Cindy:
Cinder (Feiwel, 2012), the first book in Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series. This futuristic Cinderella story is a mix of fairy tale, sci-fi, and romance — perfect for a wide female readership and certain to spark discussion and anticipation of future installments. Watch your back, Hunger Games, this series could be the next big thing. My second choice for mothers and daughters to read together would be Kekla Magoon’s 37 Things I Love (in no particular order) (Holt, 2012) for its honest first-person portrayal of a teenage girl’s coming of age as she deals with death, hope, love, and friendship.

Elissa:
Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming (Random/Schwartz and Wade, 2011). It’s suspenseful, informative, and accessible; readers will come away with a fresh view of the feisty, pioneering woman and the events leading up to — and following — her disappearance.

Kitty:
Libba Bray’s hilarious and sharply observant Beauty Queens (Scholastic, 2011). A planeload of beauty pageant contestants crashes on what looks like a deserted island. The scope of the plot is mind-boggling — the girls are ultimately pawns in a massive global conspiracy — but the quieter message about the power unleashed when teen girls think society isn’t watching will resonate across generations. Bray’s narration of the audiobook edition is a tour-de-force performance.

Katrina:
The mature topics in Girl in the Mirror (Persea, 2013) by Meg Kearney will appeal to older teens (and give mothers a jumping-off point for discussion), but it’s as much about mother-daughter bonds and connection to family — both adopted and birth in this case. Ideal for girls with adopted, single-parent, or other unconventional family backgrounds. Its verse narrative will likely be a new and exciting format for teens and moms to explore together.

Katie:
The women in Wren’s family manifest magical powers when they reach puberty. Wren uses hers to bring her boyfriend Danny back from the dead, but then meets (living) Gabriel, who’s drawn to her gift. Although romance takes center stage in Amy Garvey’s Cold Kiss (HarperTeen, 2011), Garvey weaves female familial relationships as intricately as Wren creates her spell. The complex dynamics between three generations of magical women (think a YA Practical Magic) add depth — and plenty for teen girls and their moms to discuss.

Martha:
How about A. S. King’s Ask the Passengers (Little, Brown, 2012)? Protagonist Astrid is taking a class in the Socratic method at her close-minded, small-town high school, and so she spends the year “asking questions and not rushing to answer them” — an illuminating time for her, and an ideal springboard for book discussion. Is she gay? Or just in love with one particular girl? Once she determines her identity, should she hide it, like her best friend? Astrid makes some pretty crucial choices in the book, and readers will be right there to see why, and how; through the interspersed airplane interludes (Astrid spends a lot of time looking up at the sky and sending questions and love to the passengers on airplanes) readers get glimpses into other lives, just as full of struggle and conflict and not-easy answers as Astrid’s life is. Finally, seeing as this is a mother/teen daughter read-together, Astrid’s relationship with her (nightmare of a) mother would certainly provoke discussion…

Roger:
I think Elizabeth Wein’s Code Name Verity (Hyperion, 2012) would be an excellent choice; it’s the kind of YA book that makes a great adult crossover. While the story — a WWII thriller about two young women — is plenty exciting on its own, the narrative structure is tricky and would be fun to talk about.

Shara:
Pearl (called Bean) and her best friend Henry are comfortable with their respective familial dysfunctional in Pearl (Holt, 2011) by Jo Knowles, but the revelation of long-kept family secrets exposes the corrosive effect that silence can have on relationships. Homosexuality, friendship, and romance are just a few of the topics tackled by this dramatic novel.

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- more picture books about outdoor play
- biographies of sports heroes
- heroines of historical fiction
- YA adventure stories on audio

Subscribers to the free monthly Notes from the Horn Book newsletter also receive its supplement Nonfiction Notes — sign up here. For more recommended books and author/illustrator interviews, see the newsletter archives.

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1. Water in the Park is all about observation. What’s your favorite place to people- and animal-watch?

EJ: I live in Brooklyn and am fascinated by the huge variety of people in the city — people from all over the world — and by the texture and rhythms of the street life in my neighborhood. I wrote about it in Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money (Schwartz & Wade/Random, 4–7 years) and the Invisible Inkling series (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, 5–8 years) as well as in Water in the Park. The feeling of the neighborhood is very fundamentally American in that it’s the proverbial melting pot in action. People are mixed, racially and culturally and economically and spiritually, but we all go to the same park and the same corner shop, you know? It’s thrilling.

My own stoop is my favorite place to people- and animal-watch. There’s a woman who shelters all these rescue dogs down the block, and an aged greyhound with a perpetually bandaged hind leg. Also an enormous fluffy dog with a brown head that looks transplanted onto its white body. There’s a veteran who sweeps his walk in a haze of illegal-smelling smoke, a noisy French-speaking family, and an old lady who puts her Agatha Christie novels out on the street for people to take when she’s done with them.

2. How closely do you work with your illustrators? Did anything about Stephanie Graegin’s pictures for Water in the Park surprise you?

EJ: Sometimes I get to see sketches and dummies before a project goes to final art, and sometimes I don’t. As I’ve gotten to know certain illustrators, projects have come from a desire to work together. Small, Medium, Large: A Book About Relative Sizes (Star Bright, 3–5 years) was a book Tomek Bogacki and I put together ourselves. Paul O. Zelinsky and I are doing a Toys Go Out picture book that originated in some conversations we had while on tour.

With Stephanie Graegin, I didn’t see the work until it was completely finished, but I was freaking ecstatic with everything she did, especially the way she threaded characters and little narratives through a story that hardly identifies anyone but the dogs by name. There are so many personalities and little dramas on her pages. And she draws awesome babies.

3. Your book What Happens on Wednesdays, illustrated by Lauren Castillo (Farrar, 4–7 years), also deals with time and the progression of the day. Do you have daily routines or rituals?

EJ: I love community rituals that involve large meals and a million kids running around like lunatics, jacked up on sugar. Hanukkah parties, birthdays, Sunday dinners, I’’m your person. Then I declare myself exhausted and want to see nobody for weeks. As for daily rituals, I think I am more of an observer of how those rituals are important to children, and what they mean in the fabric of a family or neighborhood.

4. The pets in your books, such as Mr. Fluffynut and Little Nonny from Water in the Park and FudgeFudge and Marshmallow from That New Animal (Foster/Farrar, 4–7 years), have fantastic names. What’s the best pet name you haven’t used yet?

EJ: Thank you. The nefarious kitten Pumpkinfacehead in Toys Come Home (Schwartz & Wade/Random, 5–8 years) was just a typo that made me laugh, but the others I chose quite deliberately. Perhaps I should now push my imagination in another direction. I love that the tiger in Life of Pi is called Richard Parker. So: maybe a guinea pig called Louisa May Alcott. That makes me smile.

5. You’ve written picture book reviews for various publications. How does reviewing other people’s work inform your own creative process?

EJ: It forces me to think carefully about what I value in picture books, and about the relation of text and image. It helps me remember to leave room for an artist to fully illustrate my books. I don’t want the text to do all the work. Or even most of it. There needs to be room for pictures.

From the May 2013 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.

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• Tiny, bad-tempered gnomes are ubiquitous in the illustrations and animations, but never mentioned in the text until they eat Hansel’s breadcrumb trail.
• After the children’s wicked stepmother takes them deep into the forest, she gets lost there herself and is never seen again — although her complaining can still be heard.
• Hansel shoots the witch with his slingshot, pitching her forward into her own cauldron, which propels her up the chimney and out of the house.
• A garden full of modern-day sweets (e.g., fizzy lemonade, gummies, and cotton candy) surrounds the witch’s house. The enchanted gummy animals are returned to their true forms after the witch’s defeat. A formerly-gummy swan offers to fly the children home.
• Hansel, much heavier after his ordeal, is magically restored to his previous skinny state.

The richly colored illustrations are pleasantly reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoons and well suited to the story’s light tone. An impressive amount of animation is seamlessly integrated into the illustrations, humorously extending the story.

The main menu offers three options for experiencing the app. “Read to me” mode plays the narration without displaying the text. Interactivities on each screen are disabled while the narration plays; tapping a “sparkle” icon in the upper right-hand corner interrupts the narrator and skips straight to allowing users to access the interactive elements. In “read by myself” mode, the narration is off, and the text displays on a scrolling pane across the bottom of the screen. “Play around” mode forgoes the story entirely so that users may explore Hansel and Gretel’s world.

The navigation is well-designed and simple, with self-explanatory icons and a thumbnail chapter that’s accessible from any screen. The cheerful music and sound effects have separate on/off controls. English and Dutch language options are provided.

