May/June Stars

The following books will receive starred reviews in the May/June issue of the Horn Book Magazine:

The London Eye Mystery (Fickling/Random) by Siobhan Dowd

Forever Rose (McElderry) by Hilary McKay

Princess Ben (Houghton) by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Sunrise over Fallujah (Scholastic) by Walter Dean Myers

The Last of the High Kings (Greenwillow) by Kate Thomspon

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball (Jump at the Sun/Hyperion) written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson

People Lust for Fame Like Athletes in a Game

Is or is not "Stars" the most lugubrious song Janis Ian ever wrote? And that is saying a lot.

In either event, here are the starred books from the March/April Horn Book Magazine:

Dog and Bear: Two’s Company (Porter/Roaring Brook) written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Rex Zero, King of Nothing (Kroupa/Farrar) by Tim Wynne-Jones

On the Farm (Candlewick) written by David Elliott, illustrated by Holly Meade

Frogs (Scholastic) written and illustrated with photos by Nic Bishop

Spiders (Scholastic) written and illustrated with photos by Nic Bishop

What To Do about Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy (Scholastic) written by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham

Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City (Knopf) written by Janet Schulman, illustrated by Meilo So

If you're in need of a sign of spring, go with Pale Male, one of my favorite books thus far this year. It makes you want to take a walk in the park with Janet Schulman (who I never thought of as a walk-in-the-park kind of gal) and Meilo So's watercolors have never been so rich.

Starred Books, January/February '08 Horn Book

The following books will receive starred reviews in the January/February issue of the Horn Book Magazine:

Becca at Sea (Groundwood) by Deirdre Baker

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You (Foster/Farrar) by Peter Cameron

How the Hangman Lost His Heart (Walker) by K. M. Grant

Jabberwocky (Jump/Hyperion) illustrated by Christopher Myers

When Fish Got Feet, Sharks Got Teeth, and Bugs Began to Swarm: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life Long Before Dinosaurs (National Geographic) written and illustrated by Hannah Bonner

Who Was First?: Discovering the Americas (Clarion) by Russell Freedman

War in the Middle East: A Reporter’s Story (Candlewick) by Wilborn Hampton

November-December stars

Kitty here. While Roger is communing with ISBNs in VT and Blogger is currently cooperating, I'm happy to present you with a list of the books that will receive starred reviews in the November-December issue of the Horn Book Magazine:

Picture books:

On Angel Wings (Candlewick) written by Michael Morpurgo, illustrated by Quentin Blake
First the Egg (Porter/Roaring Brook) written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
The Arrival (Levine/Scholastic) illustrated by Shaun Tan

Fiction:

Little Rat Makes Music (Harcourt) written by Monika Bang-Campbell, illustrated by Molly Bang
Being Bee (Holiday) by Catherine Bateson
Elijah of Buxton (Scholastic) by Christopher Paul Curtis
Passion and Poison: Tales of Shapeshifters, Ghosts, and Spirited Women (Cavendish) written by Janice M. del Negro, illustrated by Vince Natale
Red Spikes (Knopf) by Margo Lanagan

Folklore and Poetry:

The Bearskinner: A Tale of the Brothers Grimm (Candlewick) retold by Laura Amy Schlitz, illustrated by Max Grafe
Mother Goose Numbers on the Loose (Harcourt) selected and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon

Nonfiction:

Whale Port (Lorraine/Houghton) written by Mark Foster, illustrated by Gerald Foster

September-October stars

The following books will receive starred reviews in the (jumbo-sized special issue) September-October issue of the Horn Book Magazine:

At Night (Farrar) written and illustrated by Jonathan Bean
Cowboy & Octopus (Viking) written by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith
The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio (Holt) by Lloyd Alexander
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little) written by Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Ellen Forney
Mistik Lake (Kroupa/Farrar) by Martha Brooks
A Darkling Plain (Eos/HarperCollins) by Philip Reeve
Aunt Nancy and the Bothersome Visitors (Candlewick) written by Phyllis Root, illustrated by David Parkins
The Wall: Growing Up behind the Iron Curtain (Foster/Farrar) written and illustrated by Peter Sís

July/August stars, '07

Reviews of the following books will be starred in the July/August issue of the Horn Book Magazine.

Picture Books:

Fred Stays with Me! (Little) written by Nancy Coffelt, illustrated by Tricia Tusa
Orange Pear Apple Bear (Simon) written and illustrated by Emily Gravett
Follow the Line through the House (Viking) written and illustrated by Laura Ljungkvist
Starring Miss Darlene (Porter/Roaring Brook) written and illustrated by Amy Schwartz

Fiction:

Jack Plank Tells Tales (di Capua/Scholastic) written and illustrated by Natalie Babbitt
The Plain Janes (Minx/DC Comics) written by Cecil Castellucci, illustrated by Jim Rugg
Pure Spring (Groundwood) by Brian Doyle
The Wednesday Wars (Clarion) by Gary D. Schmidt
The Lion Hunter (Viking) by Elizabeth E. Wein

Nonfiction:

May I Pet Your Dog?: The How-to Guide for Kids Meeting Dogs (and Dogs Meeting Kids) (Clarion) written by Stephanie Calmenson, illustrated by Jan Ormerod
Beowulf: A Hero’s Tale Retold (Houghton) retold and illustrated by James Rumford

Place your bets!

The Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards committee is beginning its round of in-person debate tomorrow, and I'll be able to share the names of the winners with you next week. Any guesses? The awards frequently surprise me, as my involvement with the choices ends with selecting the judges and I'm not privy to their discussions. Because the award's year begins on June 1, it straddles the eligibility frames of the calendar year awards such as the Newbery and Caldecott, and can thus both affirm (or not) and predict (or not) what those awards did or will do. Dates aside, the BGHB awards aren't really comparable with the ALA awards, though, because the criteria are markedly different: fiction, nonfiction, and picture books are judged separately (poetry can fall into any and all of these categories); picture books are for both art and text (and illustrator and author); and books originally published in another country and then republished in the States are eligible. Any guesses?

We also had our July/August star meeting today. Those choices will be yours within a couple of days. Let's just say it was lively.

May/June '07 Stars

Here are the books receiving starred reviews in the May/June '07 issue of the Horn Book Magazine:

Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature (St. Martin's) by Linda Lear

The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County
(Kroupa/Farrar) written by Janice N. Harrington, illustrated by Shelley Jackson

Who's Hiding?
(Kane/Miller) written and illustrated by Satoru Onishi

Pictures from Our Vacation
(Greenwillow) written and illustrated by Lynne Rae Perkins

Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories
(Porter/Roaring Brook) written by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

One Whole and Perfect Day
(Front Street) by Judith Clarke

The Red Shoe
(Porter/Roaring Brook) by Ursula Dubosarsky

The Wolf
(Front Street) by Steven Herrick

Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings
(Harcourt) written and illustrated by Douglas Florian

The Strongest Man in the World: Louis Cyr
(Groundwood) written and illustrated by Nicolas Debon

Dogs and Cats
(Houghton) written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins