BTW News Briefs

School Ban on Perks of Being a Wallflower Overturned

On June 10, the school board of District 41 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, voted 6-1 in favor of reversing its ban of Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower from junior high classrooms. The title was removed from classrooms by a school board vote on April 29 after a student’s parents complained about the book’s content.

The Kids’ Right to Read Project, sponsored by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and the National Coalition Against Censorship, sent a letter to school board members on June 6 asking them to reverse the ban. Nearly 900 people signed a petition on Change.org to restore access to the book.

“We are thrilled with the outcome of the vote,” said KRRP Coordinator Acacia O’Connor. “What was most impressive, however, was the energy and courage demonstrated by the supporters on the ground in Glen Ellyn: middle school and high school students, English teachers, media resource specialists and parents.”

Where’s Waldo? Hits Milestone

Candlewick Press announced this week that Where’s Waldo? hit a major sales milestone of 60 million copies sold in what has become a banner 25^th anniversary year. Sales were boosted across all channels by new anniversary editions of the original books, as well as the launch of travel editions.

Waldo also benefited from consumer promotions, such as the Find Waldo Local campaign, which was launched in the summer of 2012 as a joint initiative between Candlewick Press and the American Booksellers Association. Find Waldo Local, which will be held again this year in July, facilitates Waldo scavenger hunts in shopping districts across the country while promoting the shop local message. More than 5,000 individual businesses participated in the event last year that was anchored by independent bookstores. 

Candlewick Press’s Mary McCagg has been tapped become brand partnership manager for Waldo/Wally.

U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey Appointed to Second Term

Librarian of Congress James Billington announced on Monday that Natasha Trethewey would be appointed to a second term as poet laureate.

During her first term, Trethewey moved to Washington, D.C., from her home in Georgia and created weekly office hours to meet with the public to get answers to her question on how to better get poetry to the masses.

In her second term, Trethewey will return to Atlanta but will expand her efforts nationally. Among those efforts, she will host a regular feature on the PBS NewsHour Poetry Series that will look at society through a poetic filter and will take her to locations including prisons, women’s shelters, and schools.