Episode #6: "Judy Blume Was Everything and More"
On this episode, we're excited to bring you Amanda Jones and Barbara Dee
Amanda Jones has been an educator for 25 years, at the same middle school she attended as a child. She has served as President of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians and won numerous awards for her work in school libraries, including School Library Journal Librarian of the Year. A sought-after keynote speaker, Amanda is a frequent volunteer for state and national library associations, as well as a co-founder of the Livingston Parish Library Alliance and founding member of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship. She lives in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.
Barbara Dee is the award-winning author of fifteen middle grade novels published by Simon & Schuster. Her books have earned several starred reviews and have been named to many best-of lists, including The Washington Post’s Best Children’s Books, ALA Notable Children’s Books, ALA Rise: A Feminist Book Project List, School Library Journal’s Best Middle Grade Books, and the ALA Rainbow List Top Ten. Her books appear on numerous state awards lists as well.
Barbara graduated magna cum laude from Yale with honors in English. She has a MA degree from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English and a JD degree from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was an associate editor of the law review. She has taught high school English and has practiced law. Barbara is one of the founders and a former board member of the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival, now the largest children’s book festival in the country.
Read Along!
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As seen in the hit PBS documentary The Librarians, now streaming!
“Amanda Jones started getting death threats, all for standing up for our right to read . . . but she's not stopped fighting against book bans, or stopped advocating for access to diverse stories.”-Oprah Winfrey, in a speech at the 2023 National Book Awards
Part memoir, part manifesto, the inspiring story of a Louisiana librarian advocating for inclusivity on the front lines of our vicious culture wars.
One of the things small town librarian Amanda Jones values most about books is how they can affirm a young person's sense of self. So in 2022, when she caught wind of a local public hearing that would discuss “book content,” she knew what was at stake. Schools and libraries nationwide have been bombarded by demands for books with LGTBQ+ references, discussions of racism, and more to be purged from the shelves. Amanda would be damned if her community were to ban stories representing minority groups. She spoke out that night at the meeting. Days later, she woke up to a nightmare that is still ongoing.
Amanda Jones has been called a groomer, a pedo, and a porn-pusher; she has faced death threats and attacks from strangers and friends alike. Her decision to support a collection of books with diverse perspectives made her a target for extremists using book banning campaigns-funded by dark money organizations and advanced by hard right politicians-in a crusade to make America more white, straight, and "Christian." But Amanda Jones wouldn't give up without a fight: she sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance.
Mapping the book banning crisis occurring all across the nation, That Librarian draws the battle lines in the war against equity and inclusion, calling book lovers everywhere to rise in defense of our readers.
"As an author whose novels have been banned . . . I have been waiting for a book like this one.”-Jodi Picoult
"A fantastic book."-Ann Patchett
“Thank you [Amanda Jones] for fighting back . . . People like you are TRUE heroes. TRUE treasures.”-Jason Reynolds
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After an online incident forces a student to leave their school, four students team up and start posting fake rumors as an experiment to show everyone the dangers of online gossip in this high stakes and heartfelt story from highly acclaimed author Barbara Dee.
How far is too far?
Between her best friend ditching her and her parents taking away her phone, Winnie’s year is off to a rough start. But eighth grade gets even more complicated when she’s named on the Not Hot list by an anonymous online account.
Gia’s on the Hot list, but she’d rather not be. There’s already enough chatter about her online―how she thinks she’s smarter and better than everyone else, and lately, that she’s secretly dating Mateo.
Mateo isn’t dating Gia, but he’s had a crush on her for over a year now. But kids online are saying they have nothing in common, and he doesn’t want to make her uncomfortable.
Mateo’s best friend Levi doesn’t mind that he’s not the one in the spotlight. He’s got enough going on at home.
And when an anonymous post takes things too far, these four very different kids team up to start their own experiment, posting fake gossip on social media to show what can happen when online rumors get out of control, in this high stakes and heartfelt story from highly acclaimed author Barbara Dee.
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