Connecticut Residents Seek to Ban Two Newbery Medal Winners from School
In Cromwell, Connecticut, two residents want a pair of Newbery Medal-winning novels removed from the Cromwell middle school's curriculum. The pair allege that the books, The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare and Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, promote witchcraft and violence and have filed a petition asking school officials to remove them, as reported by the Hartford Courant.
Karl Pohrt, owner of Shaman Drum Bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a member of the American Booksellers Association Board of Directors, has long been an active and vocal participant in his community. For the last nine years, he has been on the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority. For the last three years, he’s been the president of the State Street Area Association (his store is on State Street).