If you were a queer kid like me growing up in the sixties, I hope you were fortunate enough to come across books by Louise Fitzhugh. She may have saved your life, or at least made it a bit more comfortable. When I was eleven, I didn’t know I was gay; I only knew that [...]
About Kathleen T. Horning
Kathleen T. Horning is the director of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, a library of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is the author of From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children’s Books and teaches a popular online course for ALSC on the history of the Newbery Medal.
Review of The Man from the Land of Fandango
January 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Review of The Man from the Land of Fandango by Margaret Mahy. From the November/December 2012 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.
Thomas Handforth, China, and the Real Mei Li
January 8, 2013 By 2 Comments
An online-only companion to Kathleen T. Horning’s “Mei Li and the Making of a Picture Book” article from the January/February 2013 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.
Review of Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey
December 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey by Gary Golio; illus. by Rudy Gutierrez Intermediate, Middle School Clarion 48 pp. 10/12 978-0-547-23994-1 $17.99 There have been other picture books about gifted jazz musician and composer John Coltrane that have focused on his music or his childhood, but this one dares to take on the complexity of [...]
Review of A Certain October
October 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A Certain October by Angela Johnson High School Simon 158 pp. 8/12 978-0-689-86505-3 $15.99 g e-book ed. 978-1-4424-1726-7 $9.99 At the start of the book, Scotty is an average high school junior living in East Cleveland. She hangs out with friends, makes plans for the homecoming dance, and avoids writing a book report on Anna [...]
The Search for Distinguished
June 18, 2012 By 2 Comments
In a much talked about opinion piece published in School Library Journal in 2008, former Horn Book editor Anita Silvey asked, “Has the Newbery lost its way?” She made it clear that she thought it had, after interviewing “more than 100 people—including media specialists, children’s librarians, teachers, and booksellers—in 15 states across the country.” A [...]
Review of Animal Masquerade
May 15, 2012 By 1 Comment
Animal Masquerade by Marianne Dubuc; trans. from the French by Yvette Ghione; illus. by the author Preschool, Primary Kids Can 120 pp. 3/12 978-1-55453-782-2 $16.95 For kids who never tire of driving one joke into the ground, this is the perfect book—and for their adults, there are enough surprises to make that one joke tolerable [...]
Review of The Hero of Little Street
April 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The Hero of Little Street by Gregory Rogers; illus. by the author Primary Porter/Roaring Brook 40 pp. 3/12 978-0-59643-729-6 $17.99 g The same bulb-headed boy who was chased through Elizabethan London in The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard (rev. 11/04) is time-traveling again, this time to seventeenth-century Delft, an important center of the [...]
Review of No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller
March 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson; illus. by R. Gregory Christie Middle School, High School Carolrhoda Lab 188 pp. 2/12 978-0-7613-6169-5 $17.95 e-book ed. 978-0-7613-8727-5 $12.95 Inspired by Marcus Garvey and the drive to make a difference, Lewis Michaux opened the [...]
Review of Z Is for Moose
February 28, 2012 By 1 Comment
Z Is for Moose by Kelly Bingham; illus. by Paul O. Zelinsky Primary Greenwillow 32 pp. 3/12 978-0-06-079984-7 $16.99 If you think you’ve seen every possible idea for an alphabet book played out, think again. Even before the title page of this very funny and inventive ABC, cast members Apple, Ball, Cat, Duck, Elephant, Fox, [...]
