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More early learning

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Jenny Brown and the Center for Children’s Literature at Bank Street are putting on an ECE show of their own next Saturday, April 13th. “Literature for Early Childhood: What Do You Need to Know?” runs from nine to noon and will be keynoted by Horn Book fave Laura Vaccaro Seeger. You can sign up here.

Five Questions for Julie Roach

JulieRoach

Cambridge Public Library youth services manager (and Horn Book reviewer) Julie Roach will be discussing library services for preschool children at our Fostering Lifelong Learners event (free; you should come) at CPL on April 25th. I asked her to share some of her thoughts on serving this (very) particular audience. (I think her answer to [...]

Les Français sont à venir!

The beau mec who brings Elizabeth her croissant each morning.

In international news, French President François Hollande announced today that in gratitude for our loan of Elizabeth Law to La Ville-Lumière, he is sending some of his country’s most esteemed illustrateurs to New York City for a series of public pourparlers avec some of our own. Here’s the full lineup and schedule.

The winner!

apples

The winner of our first, and most likely last, Judging the BoB Judges (if this features DOES come back we need a snappier name) contest is Martine Leavitt. For her enthusiasm, her no-dithering policy, and her frankness about her own reading tastes: “[Endangered] has a happy ending, too. Was it too happy? Not for me. [...]

Perkins v. Patterson v. Cottrell Boyce

Bam

Our third round is a three way, comprising BoB’s two-semifinal rounds (Lynne Rae Perkins judging Bomb and The Fault in Our Stars; James Patterson doing the same for No Crystal Stair and Splendors and Glooms)  and the Big Kahuna round (Frank Cottrell Boyce judging The Fault in Our Stars, No Crystal Stair and the resurrected [...]

Five Questions for Kitty Flynn

Chloe and Jakob

At our upcoming Fostering Lifelong Learners: Prescribing Books for Early Childhood Education conference, Horn Book Guide Executive Editor Kitty Flynn will be leading a presentation about how the Horn Book evaluates and reviews preschool books. This is one aspect of her work that also engages her off the clock: Kitty and her husband are parents [...]

Lai v. Griffin

estetick

Did anyone see the recent episode of Project Runway where they designed tearaway clothes for strippers? BOTH teams lost. I wish we could do the same here. Pitting Starry River of the Sky against Splendors and Glooms, Thanhha Lai incomprehensibly evokes a video game junkie “from, say, Dallas” to say that both books work as “entertainment.” [...]

Our Bertha

I’m over at Kidlit Celebrates Women’s History Month today,  talking about Horn Book founder Bertha Mahony Miller. See also my review of a new picture book biography of one of Bertha’s great friends, Miss Moore (Thought Otherwise).

Napoli v. Leavitt

TELEGRAM

We’re onto the second round of the BoB, with Donna Jo Napoli choosing between Code Name Verity and Bomb, and Martine Leavitt adjudicating Endangered v. The Fault in Our Stars. Napoli has already been called out for including spoilers to Code Name Verity (while, hilariously, saying “I won’t spoil it for you”) but I don’t [...]

Starred reviews, May/June Horn Book Magazine

The following books will receive starred reviews in the forthcoming May/June issue of The Horn Book Magazine:   Crankee Doodle; by Tom Angleberger; illus. by Cece Bell (Clarion). Picture a Tree; written and illustrated by Barbara Reid (Whitman). That is NOT a Good Idea!; written and illustrated by by Mo Willems (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins). Bo at Ballard Creek; by Kirkpatrick [...]