FICTION · CHILDREN
Michael Dahl
In 2023, Puffin Books, the children's imprint of the British publisher Penguin Books, expurgated various works by Welsh author Roald Dahl, causing controversy. During his lifetime, Dahl had urged his publishers not to "so much as change a single comma in one of [his] books". On 19 February 2023 Puffin Books announced it had hired sensitivity readers over the span of three years to assess Dahl's works, rereleasing his work with multiple changes regarding Dahl's depiction of race, sex and character. A report from British newspaper The Telegraph determined that Puffin Books altered hundreds of passages in Dahl's work, including in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox and The Witches. Facing backlash from readers and authors, on 23 February Puffin Books announced that Dahl's original publications would be released alongside the expurgated versions as "The Roald Dahl Classic Collection", but did not retract the revisions.
The continent of Australia is often called "the land down under."
— from Australia
Most acclaimed
The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo
Andy, the new kid at school, has a tattoo on his arm that resembles Lizzie, the school's most popular girl, and he also has one really big secret.
Locomotion
Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature When Lonnie was seven years old, his parents died in a fire. Now he's eleven, and he still misses them terribly. And he misses his little sister, Lili, who was put into a different foster home because "not a lot of people want boys-not foster boys that ain't babies." But Lonnie hasn't given up. His foster mother, Miss Edna, is growing on him. She's already raised two sons and she seems to know what makes them tick. And his teacher, Ms. Marcus, is showing him ways to put his jumbled feelings on paper. Told entirely through Lonnie's poetry, we see his heartbreak over his lost family, his thoughtful perspective on the world around him, and most of all his love for Lili and his determination to one day put at least half of their family back together. Jacqueline Woodson's poignant story of love, loss, and hope is lyrically written and enormously accessible.