Jack (and Jill) Be Nimble: An Interview with Mary Cash and Jason Low

low_sutton_cash1

In between the few huge publishing houses and the many tiny ones lie the small independents. Mary Cash is vice president and editor in chief of Holiday House, founded by Vernon Ives in 1935 and currently publishing sixty-plus new books a year; Jason Low is the publisher of Lee & Low Books, co-founded by his [...]

March kids’ lit events

warriors sun trail

March is a busy month for children’s literature events! Here’s a selection of happenings in or near Boston: Tonight at 6:00 p.m., Warriors author Erin Hunter will celebrate latest series entry The Sun Trail at the Cambridge Public Library’s main branch. The free event is co-sponsored by Porter Square Books. For more info, see the [...]

“Our Miss Jones”

Elizabeth Orton Jones at work in her studio

by Annis Duff One afternoon, a year ago last February, Elizabeth Jones came to tea. It was quite an occasion, for although we had known her incarnate, so to speak, for a comparatively short time, we were very much at home with her because of our long and intimate friendship with Ragman of Paris, Maminka’s [...]

Elizabeth Orton Jones’s Caldecott acceptance speech

Prayer for a Child

by Elizabeth Orton Jones *Read at the Awards Luncheon when the Caldecott Medal was given to Elizabeth Orton Jones for her illustrations in Rachel Field’s Prayer for a Child (Macmillan). There was once a little girl who found it very puzzling to say “thank you.” The words were too small for the feeling, the feeling [...]

Horn Book Reminiscence

Elizabeth Orton Jones

by Elizabeth Orton Jones Tchrr-r-r-r! The phone would ring. I’d answer, and after a considerable while I’d hear a faint little quavery voice, as if someone were calling me from beyond the Pleiades…“E-li-i-izabeth?” It would be my dear friend Bertha Mahony Miller, calling from Ashburnham, Massachusetts, about seventeen miles from Mason, New Hampshire, where I [...]

Retract those claws

warrior

and go meet “Erin Hunter” of Warriors fame at the Cambridge Public Library on Tuesday, March 5th at 6:00 PM. When I asked which Erin Hunter,  I was told it would be top cat Victoria Holmes, who from this description sounds like the Francine Pascal of the Warriors world.

Artist’s Choice

Who Dreams of Cheese? by Leonard Weisgard

An illustrator comments in each issue of The Horn Book upon a new picture book he particularly likes. Who Dreams of Cheese? comment by Elizabeth Orton Jones Who can draw dreams? Who can draw thoughts? Who can tell with a few words and a paint brush how it feels to be a bird — so [...]

In Remembrance: Bertha Mahony Miller

Bertha Mahony Miller

by Elizabeth Orton Jones THE BOOKSHOP FOR BOYS AND GIRLS In 1934 I was a young greenhorn artist living in New York City, trying to get started, anxious to be on my way. I spent hours each day going from place to place, my portfolio under my arm, my subject — children. I spent hours [...]

February children’s lit events

The Future of Us

A selection of children’s literature–related events coming up this month in Boston and beyond: The first of two events taking place tonight is the Brookline Booksmith’s YA Book Club at 5:00 p.m. The club is open to ages twelve to eighteen. This month’s meeting focuses on The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn [...]

Two and one-half questions for Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant

Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant

Editor in chief Roger Sutton interviews Eve & Adam authors Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant.