Beatrix Potter’s silence concerning her sources means the Brer Rabbit folktales that helped create her stories are passed over without acknowledgement or celebration.
A banned books display in a US bookshop.
Ted Shaffrey/AP
Differences over what counts as indoctrination lie behind a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in Florida. PEN America’s CEO deems book removals ‘a deliberate attempt to suppress diverse voices’.
Book bans in Ron DeSantis’s Florida have censored beloved Australian author Mem Fox – for an illustrated character’s bath. But blanket nudity bans teach children bodies are ‘inherently sexual’.
Detail of an illustration of Theodosia Okoh, who designed Ghana’s flag.
Illustrations by Denyse Gawu-Mensah/Black and Bold Queens
Children’s books implicitly shape the minds of young readers - and are covertly censored in many ways. But revising occasional words will usually not shift the values regarded as outdated in the text.
There’s a small but growing number of books for younger readers that feature main characters with disabilities.
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Edwina Preston tells why her favourite literary heroine is Seven Little Australians’ Judy Woolcot and her ‘bone-true authenticity of self’ – beating fellow tomboys Jo March and Anne Shirley.
How can you get your kids to read this summer? Research has found they respond well to reading non-fiction – so we’ve gathered 6 top non-fiction books, recommended by the kids themselves.
Blake’s cover image from The Big Friendly Giant by Roald Dahl.
Quentin Blake/Alamy
Because bias is learned from a very early age, reading and learning about diverse experiences cannot start too soon. Here are five Australian picture books that centre on queer stories.
Whether in defeat or victory, each Olympian’s story is one of dedication and perseverance. Children’s authors have long cottoned on to their literary potential