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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Little House on the Prairie is Getting a Reboot
Where do I submit my petition for an adaptation of Louise Erdrich’s The Birchbark House? I came across but didn’t get into the Little House on the Prairie series when I was a kid–I won’t pretend it was for any progressive reason just as I won’t pretend there aren’t plenty of people excited about the return of the show. We don’t have much by way of details about what we can expect from a reboot except that, according to Jinny Howe of Netflix, it will be “a fresh take” on the story. I have to wonder how they’ll address the racism and the fact that the family is squatting on Native American land, among other things. Even if they do take a thoughtful approach to the story, why is now the time for a story that observes Native Americans and their land through the gaze of a white family? I was never going to be the audience for this series, but coming out of a year of tradwives, a By the Fire We Carry read, and into a 2025 like this 2025 has me deep in my skepticism
The Alluring Profile of a Member of the Literati
I admit I’m taken by the glamorous goings on of a certain kind of intellectual celebrity. I’m also someone who used to read Vogue front and back for the articles as a teen and younger adult, drawn by the succulent descriptions of a lifestyle completely out of my reach. So, reading about Sarah McNally, founder and owner of renowned book empire McNally Jackson and a person I knew vanishingly little about, was a good time for this book nerd. Coming from humble beginnings in Canada to growing up in her parents’ booming independent bookstore, McNally now leads the kind of life you imagine a fancy New Yorker would–rubbing elbows with celebrities, acting as a tastemaker, being discussed in all the cool circles. If you’ve ever wanted to vicariously realize a romanticized version of big city “bookseller” life more likely to be found in fiction, you can find the expansive profile here.
The Most Banned Picture Books of the School Year
There were so many book bans during the 2023-2024 school year–10,000, in fact, according to a count by PEN America who shared a list of the most banned picture books. This sentence made me close my eyes and breathe a deep sigh: “Picture books featuring gay or transgender characters or naked butts — human or otherwise — were among the most frequently banned in U.S. public schools in the 2023-2024 school year.” While the prospect of not needing lists like these feels so far away, I hope that the publication of them will introduce people to some great books (like the delightful and much-banned And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell, Justin Richardson, and Henry Cole), and ensure they get into the hands of kids. However, a great deal of children rely on their libraries for access to books and will continue to be robbed of representation.
The Consequences of a Lack of Media Literacy
We made an All Access bonus post free to read because the subject of media literacy is so vital. Take it from Ashlie Swicker:
I’ve seen the large and small ways in which information floods with no deep dives can lead to strongly held and poorly formed opinions among people of all ages. I’ve watched as people from many different value systems and political backgrounds take social media videos as undisputed facts, running rampant with a healthy dose of confirmation bias validating whatever resonates with their preexisting notions. We can’t get the truth based on vibes.
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