April 2012 Presented by the JFK Presidential Library and Museum, A Sense of Wonder: Stories of Nature, Science & History is a one-day conference to be held on Thursday, April 5, for teachers and school librarians. Speakers will include Sy Montgomery, Wendell Minor, Anita Silvey and Catherine Thimmesh. For more information, see the professional development [...]
Preview March/April 2012 Horn Book Magazine
January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Special Issue: Books Remixed: Reading in the Digital Age Stephen Roxburgh sees into the e-future Susan Meddaugh lets “Martha Speak” for herself M. T. Anderson travels (as a reader) with The Time Machine Roger Sutton interviews Holes director Andrew Davis Virginia Duncan on creating the Freight Train app Sight Reading: Leonard S. Marcus interviews Dan [...]
Reviews of the 2012 Belpre Illustrator Award winners
January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Winner: Duncan Tonatiuh for Diego Rivera: His World and Ours (Abrams) Review in The Horn Book Guide, fall 2011 The first half of the book provides background on Rivera’s life and the inspiration behind his work. Readers are then asked to imagine how he might paint subjects from life today: “Maybe Diego would paint shops [...]
Reviews of the 2012 Batchelder winners
January 23, 2012 By 1 Comment
Winner: Eerdmans for Soldier Bear by Bibi Dumon Tak; trans. from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson; illus. by Philip Hopman Review in The Horn Book Magazine, November/December 2011 It really happened: hundreds of Polish soldiers, fleeing the Russians after the German attack on their already divided country in 1941, escaped to Iran. There they joined [...]
Reviews of the 2012 Belpre Author Award winners
January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Winner: Guadalupe Garcia McCall for Under the Mesquite (Lee & Low Books) Review in The Horn Book Guide, spring 2012 Eldest Lupita leads her seven younger siblings through the uncertainty of their mother’s cancer. Lupita endeavors to keep her Mexican American family together while attempting to reach her own goals for college and a career. [...]
ALA Awards 2012: Horn Book reviews of the winners
January 23, 2012 By 3 Comments
The most prestigious honors in children’s literature, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, were awarded to Jack Gantos and Chris Raschka on January 23, 2012, at the American Library Association’s midwinter meeting in Dallas. Also announced at the gathering were the winners of the Coretta Scott King, Belpre, Printz, Sibert, and Batchelder [...]
Reviews of the 2012 CSK Author Award winners
January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Winner: Kadir Nelson for Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray) Starred review in The Horn Book Magazine, November/December 2011 “Most folks my age and complexion don’t speak much about the past,” begins the unnamed narrator of this graceful and personalized overview of African-American history. But this doesn’t stop [...]
Reviews of the 2012 CSK Illustrator Award winners
January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Winner: Shane W. Evans for Underground (Roaring Brook/Porter) Review in The Horn Book Magazine, January/February 2011 With dramatic images and minimal narrative, Evans projects a “we-are-there” experience of fugitives on the run, escaping slavery. The figures are eerily disembodied, and many of the double-page spreads feature a two-word text such as “The darkness” or “The fear” [...]
Reviews of the 2012 Printz winners
January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Winner: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley (Atheneum) Review in The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2011 When Cullen Witter was seventeen, his younger brother disappeared from their rural Arkansas town. Meanwhile, the suicide of Cabot Searcy’s college roommate has sent him on a quest to save mankind. The two parallel plot lines, disconnected [...]
Additional ALA Awards 2012
January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Alex Awards for the ten best adult books that appeal to a teen audience • Big Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin (Farrar) • In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard (Little, Brown) • The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan (Farrar) • The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens [...]
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