Caroline Richmond

3 weeks ago | writersdigest.com | Caroline Richmond

When I was in the ninth grade, my English teacher introduced me to a book that would change my life. For one of our units, Mrs. Wilkerson assigned the novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. We only had to read a few specific chapters for our class discussions, but as soon as I opened the book I simply inhaled it. From the very first sentence, it felt as if Tan had peered into my brain and typed up all the tangled emotions that I felt as the daughter of Chinese immigrants in America.

4 weeks ago | diversebooks.org | Caroline Richmond

Join us to celebrate the inaugural We Need Diverse Books Day on April 3, 2025! This new holiday was exclusively announced in USA TODAY, which you can check out here. We Need Diverse Books Day was created to commemorate a decade of WNDB’s efforts to diversify the publishing industry. This holiday is intended to highlight the importance of reading books that reflect our beautifully diverse world. To celebrate, we invite you to read and share a diverse book on social media.

Sep 10, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Joy McCullough |Caroline Richmond |Tess Sharpe |Jessica Spotswood

A fictionalized adaptation for teens of the Holocaust survival story Zail shared in her self-published adult memoir, The Tattooed Flower (2006). Switching between Australia in 1982 and Europe during the Holocaust, this work presents two distinct first-person narratives connected by one life. The late-20th-century storyline is a work of shallow realistic fiction about teenage Lisa, whose comfortable life is disrupted when her beloved father is diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Jan 16, 2024 | lasvegassun.com | Becky Pringle |Caroline Richmond |Ellen Oh

Books that once lined the shelves of the library in a Jacksonville, Fla., elementary school are now stored in boxes. The school librarian spends her days vetting titles to comply with new censorship laws passed by the state. In Spotsylvania County, Va., educators spent up to 40 hours a week reviewing titles after a mother of two students single-handedly challenged over 70 books in her school district. In one Utah district, 199 of 205 challenges were tracked to one married couple.

Nov 28, 2023 | ajc.com | Maureen Downey |Becky Pringle |Caroline Richmond |Ellen Oh

In a guest column, three education advocates share their growing concern over censorship campaigns that target books about and by people of color and those with LGBTQ+ characters or themes. Middle school teacher Becky Pringle is president of the National Education Association.