About Talia Whyte

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Banned Books Week 2019!

The American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) promotes awareness of challenges to library materials and celebrates freedom of speech during Banned Books Week, which takes place this year September 22 – 28.  The ALA Office tracked 347 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services in 2018. Of the 483 books challenged or banned in 2018, the Top 11 Most Challenged Books are:

  1. George by Alex Gino
    Reasons: banned, challenged, and relocated because it was believed to encourage children to clear browser history and change their bodies using hormones, and for mentioning “dirty magazines,” describing male anatomy, “creating confusion,” and including a transgender character
  2. A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss, illustrated by EG Keller
    Reasons: banned and challenged for including LGBTQIA+ content, and for political and religious viewpoints
  3. Captain Underpants series written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey
    Reasons: series was challenged because it was perceived as encouraging disruptive behavior, while Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot was challenged for including a same-sex couple
  4. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
    Reasons: banned and challenged because it was deemed “anti-cop,” and for profanity, drug use, and sexual references
  5. Drama written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier
    Reasons: banned and challenged for including LGBTQIA+ characters and themes
  6. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
    Reasons: banned, challenged, and restricted for addressing teen suicide
  7. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
    Reasons: banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, and certain illustrations
  8. Skippyjon Jones series written and illustrated by Judy Schachner
    Reason: challenged for depicting stereotypes of Mexican culture
  9. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
    Reasons: banned and challenged for sexual references, profanity, violence, gambling, and underage drinking, and for its religious viewpoint
  10. This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman, illustrated by Kristyna Litten
    Reason: challenged and burned for including LGBTQIA+ content
  11. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
    Reason: challenged and burned for including LGBTQIA+ content

Buy Now: The State of International Communication 2019

Global Wire Books is pleased to release today its annual report The State of International Communication 2019.  This is an assessment of how 600 previous and current GWA clients view trends in information and communications technology (ICT) and social innovation. More than 50 percent of all web traffic now comes from mobile technology. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram continue to be the top social media tools among all participants. As print media and postal mail for accessing information continue to decline in developed countries, they remain essential resources in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

More affordable smartphones, tablets, and computers have come onto the global market, making technology and communication more accessible to those who would otherwise not have access. However, cost-prohibitive broadband and poor access to electricity and modern infrastructure continue to create barriers for many in the developing world and for some in low-income communities in developed countries. The growing use and recognition of alternative energy are seen worldwide.
Technological disparities among women in developing countries continue to widen the digital divide, and the majority of our participants in all regions agree that governments are doing more to make sure that ICT tools are accessible to all populations equally.

The State of International Communication 2019

Price: US$15.99

Buy It Here:

Note: All GWA partnering organizations will receive a complimentary hard copy of the report during our UN Week activities in New York City and an electronic version by email today.  Everyone else can buy the electronic version here.

Review: The Pieces I Am

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I had meant to see this film when it originally came out in July, but time got the best of me. However, with Toni Morrison’s death, I had a renewed interest in learning more about her life. Luckily, a local movie theatre brought back The Pieces I Am for a limited time right after her death.

I learned a lot about her in this movie, especially her life as a single mother and editor who found fame later in life. I don’t think many people realize how resilient and radical it was for a divorced, single black mother of two boys in the 60s to start a new career as a book editor in the New York publishing world. She did this all while maintaining her dignity, whether it be demanding a head-of-household salary from her boss or making sure black writers were giving a voice at Random House.

It was no surprise that other black writers campaigned for her win recognition for her books, which would culminate with Morrison winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 – the first and so far only black woman to win that top prize.

All of her books are great, but my favorite is Tar Baby, which is a love story with a Caribbean twist.

It was an honor to know Toni Morrison through her books!

Review: Algiers: Third World Capital

I have always had an interest in the Algerian independence cause ever since I was in college where I minored in post-colonialism studies.  I took many classes on African literature and film, where I learned about Frantz Fanon.  His books, The Wretched of the Earth, A Dying Colonialism, and Toward The African Revolution are among my favorite books. Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers is one of the great films ever made!

So when I hear about the author, Elaine Mokhtefi, who has both known Fanon and had a small role in the classic film, I had to pick up her new book immediately.  Algier, Third Word Capital: Freedom Fighters, Revolutionaries, Black Panthers, is more than just a memoir and to say the Mokhterfi was a witness to history is an understatement.  As a young, Jewish woman from post-WW2 America, she moved to Paris in the 1950s to work as an NGO translator.  It was here she became more involved in the Algerian cause, which as the time, had just started its fight against France for its independence.  She moves to Algiers where she meets a host of famous writers, intellectuals, and freedom fighters like Frantz Fanon, Stokely Carmichael, Timothy Leary, Ahmed Ben Bella, Jomo Kenyatta, and Eldridge Cleaver.

Mokhterfi spends most of the book discussing her relationship with the International Section of the Black Panther Party in Algiers.  I thought the book read more like a political thriller because of all the questionable activity Eldridge Cleaver was up to, including a murder he committed out of jealousy.  She also talks about some of the drama she experienced as a Jewish-American woman in a Muslim-majority country.

I read this book in two days during a trip to the Cape.  It was really that good!  If you are interested in African history, post-colonial studies, black revolutionary politics with some drama thrown in, this book is for you.

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