Children's Literature-Ins and Outs

Censorship of literature isn’t a new concept. For as long as there has been the written word there are those who seem to take issue with what is being written. In the book Children’s Books In Children’s Hands, Temple, Martinez and Yokota define censorship as “denying access to books and ideas.” (2015) Books are banned for any number of reasons, some of those being profanity, violence, bad behavior, sexual situations and racist ideas or language. One such banned book/series has made its way onto the American Library Association’s Most Challenged Books list multiple times, for multiple reasons. The Captain Underpants series written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey has found itself under fire from concerned parents on several occasions. Intended for grades 1-5, the Captain Underpants series chronicles the adventures of Harold Hutchins and George Beard and the fictitious hero of their own comic book, Captain Underpants. Because the young boys engage in disruptive antics and are amused b...

In order to dig a little deeper into current issues and trends in children’s literature I thought it would be best to ask someone that deals with these issues and trends on a daily basis. The children’s librarian that works at my son’s elementary school has been with the district for many years, and I thought this would be a great place to start my investigation into what experts believe are the current trends for young readers. I decided to come up with a set of interview questions I thought gave me the proper insight into not only the librarian’s perspective on children’s literature today, but also her own personal experience dealing with young readers and teachers alike.  Over the course of the interview I gained some important insight into her experiences in dealing with child readers and the current trends in the types of books students are interested in. In the 13 years that she had been in charge of the library at the school, and in the 10 years prior as the children's lib...

In order to dig a little deeper into current issues and trends in children’s literature I thought it would be best to ask someone that deals with these issues and trends on a daily basis. The children’s librarian that works at my son’s elementary school has been with the district for many years, and I thought this would be a great place to start my investigation into what experts believe are the current trends for young readers. I decided to come up with a set of interview questions I thought gave me the proper insight into not only the librarian’s perspective on children’s literature today, but also her own personal experience dealing with young readers and teachers alike. Here’s the full interview and what she had to say on the subject: 10 Children’s Librarian Interview questions: 1.   How long have you worked as a children’s librarian? I’ve been here at the school library for about 11 years now, but before that I was the children’s librarian at a public library fo...