Celebrating APA’s banned books
Banned Books Week, held each year the last week of September, celebrates the freedom to read and draws attention to how destructive and divisive censorship can be. Many of the books from APA’s award-winning children’s book imprint, Magination Press, are frequently challenged or banned, including one that even made the American Library Association’s (ALA) Top 10 Most Challenged Books list in 2020: Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, PhD, Marietta Collins, PhD, and Ann Hazzard, PhD, which describes a police shooting of a Black man.
Another Magination Press banned book, This Day in June by Gayle Pitman, PhD, APA’s first children’s book featuring sexual orientation and gender diversity, appeared on the ALA Top 11 Most Challenged Books list in 2018. Pitman’s groundbreaking book “created a pathway for other LGBTQ+ books for kids that are positive, joyful, and celebratory,” said Michael Genhart, PhD, a clinical psychologist who counts it among his favorite banned books. Genhart has published two LGBTQ+ themed picture books of his own with Magination Press that find themselves targeted, including Rainbow: A First Book of Pride. His hope is that this year’s surge in book banning leads to something more constructive. “Controversy invites conversation,” said Genhart. “So, despite being very troubled by banned lists, my hope is that when any of my books ends up on them what happens is productive dialogue, incrementally moving the needle forward toward equity and inclusion.”
View the full list of Magination Press titles.
Vote for APA’s president elect
APA members have nominated Kirk J. Schneider, PhD, Cynthia de las Fuentes, PhD, Diana L. Prescott, PhD, and Beth N. Rom-Rymer, PhD, to run for APA’s 2024 presidency. The four candidates will be responding to six questions from APA boards and committees throughout the summer. Voting begins Sept. 15. The ballot will also list two slates of candidates for APA’s Board of Directors.
Send questions about the election to APA Elections.
Promote Your Research
Looking for ways to increase the visibility and impact of your research publications? APA has teamed up with Kudos, a free service that makes it easy for authors to build a larger audience for their published research and maximize and track their readership and citations. Learn more at online.
Monitor named #1 association magazine in the U.S.
The Association for Media and Publishing presented its top recognition to this magazine at its EXCEL awards in June: Monitor on Psychology earned the EXCEL Gold Award for General Excellence for a magazine with a circulation greater than 50,000.
The Monitor earned three additional awards at the event: gold for feature article design for “Misinformation: Controlling the Spread” in the March 2021 issue, a silver for overall design excellence, and silver in the equity, diversity, and inclusion feature article category for “Psychology’s Diversity Problem” in the October 2021 issue.
The Monitor staff wish to recognize and thank the hundreds of APA members who lend their time and expertise by agreeing to interviews with Monitor writers and editors so that we can elevate your work and help the world understand how psychological science is crucial to solving society’s most pressing problems.
Thank you for your steadfast support.
How to Reach Us
Answers to many of your questions may be found on APA’s website; for phone service, call (800) 374-2721; send story ideas or comments to the Monitor.