Publications about books for children and young adults
Katie Bircher, assistant editor at The Horn Book, Inc., is a former bookseller and holds an MA in children's literature from Simmons College.
Last summer, website mom.me asked us to contribute to their feature “Books to Read With Your Teen Daughter.” Here are our recommendations from that article — plus a few new ones! — to get you ready for Mother’s Day. What YA book would you recommend for a mother-daughter read? Cindy: Cinder (Feiwel, 2012), the first [...]
In May’s Notes from the Horn Book, I chat with Emily Jenkins (yay!) about her new picture book Water in the Park, people-watching, and quirky pet names. Also in this issue: – more picture books about outdoor play – biographies of sports heroes – heroines of historical fiction – YA adventure stories on audio Subscribers to [...]
Author Emily Jenkins seems equally at home in picture books and intermediate fiction (and even — shh! — in YA, under nom de plume E. Lockhart). Like several of Emily’s previous books, her latest, Water in the Park: A Book About Water & the Times of the Day (illus. by Stephanie Graegin; Schwartz & Wade/Random; [...]
Epic Tales’s Hansel & Gretel (2012) revisits the well-known fairy tale with tongue firmly in cheek. An affable bookseller/storyteller named Silvertongue narrates the story of an impoverished woodcutter, his shrewish wife, and their two children. The plot contains several differences from more traditional versions of the story: Tiny, bad-tempered gnomes are ubiquitous in the illustrations and [...]
Some kidlit happenings in and around Boston this month: The Edward Gorey House’s 2013 special exhibit “Edward Gorey’s Vinegar Works” opened for their 2013 season on April 18th. The exhibit covers the “three volumes of moral instruction” in Gorey’s Vinegar Works boxed set: The Insect God, The West Wing, and his best-known work, The Gashlycrumb [...]
Every year on April 23rd, World Book Night provides volunteers with specially-printed free books to distribute in their communities. Each volunteer selects a title from a list of thirty adult, YA, and children’s books, then picks up twenty copies from a local bookstore or library. Which book would you choose? On Monday, fellow Horn Booker [...]
This afternoon subscribers to our monthly newsletter Notes from the Horn Book receive its nonfiction counterpart Nonfiction Notes. Editor in chief Roger Sutton has an important (and happy!) announcement about the newsletter’s schedule. You’ll also find reviews of recommended nonfiction books for all grade levels, covering these subjects: – the Holocaust – explorers and exploration [...]
Tomorrow we’re hosting the free Fostering Lifelong Learners: Prescribing Books for Early Childhood Education conference with Reach Out and Read and the Cambridge Public Library. Pediatricians, educators, critics, and librarians will speak about early learning and literacy from birth to preschool. Over the last few weeks Roger gave several of the presenters his “five questions” [...]
In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ve compiled a list of poetry books for a wide range of ages, all recently published and recommended by The Horn Book Magazine. There’s something for everyone: anthologies and verse narratives; silly poetry and serious poetry; love poems and lullabies; free verse, formal verse, and brand-new verse forms. What [...]
April is National Poetry Month! In this month’s Notes of the Horn Book, Roger chats with poet Marilyn Singer on the reverso (her original verse form) and her latest poetry collection Follow Follow. Here’s what else you’ll find in this issue: – more poetry picture books – primary and intermediate animal nonfiction – middle-grade fantasy [...]
