“In 2025, book bans were not sparked by concerned parents, and they were not the result of local grassroots efforts. They were part of a well-funded, politically-driven campaign.” - Sarah Lamdan, Executive Director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.
https://bit.ly/4tQcFqG
New Releases A collage of book covers
April 2026's new Young Adult releases includes a graphic memoir about a young woman's search for belonging (UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN), a queer "enemies to lovers" fey romance (FORGIVE-ME-NOT), and an assassin on a revenge quest (THE BLOODY AND THE DAMNED)!
Learn more here: tinyurl.com/mr2ptcxe
Thank you to the Milton Public Library for providing an incredible place for a bookish kid to spend her boring summers in the 90s! ... and thank you to the vancouver public library for feeding my reading habit as a bookish adult in the 20s! Happy National Library Week!
I grew up without a TV (and before the internet was widely available), so my main source of entertainment was my local library. My library was especially important during long, boring summer months where I had little to do.
Books! Comics! Magazines Newspapers! I could even watch videos at my library! And it was all for free! It felt magical!
Over the summer, I'd spend practically every day at my local library. But there was one problem... "Why're you lying around here? Go out! Go to the library!"
...my library was closed on Mondays. "I can't! It's Mondayyy!" "Oh. Right."
It's National Library Week! The theme this year is Find Your Joy and we asked @faitherinhicks.bsky.social about her connection to her childhood library, the Milton Public Library ❤️📚
Check out Faith's graphic novel, INBETWEENS here: tinyurl.com/yck72em7
#NationalLibraryMonth #MiltonPublicLibrary
A green graphic that reads, "Historical fiction tells a kid, 'You know what? This has happened before and kids have thrived through it, they've triumphed through it, and things have changed.'" Beneath the text is the book cover of THE LIONS' RUN by Sara Pennypacker. The book's cover features a young boy riding a horse, glancing over his shoulder.
Historical fiction tells a kid, "You know what? This has happened before and kids have thrived through it, they’ve triumphed through it, and things have changed.”
@mackidsbooks.bsky.social @mackidssl.bsky.social #BookSky
Think spring and get the kids gardening and becoming GREEN GREEN! Here's the link to our book GREEN GREEN: A COMMUNITY GARDENING STORY. Includes butterfly craft idea and ways kids can help their world be more green.
@mackidssl.bsky.social @mackidsbooks.bsky.social bookshop.org/p/books/gree...
Autism Acceptance Month
April is Autism Acceptance Month! Foster inclusion and celebrate neurodiversity in your classroom with our recommendations - including HAZELTHORN by @paperfury.bsky.social, a YA horror with an autistic protagonist and three starred reviews!
Access our resource center: tinyurl.com/5a5zccnw
#edusky
Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13 Written by Helaine Becker, illustrated by Dow Phumiruk
Katherine's reputation for accuracy and strong leadership skills (she was known for asking plenty of questions!) got her promoted to Project Mercury, a new program designed to send the first American astronauts into space. Mercury's missions were going to be dangerous. So dangerous that even the project's star astronaut, John Glenn, refused to fly unless Katherine okayed the numbers. "You can count on me," she said. Glenn's spacecraft, Friendship 7, orbited Earth three times and returned home safely. Glenn became a national hero.
Obsessed with all things Artemis II? Celebrate the anniversary of the Apollo 13 capsule returning safely back to earth with COUNTING ON CATHERINE, the bold story of how Katherine Johnson, a NASA mathematician, saved Apollo 13.
@dowphumiruk.bsky.social tinyurl.com/4mujv3t8 #artemisii #nasa #apollo13
Celebrate National Poetry Month
This #NationalPoetryMonth consider sharing SPARK by @baronchrisbaron.bsky.social with your students! It's a Lone Star Reading List selection with three starred reviews, in which two friends find their way back to each other in a community recovering from a devastating wildfire ❤️ tinyurl.com/28tzpmv9
Share AANHPI Voices for Kids and Teens Mackids School & Library
May is AANHPI Heritage Month and we've got a resource center full of titles by AANHPI creators for you to recommend to your students. Tap the link to learn more ✨ tinyurl.com/4bp3x6zv
#aanhpiheritagemonth #aanhpi #edusky #bookrecs #reading #kidlit #mglit #books
A Statement In Opposition to HR 7661 The freedom to speak and to read is a fundamental principle of the United States of America. That is why we have joined together — parents, students, educators, library workers, authors, free expression advocates, booksellers, and publishers — to stand in support of our nation’s school-aged children and teens and in opposition to H.R. 7661. H.R. 7661, if passed, will compel nationwide book censorship. It confuses obscenity with identity and stigmatizes vulnerable young people, particularly trans children and teens, based on who they are. It will continue to drain funding from our already underfunded schools and libraries. And it will threaten the creativity and critical thinking that are vital to education in the U.S.
Authors Against Book Bans has joined dozens of other organizations, nonprofits, publishers, & stores to issue this joint statement opposing HR7661
Here's a great reading list from the @mackidssl.bsky.social team of stories to share during #AutismAcceptanceMonth. All kinds of genres, styles, and tones here!
“a compassionate work that offers a thoughtful message of acceptance." “offers a gentle tribute to students who live just outside the circle, reminding readers that belonging can take more than one shape.” —booklist, starred review —Shelf awareness, starred review "Refreshing...” —horn book, starred review “Bartleby will win the hearts of children and grownups alike.” —publishers weekly, starred review
⭐ Stargaze with MacKids ⭐
BARTLEBY by @mattphelandraws.bsky.social is a whimsical, yet powerful new modern classic picture book for fans of The Rabbit Listened that follows a dapper polar bear who learns the power of staying true to himself. tinyurl.com/y7mn8cfm
#kidlit #picturebook
This Arab American Heritage Month we're recommending FOUR EIDS AND A FUNERAL, in which ex-best friends must work together to save their Islamic Center from demolition, by award-winning authors Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé & Adiba Jaigirdar. bit.ly/4bE92we
#edusky #arabamericanheritagemonth #aahm #yalit
Author Spotlight: Van Hoang Auntie Q's Golden Claws Nail Salon
"Middle grade stories always feel like we’re about to step through a magical portal, always on the brink of possibility..."
This month's author spotlight is shining down on Van Hoang!
Read our interview about her new humorous MG novel at the link: tinyurl.com/4uyv4u7
#edusky #mglit #interview
Happy book birthday to my favorite French snail and imaginary friend/alter ego from Day 2 of our coast to coast tour!
A Fishboy Named . . . Sashimi
Happy book birthday to @dansantat.bsky.social's A Fishboy Named . . . Sashimi!
A drawing of an Atlantic puffin wearing a pink polka dot party hat, in front of a giant platter of shiny, silver fish. Stuck in the middle of the fish is a single pink striped birthday candle.
Happy Book Birthday to Puffins! It’s my new picture book with @gianferrari-m.bsky.social ! Request it from your local library or get your own copy from your favorite bookstore!
Puffins! written by Maria Gianferrari, illustrated by Maris Wicks
Today is Puffin Day, and coincidentally, the book birthday of PUFFINS! by Maria Gianferrari & @mariswicks.bsky.social 🥳
Follow a young puffling from hatching to adulthood in this imaginative nonfiction picture book with 1 starred review! tinyurl.com/3a8959c4
#edusky #puffin #puffinday #books
A fishboy named... Sashimi by Dan Santat "A hilarious tale of friendship, adventure, and mystery. Sashimi is FRESH!!!" - Dav Pilkey, creator of DOG MAN
ALERT: A new graphic novel series from Caldecott Medal winner @dansantat.bsky.social is here! With 3 starred reviews, SASHIMI follows a fishboy who sneaks into an elementary school and pretends to be a student to fit in and find friends! Out today 🐟
tinyurl.com/23xzsdke #dansantat
Good Night, Escargot story by Dashka Slater, pictures by Sydney Hanson
"Happy Book Birthday to GOOD NIGHT, ESCARGOT by @dashkaslater.bsky.social & Sydney Hanson in which our favorite french snail hosts a pajama party in this laugh-out-loud fifth picture book in the bestselling Escargot series. tinyurl.com/2v7m9ker
#edusky #picturebook #kidsbooks #storytim
Forgive-Me-Not by Mari Costa
Happy Book Birthday to FORGIVE-ME-NOT by Mari Costa, a queer "enemies to lovers" journey of a lost princess and a changeling who was made to take the heir's place as part of a fey scheme. It has two starred reviews! tinyurl.com/2sebpz5e
#edusky #yabooks #sapphic
"I’ll read anything that’s a good story! We use stories as a way of making sense of and understanding the world around us, and I’d argue that’s as much the point of fiction as it is of nonfiction." @rebeccaefbarone.bsky.social on her spy thriller. #kidlit 📚👍 afuse8production.slj.com/2026/04/14/s...
Dan Santat Spills Some Tea on The Yarn Podcast
In the new episode, Santat talks about his new graphic novel, 'Sashimi, After the Fall,' working with Mo Willems and Dav Pilkey, and much more. He even spills some tea on the Beekle franchise that never was.
100scopenotes.com/2026/04/13/d...
🗓️ It’s School Library Month
📌 Here are the top 10 things that, if they happened, would thrill a school librarian to no end! @aaslala.bsky.social
knowledgequest.aasl.org/celebrate-sc...
The freedom to speak and to read is a fundamental principle of the United States of America.
Use the action center to urge your representative to vote NO on HR 7661, or better, yet, to not take it up for a vote: tinyurl.com/hapf2m9r
We can't underscore enough how EASY @everylibrary.bsky.social makes it to call your rep about H.R. 7661.
ALL you need to do is provide your address and you receive a script AND a PHONE CALL that connects you to your rep's office.
Don't wait. Call now. 📞
The freedom to speak and to read is a fundamental principle of the United States of America. That is why we have joined together — parents, students, educators, library workers, authors, free expression advocates, booksellers, and publishers — to stand in support of our nation’s school-aged children and teens and in opposition to H.R. 7661. H.R. 7661, if passed, will compel nationwide book censorship. It confuses obscenity with identity and stigmatizes vulnerable young people, particularly trans children and teens, based on who they are. It will continue to drain funding from our already underfunded schools and libraries. And it will threaten the creativity and critical thinking that are vital to education in the U.S.
A core principle of democracy, freedom, and liberty is that the government does not choose what people get to read and who they get to be. This country has a long history of protecting our freedoms. H.R. 7661 goes against this. Together, we say that this bill goes against the U.S. Constitution, local self-determination, access to books, and a society that is welcoming for everyone, no matter who they are. Our schools deserve better than this. Our children and teens — all of them, without exception — deserve better than this. We urge the U.S. House of Representatives to vote NO on H.R. 7661 or, better yet, to not take it up for a vote at all.
We stand alongside over 100 grassroots and national advocacy organizations, publishers, booksellers, parent groups, and professional associations in opposition to H.R. 7661.
👉 Use this action center to urge your representative to vote NO. tinyurl.com/hapf2m9r #uniteagainstbookbans
Speak: the graphic novel by National Book Award Finalist Laurie Halse Anderson Artwork by Eisner Award-winning artist Emily Carroll
April is designated as National Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). Sexual assault is an issue that affects our entire community.
Looking for resources to help raise awareness through reading? Take a look at our Teacher's Guide for Speak: The Graphic Novel at the link. tinyurl.com/y7rncpuu
