Featured Posts
The Horn Book is a bunch of liars; or: YOU go the eff to sleep
Look, I love Goodnight Moon just as much as the next parent. The text’s gentle cadence and reassuring repetition. The play of light and shadow across the great green room. And that achingly beautiful and mysterious ending: “Goodnight stars / … [Read More...]
Reading Is LIT: How a Classroom Project Can Impact an Entire Community
As a school librarian, I strongly believe in the importance of books as mirrors and windows for students, especially with so many divisive things happening in our society. Using these sorts of books in the classroom helps to start tough dialogue … [Read More...]
Shhhh!
Introverts have been all the quiet rage in recent years, so it’s no wonder that picture books have gotten in on the trend. If noise is stressing you out, you may find this one useful. If that doesn’t get your message across, you may have to … [Read More...]
Week in Review, July 17th-21st
This week on hbook.com… From the July/August 2017 issue of The Horn Book Magazine: BGHB at 50: "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Hamilton?: M. C. Higgins, the Great" by Kathleen T. Horning Reviews of the Week: Picture Book: The Fox Wish by Kimiko … [Read More...]
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...]
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...]
Shhhh!
Introverts have been all the quiet rage in recent years, so it’s no wonder that picture books have gotten in on the trend. If noise is stressing you out, you may find this one useful. If that doesn’t get your message across, you may have to … [Read More...]
Reading Is LIT: How a Classroom Project Can Impact an Entire Community
As a school librarian, I strongly believe in the importance of books as mirrors and windows for students, especially with so many divisive things happening in our society. Using these sorts of books in the classroom helps to start tough dialogue … [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 Take a Picture of Me, James VanDerZee!
Take a Picture of Me, James VanDerZee! by Andrea J. Loney; illus. by Keith Mallett Primary Lee & Low 40 pp. g 6/17 978-1-62014-260-8 $19.95 One of the most memorable visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance was photographer James VanDerZee. In a picture-book biography that follows VanDerZee from his childhood interest in photography to his successful career in Harlem to his waning popularity to his rediscovery, Loney skillfully depicts his lifelong determination to … [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 Take a Picture of Me, James VanDerZee!
Take a Picture of Me, James VanDerZee! by Andrea J. Loney; illus. by Keith Mallett Primary Lee & Low 40 pp. g 6/17 978-1-62014-260-8 $19.95 One of the most memorable visual … [Read More...]
Review of Saints and Misfits
Saints and Misfits by S. K. Ali Middle School, High School Salaam/Simon 328 pp. 6/17 978-1-4814-9924-8 $18.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4814-9926-2 $10.99 Sophomore Janna Yusuf, a … [Read More...]
Review of Now
Now by Antoinette Portis; illus. by the author Preschool Porter/Roaring Brook 32 pp. 7/17 978-1-62672-137-1 $17.99 A natural follow-up to Portis’s Wait (rev. 7/15), about a woman in … [Read More...]
Review of This Impossible Light
This Impossible Light by Lily Myers Middle School, High School Philomel 343 pp. 6/17 978-0-399-17372-1 $17.99 Fifteen-year-old Ivy Lewis is a straight-A student who takes comfort in … [Read More...]
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...]
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...]
