Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Challenges and Cover Changes and Librarian Songs, Oh My!

A bunch of random happenings learnt today:

Menifee Union School District in California has pulled copies of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary (10th edition) from 4th and 5th grade classrooms in response to a parent complaint. Turns out there are certain words in that dictionary that are "sexually graphic." I always knew Webster was a perv out to corrupt our youth!

Little, Brown has announced they will be putting new covers on the The Mysterious Benedict Society book series (which, btw, my 6th graders LOVE) in response to complaints* of "whitewashing" the character Sticky. Sticky is described in the text as having "light brown skin" and is even shaded in internal illustrations, but appears white as ghost on the book covers. I'd make a "sticky situation" pun here, but SLJ beat me to it. Alas.

Now, to close-out with something fun, FlavorPill brings us Mixtape: 10 Best Songs About Libraries and Librarians.

Awesome job, Leila for your activism on this issue!

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3 comments:

  1. That's quite interesting regarding The Mysterious Benedict Society... I never even noticed. The covers are brilliant though, so I hope they make an attempt to keep it that way.

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