- 2022 May 25
Oregon Bookstore Gets a New Owner
Cloud & Leaf, the independent bookstore in Manzanita, is changing hands again.
- 2022 May 23
From Book Riot
School Librarians Are Disappearing: Here's Why They Shouldn't.
From the New York Times
In the Fight Over How to Teach Reading, This Guru Makes a Major Retreat.
From Brightly
Phonological Awareness: Why This Skill Set Is So Important for Young Readers.
From Book Riot
A Brief History of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes.
From Literary Hub
Nicole Melleby: "My Queer Life Is Not Inappropriate, and Neither Are the Books That Reflect It."
From Book Riot
Pride Is Nearly Here: New LGBTQ+ Picture Books.
- 2022 May 20
Twig Book Shop Founder Dies at 76
Harris Smithson, who founded Twig Book Shop in San Antonio, Tex., died on May 15.
Boston Gets a Four-Story Store
Beacon Hill Books and Cafe will open in August, and will include a restaurant and cafe.
- 2022 May 18
From Book Riot
Barnes & Noble Being Sued in Virginia Beach Over Gender Queer and Court of Mist and Fury.
From Deadline
Netflix Scraps Several Animated Projects, Including Wings of Fire and Antiracist Baby.
From Deadline
First Look: Lena Dunham Film Catherine Called Birdy.
From People
Channing Tatum to Star in Film Adaptation of His Children's Book The One and Only Sparkella.
From the New York Times
Colin Kaepernick to publish a memoir, a graphic novel for teens, due out next spring.
From Romper
Karamo Brown Teamed Up with His Son on a New Children’s Book to Share a Powerful Message.
From Literary Hub
The Purpose of Book Bans Is to Make Queer Kids Scared: Lev AC Rosen on Having His Book Banned.
From the Gazette
Colorado Springs author Joni McCoy's new bookstore solely sells self-published children's books.
From Vulture
For the highly prolific Akwaeke Emezi, literary success is a spiritual calling.
From People
Tiffany Haddish on Her First Children's Book: 'So Important to Play Make-Believe.'
From Book Riot
How YA Books Helped Me Forgive My Angsty Queer Teen Self.
From Literary Hub
How Growing Up in the Digital Age Impacts Young Minds.
From Book Riot
Why Are There So Many Pickup Trucks in Queer YA Books?
Belarusian Booksellers Arrested
The owners of a new bookstore in Minsk have been arrested as part of a wider crackdown on publishing.
D.C. Gets a New LGBTQ+ Bookstore
Little District Books, a store focused on LGBTQ+ literature, is coming to Washington, D.C., this summer.
- 2022 May 17
2022 Eisner Award Nominations
Led by DC with 15 nominations and Image with 14, the San Diego Comic-Con International announced this year’s nominations for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, an annual event that honors the best comics and graphic novels of the year. The winners of the Eisner Awards will be announced at a gala event at the San Diego Comic-Con International on July 22.
N.K. Jemison Speaks
Acclaimed science-fiction author N.K. Jemisin is interviewed on a BBC podcast about her writing career, including the creation of her Broken Earth Trilogy, the first series in the genre’s history to win consecutive Hugo Awards for each of the three books. Jemisin talks about how she goes about world building in her fiction, the impact of a NASA writing residency on her career, and how she believes her books give voice to oppressed people around the world.
Denis Kitchen Has a New Book!
Denis Kitchen is likely best known as the founder of Kitchen Sink Press, a celebrated indie comics publisher founded in 1969 that published such comics luminaries as Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, R. Crumb, Trina Robbins, Carol Lay, Kate Worley, and others. He’s also probably better known as the founder of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which defends the First Amendment rights of readers, artists, retailers, and librarians. But before all of that he was an artist and a key figure in the underground comix movement of the 1960s. Now, after many years, he’s returning as an artist with a new book, Creatures from the Subconscious, featuring 170 new drawings in Kitchen’s distinctive visual style, that will be published by Tinto Press in Fall 2022. The publisher has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the book’s publication (along with three other books on the Tinto list) and the campaign has hit its initial goal ($5,000) and currently has raised $12,000 with 24 days to go.
The Value and Meaning of Spider-Man
Over at The Millions’, Bryan VanDyke writes about his introduction to the world of superhero comics when he was six years old–in this instance, it’s a 1982 reprint-issue of Marvel’s Spider-Man #1 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, a classic of American superhero comics, first published in 1963. It’s an encounter that changes his young life and, we learn, will have a subtle and continuous impact on the perception of his life for years to come. VanDyke writes about the evolution of his relationship to comics and especially to Spider-Man. “I was six years old when I pulled a reprint of “Amazing Spider-Man No. 1” from the rack at Michigan News, a rumpled newsstand at the heart of the city where I grew up. I still have the comic, dated April 1982; it’s tattered and almost worthless, but as a talisman it can transport me across time.”
