DEI Books Restored to the Naval Academy Library, and More News for Librarians

I’m rounding up a bunch of news updates that library staff will want to keep on their collective radar. There’s the usual batch of censorship updates (some good! some not so good!), but there’s also a bunch of award news and some fun adaptation announcements. Let’s dive in!

Censorship Updates

• Most of the books pulled from the Naval Academy Library for DEI content have been returned to the shelves.
  
• How to build a voters’ guide for school board elections.
  
• How to prepare for Pride Month in libraries.
  
• “The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the first time Friday that [Texas] public library patrons have no right to receive information under the First Amendment, overturning a decades-old precedent barring the removal of library books ‘simply because (officials) dislike the ideas within them.’” This is an alarming legal decision, to say the least.
  
• Katy ISD (TX) students call for the repeal of book and gender policies following the school’s recent trustee election.
  
• A bill to protect Rhode Island libraries from book bans is moving forward.
  
• An Ohio man has been accused of burning 100 library books on Black, Jewish, and LGBTQ history.
  
• Ohio libraries and advocates are pushing back on a provision in the state House budget proposal that would require libraries to sequester books about gender identity and sexual orientation from minors.
  
• A Lowell (MI) school librarian is suing a parent over a years-long harassment campaign.
  
• Oregon’s ban on book bans is heading for a final vote in the Legislature.
  
• A Nevada bill would limit the power of local library staff and trustees to remove books from libraries, as well as criminalize threats against library staff.
  
• Librarians take on MAGA in a California beach town.

Adaptations In the News

• Practical Magic 2 gets a 2026 release date, with both Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman set to return.
  
• What to expect from the upcoming Heartstopper movie.
  
• Netflix is adapting S.A. Cosby’s All the Sinner’s Bleed for a series adaptation. I really hope they do this one justice!
  
• Ryan Murphy is adapting Bret Easton Ellis’s The Shards as a series.
  
• The first trailer for Welcome to Derry is here!

Award News

• Percival Everett’s James wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, although there’s some interesting tea surrounding this decision.
  
• The Locus Awards finalists have been announced.
  
• The British Book of the Year winners have been announced.
  
• The shortlist for the Arthur C. Clarke Awards has been released.
  
• The 2025 PEN America Literary Award winners have been announced.
  
• The Gotham book prize winners have been announced.
  
• Haruki Murakami has won the Center for Fiction’s 2025 Lifetime of Excellence in Fiction Award.
  
• The Orwell Prize finalists have been announced.
  
• The winner of the International Booker Prize has been announced.