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Bats! Furry Fliers of the Night app review

Bats! menu

Beautiful nonfiction app Bats! Furry Fliers of the Night (Bookerella and Story Worldwide, 2012) introduces primary and intermediate users to the world’s only flying mammal. Author Mary Kay Carson — whose many nonfiction print books for children include 2010 Scientists in the Field title The Bat Scientists — presents accessible information in seven brief chapters [...]

Getting there

i'll get there

Claire Gross says in her article “What Makes a Good YA Coming-Out Novel?” (from the Horn Book Magazine March/April 2013 special issue Different Drummers), Since John Donovan’s groundbreaking 1969 I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip, young adult novels featuring gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning teens have come a long way. Once [...]

The Little Prince at 70

The Little Prince 70th anniversary deluxe gift set

Confession: I’d never before read The Little Prince. Growing up with a mother who preferred to sing (as opposed to read) my sister and I to sleep, I guess I missed out on a lot of the significant books that people fall in love with as children. However, I’m not sure I could have fully [...]

The White Bicycle

The White Bicycle

It’s always disappointing when we miss the opportunity to blow our horn for a really good book — but in this case the ARC arrived too late to review in the Magazine. Fortunately, this year’s Printz committee found it in time to award it an Honor and get it the recognition it deserves. And here’s [...]

Dragon Brush app review

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“Quite a long time ago, in a small village in ancient China, there lived a boy named Bing-Wen.” So begins Dragon Brush (Small Planet Digital, 2012), an interactive picture book app created by John Solimine and Andy Hullinger. Based on a Chinese folktale (no sources are given), the story follows a young rabbit artist, Bing-Wen, [...]

Picturing Imogen

imogen

In the March issue of Notes from the Horn Book, in honor of Women’s History Month, I picked out some recent picture-book biographies focusing on women who left their marks on society. Another worthy offering is Imogen: The Mother of Modernism and Three Boys (Cameron + Company, December 2012) by Amy Novesky, author of the [...]

Extraordinary women

Sweethearts of Rhythm by Marilyn Nelson and Jerry Pinkney

We’ve updated our Women’s History Month reading list with biographies for a wide range of grade levels, all recently published and recommended by the Horn Book Magazine. From fifteen-year-old civil rights activist Claudette Colvin to former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and pilot Amelia Earhart to choreographer Martha Graham, these women broke the rules and led [...]

March Notes out now

march 2013 notes

The March issue of Notes from the Horn Book has an interview with Will Hobbs, author of new survival story Never Say Die, plus – more adventure books for middle-grade readers – springtime animal picture books – picture book biographies for Women’s History Month – YA novels inspired by Victorian and Edwardian England Subscribe and [...]

The Legend of Momotaro app review

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In Ghost Hand Games’ app The Legend of Momotaro (November 2012), Corey Finkle retells a well-known Japanese legend of a boy who emerges from a huge peach to be adopted by a childless couple. Momotaro exhibits exceptional strength and wisdom for his age very early on. When Momotaro is a teenager, he learns of oni, [...]

My Epic Fairy Tale Fail

my epic fairy tale fail

Once upon a time — last Friday, March 1st, to be exact — my friend and former writing professor Anna Staniszewski released My Epic Fairy Tale Fail (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, March 2013), sequel to her debut novel My Very UnFairy Tale Life. Returning with her deliciously droll wit and a brand new mission for her now-thirteen-year-old [...]