- 2022 May 16
From the Associated Press
Mississippi school board upholds firing over New Butt book.
From Salon
Librarians Push Back Against Book-Banning.
From C21Media
Tad Hills's Duck & Goose and Paula Danziger's Amber Brown join AppleTV+ summer slate for kids and families.
From Deadline
Eva the Owlet Animated Series Based on Owl Diaries Book Series Ordered by Apple TV+.
From AV Club
In his first animated feature film, Ron Howard will turn The Shrinking of Treehorn into a musical set in New York during the holidays.
From Romper
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret movie gets a September release date.
From the Guardian
Harry Potter and the missing sketches: J.K. Rowling's first drawings of boy wizard.
From the Bush Center
Mrs. Laura Bush's 2022 Summer Reading List for Kids.
From People
Sarah Ferguson Announces 22-Title YA Book Deal in Australia Inspired by Her Own Life.
From the Emporia Gazette
William Allen White Children's Book Winners Announced.
- 2022 May 13
ABA Wants Your Advice
The American Booksellers Association is opening nominations for four open spots on ABA’s Booksellers Advisory Council.
A Store Just for Self-Pubbed Kids' Books
Young Bookworms in Colorado Springs exclusively sells self-published children's books.
Seattle Gets a New Bookstoremobile
Blue Kettle Books, which is operated out of a former shuttle bus, will soon be traversing Seattle's streets.
Chicagoland's Latest Comic Store Opens
Howling Pages opened in Portage Park after raising $16,000 on Kickstarter.
Miami Bookstore Chain Reaches Milestone
Books & Books, a chain of stores in south Florida, is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Visiting Cape Cod's Bookstores
The spit of land in eastern Massachusetts has 23 independent bookstores to visit this summer.
- 2022 May 11
From the Washington Post
Percy Jackson author Rick Riordan condemns racist backlash to casting decision.
From Idaho News 6
Idaho school board pulls 24 books from district shelves, including The Handmaid's Tale and It's Perfectly Normal.
From Kansas Reflector
Woman wants Kansas library to get rid of Fred Gets Dressed, children’s book about boy who dresses in mom’s clothes.
From the Washington Post
Upset by book bans, teen starts forbidden book club in small Pa. town.
From Locus
Fantasy author Patricia A. McKillip has died at age 74.
From the Atlantic
Heartstopper and the Era of Feel-Good, Queer-Teen Romances.
From the New York Times
How Jessie Sima’s Eighth Grade Sketches Led to a Career.
From Sarah Dessen
Some reflections on the making of Along for the Ride, now on Netflix.
From BuzzFeed
35 Young Adult Books by AAPI Authors Releasing This Year.
From Book Riot
Middle Grade Graphic Novels to Lose Yourself In.
From Entertainment Weekly
11 exciting books for your kids' summer reading list.
From Brightly
Dollars and Cents: 11 Picture Books About Money for Children.
From Book Riot
20 Must-Read YA Historical Fiction Novels.
- 2022 May 09
From Hazlitt
The Life, Death, and Rebirth of MTV Books.
From the Guardian
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to give books to refugee children.
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Ready Readers celebrates one million books with storybook walks across the St. Louis area.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune
In writing stories for kids, Minh Lê found a way to ‘accept and embrace’ his own lived experiences.
From WCVB-TV
'Make Way for Ducklings' sculptor Nancy Schön is 'thrilled' that her piece has become a big part of Boston.
From Book Riot
15 Excellent Summer Reading Program Ideas.
- 2022 May 05
Upstate New York Gets a New Bookstore
Triquetra Books and More is opening this weekend in Baldwinsville.
Missouri's Newest B&N to Open
Barnes & Noble is opening a new store near Kansas City in Blue Springs.
A New Store Opens in Central California
Monarch Books, a new indie bookstore, opened in Arroyo Grande last weekend.
- 2022 May 04
From Deadline
Film Adaptation of Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind in the Works at Disney+.
From NPR
In the battle over books, Nashville library’s response? ‘I read banned books’ cards.
From Rapid City Journal
Author Dave Eggers offers to buy 'to be destroyed' books for Rapid City high school seniors.
From the Washington Post
Teens fight for the right to read with 'banned-book clubs' and lawsuits.
From San Antonio
A School Librarian's Take on the Battle Over Books.
