Links of Note: May 11, 2024
Libraries, Book Bans, Pop Music, and More
Hello from a new name!
I’ve made the switch over from Stacked Thoughts to a ~brand~ that feels like it keeps the same spirit but with more intentionality: Well Sourced. Content-wise, I don’t have plans for changing up what I do, but I think Well Sourced better captures the breadth of topics that I like to dig into here. I always link to my sources and ensure those sources are, well, well sourced.
It’s been about a month since I’ve done a link roundup, so that’s what’s on the menu today. I’ve got a pile of things I’ve written, as well as loads of other people’s work that’s been on my mind or made me pause and reflect lately.
I don’t know about you, but it’s been a season of mental health struggle. Everything feels especially hard, and my energy reserves have been low. If you’re there, I see you.
My Work
First, I am excited to share that I was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker. It’s a huge honor and I’m grateful for it–though, unfortunately, as has been the theme of doing anti-censorship work, it’s been hard to let the meaning of it sink in because it’s already led to me being called every terrible name in the book. It turns out that doing this stuff now for as long as I have has made me more sensitive to it all.
Book Bans & Censorship
Let’s begin with the lighter stuff: rad freedom to read stickers
How to fight book bans in 2024 (it’s the same as it was in 2021, but I’ve literally boiled it down to 4/5 things)
A deep dive into the OnShelf/BookmarkED app and how it is weaseling its way into Texas schools
Common myths about book banning and why they need to be stopped when spread (no, kids aren’t reading more of these books now–it’s the opposite!)
A Girl Scout in Hanover County, Virginia, earned a huge honor for her banned book libraries across the community. But when getting a recognition from the city commissioners, it was censored to…not mention what her project was. Turns out, there is a whole network of book banners from the school board to the library board and threading through the city commissioners themselves.
A roundup of the bills proposed across the US that would criminalize librarians
Anti-book ban legislation has been re-introduced in Colorado
Maryland passed a Freedom to Read Act in the state
The Rebecca Caudill Awards, which were banned in Millburn School District (IL) in March, were reinstated in April. What a waste of time and energy
Google is destroying your access to news right before your eyes
Book Talk
Here are the YA books hitting shelves this spring in hardcover
Ebook and digital audiobook use is way, way up in K-12 schools
Your roundup of (nearly) all of the YA books hitting shelves in paperback in spring
Work I’ve Been Thinking About
That was a lot of heavy stuff, so I’m going to begin with something light and go deeper from there.
First, this is the best senior prank I’ve ever heard of.
This story about Raffi–yes, the children’s songwriter and singer–is about how he is regularly fighting fascism. I got teary-eyed reading this piece in part because, well, Raffi, and in part because why aren’t there more adults who love kids and their futures this much?
My family drove down to Paducah, Kentucky, for the solar eclipse last month. The drive from northern Illinois to the bottom of the state is long, and it’s peppered with a lot of really fascinating small towns. This wasn’t the first trip my husband and I took through the state, which is why we settled on watching the eclipse not from Paducah but from Old Shawneetown, Illinois. We’ve been toying with putting together a podcast about unique/fascinating/surprising Illinois ephemera because there is just so much. All of that is a preface to this link: did you know George Harrison has a connection to a small town in Illinois? I’m charmed by this.
I love good sports writing because good sports writing is not a rundown of a game. It’s about what the game represents, what the stakes are, why a reader should care. This is good, if hard, sports writing. It’s about how racism tore apart the Fort Myers High School baseball team in 2023.
The Guardian had an interesting opinion piece recently about the whether or not pop music is becoming too reliant on gossip and insider-y baseball to connect with listeners. It’s a fascinating read–both spot on and too reductive–and one that is impossible to not read in conversation with the Billboard story last year about how pop stars are no longer being born. Maybe we can put a little blame on social media here, as well as streaming platforms, as they’ve made it possible to discover far more music than what the industry wants to feed the audience (much like we can say that about how, for example, there are no movies anymore than *everyone* has seen because it would be on TNT every weekend). But maybe, too, it’s worth questioning what the role of a pop star is and if the way pop stars have been treated in the past is part of why no one wants to be a pop star. Performers like Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande now need to get ahead of their image with music that’s filled with personal lyrics and, sure, gossip in order to not be dragged the same way pop stars like Britney Spears were. (& also, I wonder, if we’re overlooking some phenomenal pop stars like Chappell Roan who aren’t meant to be consumed by all and that’s ok).
I’ve got no opinions on Virginia Sole Smith–I’ve not read her work though her writing pops up enough in my world that I’m familiar with her–but this profile in the New York Times is fascinating (gift link). I had no idea she came from so much privilege which I think says more about me than anything.
See you again soon!