Featured Posts
Everybody needs a Boss
If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you'll know that I sometimes chastise others for their shortcomings, as demonstrated in whatever piece of text lies before me at a given moment, in taste or intellect or grammar. My victims, shamed but … [Read More...]
Our butterfly project
In July, the world is in bloom. Midsummer fields are speckled with wildflowers and abuzz with insects and birds enjoying the sweet nectar. Eager to celebrate this bounty of color and sound, my kids and I ordered a butterfly kit to hatch Painted Lady … [Read More...]
Tiny but tough
Happy birthday, Barbara Bader. NINETY, wow. In your honor we have rounded up some of your greatest hits. Like other old people, I frequently find myself wanting to tell the young to know your history, and the Horn Book is proud to have for so long … [Read More...]
Happy birthday, dear Barbara!
Happy 90th birthday to children's literature luminary Barbara Bader! In addition to her seminal book American Picturebooks from Noah's Ark to the Beast Within and longtime work as children's book editor and eventually co-owner of Kirkus Reviews, she … [Read More...]
BGHB at 50: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Hamilton?: M. C. Higgins, the Great
In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards, established in 1967, we will be publishing a series of appreciations of BGHB winners and honorees from the past. This is the second in the series to be published in The … [Read More...]
Blogs
Everybody needs a Boss
If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you'll know that I sometimes chastise others for their shortcomings, as demonstrated in whatever piece of text lies before me at a given moment, in taste or intellect or grammar. My victims, shamed but … [Read More...]
Mammals app review
The latest in Tinybop's Explorer's Library series, Mammals (2017; iOS only) offers a fascinating introduction to mammals and how their bodies operate. The app opens on a natural history museum–like gallery containing five subtly animated … [Read More...]
Challenge your students to activism
I was too young in the 1960s to join the activist movement, and the narrow-minded family in which I grew up wouldn’t have tolerated it. But I feel as if I’ve been given a second chance. Today’s political and social atmosphere simply won’t let me be … [Read More...]
Banquets and bling
Continuing with this series of behind-the-scenes of the Caldecott committee, I thought it would be fun to give you peek at the Newbery/Caldecott/Wilder Banquet, which took place just last month at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. (If you haven’t … [Read More...]
Review of the Week
Review of Maya Lin: Artist-Architect of Light and Lines: Designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Maya Lin: Artist-Architect of Light and Lines: Designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Jeanne Walker Harvey; illus. by Dow Phumiruk Primary Ottaviano/Holt 32 pp. 5/17 978-1-250-11249-1 $17.99 In its early pages, this quiet and contemplative picture-book biography sets up artist-architect Maya Lin’s fascination with spaces, natural and human-made, and their dynamic relationship with phenomena such as light. The daughter of two Chinese-immigrant artists, a potter and a poet … [Read More...]
App Review of the Week
Mammals app review
The latest in Tinybop's Explorer's Library series, Mammals (2017; iOS only) offers a fascinating introduction to mammals and how their bodies operate. The app opens on a natural history museum–like gallery containing five subtly animated creatures: little brown bat, Linnaeus's two-toed sloth, red kangaroo, African elephant, and Bengal tiger. Tap on any animal to interact with it and learn more about its various bodily functions. The format is generally the same for each: selecting a mammal … [Read More...]
Recommended Books
Review of The Crossover
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander Intermediate, Middle School Houghton 235 pp. 3/14 978-0-544-10771-7 $16.99 g Josh and Jordan (JB), identical twin sons of former basketball phenom … [Read More...]
Review of Maya Lin: Artist-Architect of Light and Lines: Designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Maya Lin: Artist-Architect of Light and Lines: Designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Jeanne Walker Harvey; illus. by Dow Phumiruk Primary Ottaviano/Holt 32 pp. 5/17 … [Read More...]
Review of Charlie & Mouse
Charlie & Mouse by Laurel Snyder; illus. by Emily Hughes Primary Chronicle 48 pp. 4/17 978-1-4521-3153-5 $14.99 This beginning chapter book is filled to the brim with sincere, … [Read More...]
Review of The Fox Wish
The Fox Wish by Kimiko Aman; illus. by Komako Sakai Preschool Chronicle 32 pp. 3/17 978-1-4521-5188-5 $16.99 A young girl and her little brother return to a park to retrieve her … [Read More...]
Review of Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets
Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth; illus. by Ekua Holmes Intermediate, Middle School, High School Candlewick 50 pp. 3/17 … [Read More...]
Interviews
Five questions for Kate Klise and M. Sarah Klise
Sisters Kate and M. Sarah Klise created their first book together before either of them turned twelve! Since then, author Kate and illustrator Sarah have collaborated on many picture books and … [Read More...]
Five questions for 2017 Fiction and Poetry winner Angie Thomas
1. You shared on Twitter that in manuscript stage you wondered how this book’s subject matter would be received (“Are novels that deal with sensitive current issues a no-no?”). How much was that … [Read More...]
Five questions for Susan Juby
In The Fashion Committee (Viking, 14 years and up), author Susan Juby takes readers back to Green Pastures Academy, a high school for the arts and setting of her 2015 book The Truth Commission … [Read More...]
Mo Willems & Laurie Keller Talk with Roger
Talks with Roger is a sponsored supplement to our free monthly e-newsletter, Notes from the Horn Book. To receive Notes, sign up here. Sponsored by While — sob! — the beloved Elephant and … [Read More...]
Patricia Reilly Giff Talks with Roger
Talks with Roger is a sponsored supplement to our free monthly e-newsletter, Notes from the Horn Book. To receive Notes, sign up here. Sponsored by While already beloved for her popular … [Read More...]