A caveat: as the Kirkus review points out, the characters of Gretel and the children’s father are “largely relegate[d] . . . to passive roles.” In the father’s case this passivity minimizes his complicity in the wicked stepmother’s machinations, rendering him innocent. In Gretel’s case, however, it makes her a mere tag-along to the story’s star, “clever” Hansel. (And another thing — we’re repeatedly told Hansel is clever, but his behavior isn’t consistent with this characterization.) Most of the app’s changes to the plot are innocuous, if unnecessary, but one change I find troubling is the revised denouement. Instead of Gretel saving the day by pushing the witch into her own oven, here Hansel defeats the witch alone. This version is more Hansel’s story than that of Hansel and Gretel.

More Epic Tales fairy tales narrated by Silvertongue are on the way.

Available for iPad and iPhone (requires iOS 5.1 or later); $3.99. Rated age 9 and up.

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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 Tinies.

Renowned author/illustrator Peter Sís will give the 2013 Barbara Elleman Research Library Lecture (titled “Walls and Bridges…Books With Wings”) on Saturday, May 4th, at the Carle Museum at 2:30 pm. This annual lecture series is “designed to feature the country’s preeminent scholars, book collectors, researchers, editors, authors, and illustrators in the field of children’s literature.” The event is free with museum admission and will be followed by a reception and book signing. A luncheon with Mr. Sís prior to the lecture is sold out, but the museum is accepting names for a waiting list; call 413-658-1126 to be added.

On Tuesday, May 7th, children’s literature critic and former Horn Book editor in chief Anita Silvey will host an in-store book fair at Porter Square Books. The event, a benefit for the Foundation for Children’s Books, begins at 6:00 pm.

Author Mac Barnett and illustrator Jon Klassen will discuss their Caldecott Honor book (and BGHB 2012 Picture Book Award winner) Extra Yarn at the Carle Museum on Saturday, May 11th. The event begins at 2:00 pm and will include a book signing; it’s free with museum admission.

Annual national Children’s Book Week takes place May 13th through May 19th. For a nationwide event schedule, Children’s Choice Book Award voting, and the gorgeous promotional poster (illustrated by Brian Selznick) and bookmark (illustrated by Grace Lin), see the official Book Week website.

On Monday, May 13th, YA author Sara Zarr will speak and sign books at the Brookline Public Library main branch at 3:00 pm. The free event celebrates her latest novel, The Lucy Variations.

Wellesley Booksmith’s baseball-themed “double header” book event at 4:00 pm on Tuesday, May 14th, will feature Matt Tavares (Becoming Babe Ruth) and David Kelly (The Ballpark Mysteries). Ballpark snacks will be provided, and kids who come dressed in baseball uniforms or memorabilia will be entered to win a baseball signed by the authors.

On Thursday, May 16th, Ayanna Coleman will moderate a panel on “Diversity on the Page, Behind the Pencil, and in the Office,” co-hosted by Charlesbridge and Children’s Book Council Diversity Committee. Panelists include author Mitali Perkins, illustrator London Ladd, and editors from Boston-based publishers Charlesbridge, Candlewick, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The event will be held at 6:00 at Charlesbridge’s Illustration Gallery in Watertown. The panel is free, but space is limited, so please pre-register online.

Barbara Elleman will lead a gallery tour of the exhibit “The Caldecott Medal: 75 Years of Distinguished Illustration” at the Carle Museum on Saturday, May 18th, at 8:00 pm. The exhibit features “high quality prints drawn from more than 30 Caldecott Medal books.” Following the tour, author Lawrence Webster will discuss and sign her book Under the North Light: The Life and Work of Maud and Miska Petersham, a biography of the Caldecott-winning couple. The tour and presentation are free with museum admission.

Illustrator Raúl Colón will give a lecture entitled “Art is a Mind Game” at the Carle Museum on Saturday, May 18th, at 12:00 pm. The lecture will be followed by a book signing and is free with museum admission.

Authors Cal Armistead, Scott Blagden, Jack D. Ferraiolo, and Joe Lawlor will present a panel called “So You Want to Write a Book…” for young writers in grades K–12 at Wellesley Booksmith on Saturday, May 18th, at 4:00 pm. Attendees can bring a single double-spaced page of original writing to receive feedback from one of the panelists. The panel is free; please RSVP to kidevents@wellesleybooks.com.

