Books geared for children are often the most challenged.  Today’s blog entry is In The Night Kitchen, #25 on ALA’s top 100 list of challenges between 1990-1999.   In this case, beloved children’s author Maurice Sendak has raised eyebrows when the stories’ main character Mickey enters the surreal world that Sendak is known for, and loses his pajama bottoms. 

The focus of the book is how brave and resourceful young Mickey is when he falls into a mixing bowl full of cake batter and is accidentally baked.  By celebrating creative dreams and facing fears,  Sendak takes a scary experience for children (spooky sounds from downstairs) and turns it into a wonderfully delightful story for children of all ages.   And for the naked boy in the story, is there anybody who has had a little boy that doesn’t run around the house naked now and then?

Some libraries have drawn pants, diapers, fig leaves and even used White Out to cover the parts of the booked deemed offensive.  An unaltered copy of the book can be found in the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection – come judge it for yourself.

Archives are often full of banned and challenged books, offering great resources for research.  So in honor of Banned Books Week 2009, Celebrating The Freedom to Read, we will offer you a week long look into some of those books.

Daddy's Roommate written by Michael Willhoite, 1990

Dangerous Assignments, the newsletter for the Committee to Protect Journalists. From the Laurie S. Wiseberg and Harry Scoble Human Rights Internet Collection at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center

On October 5, 2009, the fourth Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights will be presented to The Committee to Protect Journalists. The ceremony will take place on the plaza of the Dodd Research Center at 11 AM.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) works to promote press freedom worldwide. CPJ takes action when journalists are censored, jailed, kidnapped, or killed for their efforts to tell the truth. In their defense of journalists, CPJ protects the right of all people to have access to diverse and independent sources of information. CPJ has been a leading voice in the global press freedom movement since its founding in 1981.

CPJ’s staff of experienced journalists and human rights researchers investigates press freedom abuses in more than 120 countries, from authoritarian regimes like Cuba and Burma to fragmented states like Iraq and Somalia. They respond to attacks against the press through five regional programs: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Central Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa.

In 2008, CPJ carried out research and advocacy missions in Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia, Burma, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Mozambique, and South Africa. CPJ runs an International Program Network with five consultants based around the world: in Mexico City, São Paolo, Cairo, Johannesburg, and Bangkok. IPN staffers conduct on-the-spot investigations into serious abuses, organize emergency missions, and provide direct support to journalists who have suffered violence and incarceration.

The fourth biennial Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice and Human Rights will be awarded to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) at a ceremony on UConn’s Storrs campus Monday, October 5.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1981 that promotes press freedom worldwide by defending the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.

The ceremony will take place at 11:00am on the plaza of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. Joel Simon, the executive director of CPJ, will accept the award on behalf of the organization. Featured speakers will also include Senator Christopher J. Dodd; Mariane Pearl, wife of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl; and UConn President Michael Hogan.

For more information, please see the Dodd Prize website

Anita Riggio, “Smack Dab in the Middle”(© Putnam, 2002). Used with permission.

A Celebration of Anita Riggio is the inaugural exhibit in the new Roger L. Crossgrove Exhibit Series, honoring Emeritus Professor of Art Roger Crossgrove. Roger has been a highly visible and active participant in Connecticut’s arts community for many years, a long-standing member of the Libraries’ Exhibitions Committee and a generous donor to the UConn Libraries. The series will focus on exhibits that feature the work of his former students and current colleagues.

The exhibit will be in the Dodd Center’s gallery from Oct. 19 through Dec. 18, 2009.  Anita Riggio is the author of a number of children’s books and the illustrator of many more for other authors. In addition to working as an illustrator for the Hartford Courant, Riggio has served as a courtroom artist for WVIT, a teacher at the American School for the Deaf, and is currently on the faculty of Lesley University’s graduate Creative Writing Program. She recently adapted her 1994 work, Beware the Brindlebeast, for the National Theatre of the Deaf ’s Little Theatre of the Deaf 2007-2008 tour.  For more information about her, please see www.anitariggio.com.

We were honored to have Senator Ted Kennedy join us for the first Thomas J. Dodd Prize in International Justice & Human Rights in 2003. As the nation comes together to mourn the passing of Senator Kennedy through the sharing of our collective experiences, we would like to share ours with you.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Timothy Hanan, Senator Ted Kennedy

Senator Ted Kennedy, UConn Chief of Police Robert Hudd

Senator Kennedy acknowledging his introduction by Senator Dodd