It’s no secret that I’m a great fan of Jackie Woodson and her work. And so I’ve been pleased to see her name so much in the news of late. First comes the announcement of her being named the recipient of the Brooklyn Book Festival’s annual Best of Brooklyn Award. The Festival, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports, pays tr...
Category: Opinion
It’s here, boys and girls! The new, third edition of my book Young Adult Literature. From Romance to Realism (ALA/Neal Schuman) Arguably the longest lived of my twenty-three books, the title has been in print in one edition or another since it was first published in 1996. Lots has changed in the field of young adult litera...
This list is current through July. Last year (2015), a total of 64 books with LGBT content were published, a near record. As you can see, there are sixty-nine titles on the following list and it’s only July. If this pace continues, 2016 will be a record year for LGBT publishing. 2016 BOOKS WITH LGBTQ CONTENT ...
July 26, 2016 24 min to read
Fighting the Good Fight: LGBTQ Books vs. the Censors
Category : Opinion
Censorship is – like death and taxes – always with us. I’ve had occasion to speak about the subject many times. Here is one of my latest speeches about the subject. It was delivered at the Outlawed Conference held at California State University in April 2015. I hope you’ll find it interesting and, perhaps, even helpf...
The multitalented Christopher Myers is adding a new part to his established roles as artist and author: that of editor-publisher when he launches his own imprint with Random House to be called “Make Me a World,” which will debut in 2018. As the name suggests, the imprint will focus on books that reflect diversity. Myers acknowled...
Here’s the least surprising news of the week: kids’ books use more rare words than adult TV shows. According to a “Bustle” article by Kristian Wilson, out of every 1,000 words in a children’s book, 30.9 will be rare, compared with 22.7 in adult prime-time TV shows. So what are “rare” words? Well, according to t...
May 27, 2016 1 min to read
If your local newspaper includes the Sunday supplement Parade
Category : Opinion
If your local newspaper includes the Sunday supplement Parade, you may have seen a recent article (June 26) in which author and bookstore owner Ann Patchett boldly offered a list of the 75 best books of the past 75 years. Patchett shares the credit (or blame) with staff of her Nashville, Tennessee store Parnassus Books. Ther...
Carl Lennertz has been named executive director of the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader. Well known in publishing circles, Lennertz has served as executive director of World Book Night and was creator of the Book Sense Children’s and Adult Bestseller and Indie Next lists of the American Booksellers Associ...