries in a suburban Utah district, after a parent's complaint, writes...
Joanne Jacobs
May 15, 20232 min read
'Book bans' sound bad, but so does graphic sex in school libraries
President Biden keeps talking about "book bans," writes Andrew Rotherham on Eduwonk. It's become "a nervous tic" for Education Secretary...
Joanne Jacobs
May 3, 20231 min read
Canceling SkippyJon: Everyone wants to censor something
Skippyjon Jones, about a Siamese cat who thought he was a Chihuahua, was a huge hit when it came out in 2003, recalls James V. Shuls. His...
Joanne Jacobs
Apr 27, 20232 min read
'Our nation's children are all our children'
"There's no such thing as someone else's child," said President Joe Biden in honoring the new Teacher of the Year, an Oklahoma math...
Joanne Jacobs
Apr 19, 20232 min read
'Lazy' parents want librarians, teachers to protect their kids
"Parental rights" advocates have a"dirty secret," charges Alyssa Rosenberg in the Washington Post. They're too lazy to teach their kids...
Joanne Jacobs
Apr 13, 20232 min read
Was Anne Frank bisexual? Graphic novel -- with breasts! -- is out of school library
The Diary of Anne Frank remains in the Vero Beach High School library, but the Florida school has removed a retelling of the story, Anne...
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 27, 20222 min read
It's just kiddie sex, not pedophilia, so no worries
Jonathan Evison's Lawn Boy, doesn't belong in school libraries, say angry parents, because the graphic novel depicts an adult man having...
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 20, 20222 min read
'Protect our kids from graphic porn' in the school library
Parents who object to sexually explicit books in school libraries have been labeled "book banners," writes Max Eden, a research fellow at...
Joanne Jacobs
Sep 29, 20223 min read
Who decides what books belong in the school library? Can we talk about it?
You probably can't find Hustler in the school library -- or Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal, write Jay Greene and Robert Pondiscio in...
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