On Wednesday, May 29th, at 7:00 pm at the Brookline Booksmith, Michelle Tea will have a book launch event for her first YA novel, the “modern-day fairy tale” A Mermaid in Chelsea Creek. Ali Liebegott, author of adult book Cha-Ching!, will join her.

Attending or hosting another children’s lit–related event in the greater Boston area this month? Please let us know in the comments!

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On Monday, fellow Horn Booker Shara and I went to the Cambridge Public Library’s World Book Night kick-off celebration, which brought together three local-ish authors: Vanessa Diffenbaugh (The Language of Flowers), Lisa Genova (Still Alice, Left Neglected, and the forthcoming Love Anthony) and Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book, American Gods, Coraline, Sandman, etc., etc.). All three have books on this year’s World Book Night list. Being sadly badly versed in adult literature these days, I’m not familiar with Lisa’s or Vanessa’s books, but I look forward to reading them. The authors discussed their habits as readers, how they got started writing, and their creative processes. Some highlights of their conversation:

• Vanessa told of carrying a book of flower meanings by Kate Greenaway in her pocket for years, eventually composing a poem of paper strips strung together with actual flowers — an early precursor to her novel.
• Lisa left a career in neuroscience research to write fiction. Her former occupation informs her novels, which feature characters coping with neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and autism. An added perk? Her PhD gives her insider access to the latest research. (“Hello, this is Dr. Lisa Genova…”) During the writing of Still Alice, about a woman in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, Lisa was in daily communication with twenty-four individuals affected by the disease.
• When asked what book he’d like to distribute for World Book Night, Neil said he would insist on speaking with the recipients about their personal tastes in order to recommend something specifically for each of them.
• The moderator asked the authors which books they wished they had written themselves. Lisa: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Vanessa: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Neil said that as a child he “wanted to be the person who had written The Lord of the Rings” but that actually writing it seemed like too much work. He fantasized about falling into a parallel world where Tolkien didn’t exist and taking credit for the novel himself; he carried it with him at all times in case this opportunity presented itself.
• All three authors said they don’t outline or plot books in advance; they only know “what happens” for a section of each book at a time. Vanessa quoted E. L. Doctorow: “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” Neil spoke about the joy of surprising yourself with your writing and offered an anecdote from the writing of Anansi Boys: the main character unexpectedly got into an elevator, and Neil knew that once he exited the elevator he would be murdered — and the novel would be over. It took Neil two months to find his way out of this predicament.
• An audience member asked Neil if people take his children’s books less seriously than his adult books. He joked that winning the Newbery made people take him quite seriously for about a year. He takes his writing for children as seriously as (if not more than) his writing for adults, because books have even more potential to change your life during childhood.

Lisa and Vanessa had a strong fan showing; the woman in line in front of me had planned her entire garden around The Language of Flowers, and at least one book club who had read Left Neglected was in attendance. But, like me, many attendees were there to see Neil Himself. Despite the long signing line, he was very gracious as I babbled at him when my turn came.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures (you can see a couple from Lisa here and here), but I did get this:

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- the Holocaust
- explorers and exploration
- animals and their habitats
- farming and gardening
- life skills and wellness

Subscribe here or browse archived issues and other nonfiction resources here. Send feedback to newsletter@hbook.com — we’d love to hear how you’re using nonfiction books in your classroom, library, or home!

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keynote speaker Dr. Robert Needlman of Reach Out and Read

Horn Book Guide Executive Editor Kitty Flynn

Cambridge Public Library youth services manager Julie Roach

Llama Llama author/illustrator Anna Dewdney

For more information about the conference, see the full schedule and list of presenters. Expect to hear more during (we’ll be live tweeting) and after the event!

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More poetry resources from The Horn Book:
Review of the Week: Follow Follow
Five questions for Marilyn Singer
Five new poetry picture books
Natalie Merchant’s poetry-inspired album Leave Your Sleep
Verse narratives booklist

The post New poetry booklist appeared first on The Horn Book.

- more poetry picture books
- primary and intermediate animal nonfiction
- middle-grade fantasy adventures
- YA books exploring love in all its forms

Subscribers to our monthly Notes from the Horn Book newsletter also receive its quarterly supplement Nonfiction Notes — sign up (for free!) here. Browse the newsletter archives for more recommended books and author/illustrator interviews.

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