From Time
'When Childhood Is Shattered': Samira Ahmed on Writing Fiction Based on Real Incidents of Racism Against Kids.
From the Bookseller
The Wonder Years: Why Adults Should Read Kids' Books.
From Book Riot
The Bookish Life of LeVar Burton.
From NPR
A circus performer has to overcome his fears in The Great Zapfino by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Marla Frazee.
From NPR
Pablo Neruda's question poems, now translated and illustrated for children.
From Literary Hub
Empathizing with the Mother Figures of Peter Pan.
From Book Riot
12 of the Best Filipino YA Books from the Philippines.
From Brightly
Read It, Make It: Mother's Day Books and a Craft.
- 2022 May 03
AAPI Heritage Month at the 92nd Street Y
The 92nd Street Y in New York City is celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander month in May with a series of new and archived online interviews with an impressive selection of acclaimed guests that include George Takei, Kamala Harris, Alan Yang, David Chang, Marie Kondo, Jhumpa Lahiri, and others.
Medal of Honor: Ralph Puckett
As part of its ongoing series to publish graphic biographies of Medal of Honor recipients, the Association of the United States Army, a nonprofit educational organization serving members of the army and their families, is releasing its newest graphic nonfiction publication Medal of Honor: Ralph Puckett, which was written by Chuck Dixon with art by Chris Batista. Puckett was awarded his MoH for his actions in command of an Army Ranger company during the Korean War, leading his unit to capture an enemy position despite being outnumbered almost ten to one. The 95 year-old Puckett received his Medal of Honor last year from President Biden, more than 70 years after the events of the war. The Medal of Honor is the highest honor that can be awarded to an American military service person. The AUSA MoH graphic biography series launched in 2018 and has released a dozen bios; the program plans to release four more MoH graphic biographies in 2022.
The Suffering Zone
Over at The Millions, Sophia Stewart examines Chloe Caldwell’s new book The Red Zone: A Love Story, described as an “attempt to grapple with her disruptive menstrual symptoms and find community.” Stewart writes about her own debilitating menstrual experience to highlight the extraordinary suffering caused by these disruptive cycles and the confusion and silence among many women about the agony they experience. Caldwell’s book, she notes, is also a testament to the community of women responding to the suppressed, sometimes ignored, physical and psychological distress of afflicted women, offering a range of medical solutions as well as their deep empathy. Although she calls Caldwell’s book “uneven,” Stewart writes, “the project of the book—to make literary the body horror and psychological turmoil that are part of so many women’s lives—is an exciting one.”
- 2022 May 02
From NPR
Florida activist asks schools to ban Bible following the state's efforts to remove books.
From the Boston Globe
Op-Ed: Emily Gowen surveys the history and "stubbornness" of racial bias in children's books.
From Truthout
Children's Book Authors Are Fighting Back Against Censorship and Book Bans.
From Variety
Jenny Han's The Summer I Turned Pretty Sets Summer Release Date.
From the Hollywood Reporter
Hunger Games Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Gets Release Date.
From Literary Hub
"A Quiet Reply to a Life Cut Short: After a Profound Loss, How to Honor the Dead" by Elisha Cooper.
From Catapult
"TLDR; I Tweeted Myself into a Career and Now I'm Stuck Online" by Leah Johnson.
From the Guardian
Neil Gaiman on his early love of the Narnia Chronicles, and one of the great neglected children’s authors of the 20th century.
From Book Riot
10 of the Most Popular YA Books on TikTok.
From Brightly
Kids' Books on the Experiences of Asian American Immigrants.
- 2022 Apr 29
Maine's Newest Bookstore to Open
Back Cove Books, a new general interest bookstore, will open in Portland later this year.
New Jersey Store Is On the Move
The Asbury Book Collective has moved and is reopening in a new, larger location in Asbury Park.
Canada Celebrates Indies Tomorrow
Canada Independent Bookstore Day is taking place tomorrow. Events are scheduled at stores across the country.
Philly Store Fights for a Black Holiday
The owner of Harriet's Bookshop in Philadelphia is campaigning to make Harriet Tubman Day a reality.
- 2022 Apr 28
Massachusetts Gets a New Bookstore
Hummingbird Books is opening in Chestnut Hill, in suburban Boston, on Saturday.
B&N Closes Central Boston Store
Barnes & Noble is closing its store in the Prudential Center after 20 years in that location.
Missouri's Newest Store to Open
The Noir Bookshop, a new Black-owned bookstore, is opening in St. Louis this Saturday.
- 2022 Apr 27
From NPR
LeVar Burton will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the new children's Emmys.
