Publications about books for children and young adults
Elissa Gershowitz is senior editor of The Horn Book Magazine and online content editor for The Horn Book, Inc.
Water in the Park: A Book About Water & the Times of the Day by Emily Jenkins; illus. by Stephanie Graegin Primary Schwartz & Wade/Random 40 pp. 5/13 978-0-375-87002-6 $16.99 Library ed. 978-0-375-97002-3 $19.99 On a warm day, just before six a.m., a city park starts to stir: turtles laze on rocks by the pond, [...]
Baseball and basketball, auto racing and boat-jumping. The following picture book biographies of historical sports stars will inspire youngsters to pick up a bat, go for the dunk, or just zoom around for a while. Is there a bigger baseball fan in the children’s book world than Matt Tavares? His sixth title on the sport, [...]
The first book about the feisty Penderwick sisters, The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, won the National Book Award in 2005. Since then, the family has expanded in soul-satisfying ways — as has fans’ love for the series. The third volume, The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, [...]
Or, Maybe I’ve Gotten Less Discerning Since Having a Second Kid. I recently saw Oz, the Great and Powerful in IMAX 3-D. Having read mostly 2-2.5-star reviews, I wasn’t expecting much. But when their grandparents are willing and available to babysit your two small children (“Go, see a movie!”), it doesn’t have to be Citizen [...]
We were very sad to hear about the recent passing of E. L. Konigsburg. Konigsburg was the author of Newbery Award-winners From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The View from Saturday, along with Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, which won a Newbery Honor the same year as Mixed-Up Files won [...]
Spring is here, and love is in the air (be sure to catch What Makes a Good YA Love Story? by Katrina Hedeen and Rachel L. Smith in the upcoming May/June 2013 issue of the Horn Book Magazine). Here are four more books that will make teens contemplate love in all its forms. The main [...]
Belt up your kirtles and hold onto your snoods. Fleas, Flies, and Friars: Children’s Poetry from the Middle Ages by Nicholas Orme (Cornell University Press, May 2012) presents a variety of verse from days of yore. After a brief context-setting chapter (“Children’s Poetry from the Middle Ages”), Orme provides sections on “Growing Up,” “Words, Rhymes, [...]
Vampires have had their day in the sun. Zombies are resting in peace. The new it-girls in supernatural romance seems to be bionic women. [Possible spoilers appear below; and, okay, to be fair, they're not all robots, but I do sense a trend. And just for fun, Freaks & Geeks fans, click here.] Cinder (Feiwel, [...]
Whether providing historical overview, personal reminiscence, or fictional depiction of events, books about war can take many forms in YA literature. Readers interested in the hows and whys of the world’s conflicts, both past and present, will find much to ponder in the four titles below. Also, be sure not to miss Steve Sheinkin’s newest [...]
The following books offer chills and thrills with some laughs thrown in for good measure. What more do middle-graders and middle-schoolers need come October 31st? Invisible Inkling: Dangerous Pumpkins by Emily Jenkins picks up the story of fourth-grade Brooklynite Hank Wolowitz and his bandipat friend Inkling (an invisible, endangered, pumpkin-loving creature). It’s almost Halloween, and [...]
