Read my book for FREE!
Okay, if there’s one thing I learned from my highschool underground newspaper days, it’s that giving the paper away for FREE before anyone could stop us meant people would check it out. So, that’s what I’m doing now, with this book about book-banning. The formal publication date is July 1, but I have posted the book 100% viewable on Google Books. Check it out! (You have to click the “Preview This Book” button, once you arrive at the Google Books page.)
Game of Telephone…
I’ve published five memoirs. In every one, I use direct quotation to recount conversations. Why is this okay? How can I guarantee that my friends and I really said those exact words?
In my newest book, You’re Telling My Kids They Can’t Read This Book, I spend part of chapter three describing a series of 2016 panel discussions at Bank Street College; they were called “Who Are You To Say?” I directly quote Robie Harris, Cheryl Willis Hudson, Allie Jane Bruce, and Joan Bertin. How can I remember exactly what they said, nine years ago?
I just applied for a Library of Congress number…
Every time I do a book, I apply for a Library of Congress number. It’s simple— there’s a handy website and the turnaround is usually a few weeks. But this time — I feel a bit uneasy. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden’s sudden firing, and the White House’s efforts to install their own people to muck around over at the Library, have me wondering if some AI program will figure out that my new book just might be the sort of thing they’d rather not include in their collection! Of course, by law, the Library of Congress must accept every book. But, is the White House going to follow the law? Especially, since I have included this rather sharply-worded passage, in the new book: