Publications about books for children and young adults
Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg High School Levine/Scholastic 328 pp. 6/13 978-0-545-50989-3 $17.99 g e-book ed. 978-0-545-50990-9 $17.99 Rafe is sick of being the poster child for all things gay at his uber-liberal Colorado high school: no matter how accepting everyone is, it feels like they only [...]
Better to Wish [Family Tree] by Ann M. Martin Intermediate, Middle School Scholastic 231 pp. 5/13 978-0-545-35942-9 $16.99 e-book ed. 978-0-545-53926-5 $16.99 The typical historical fiction set during the Great Depression is a story of financial hardship — but it’s not lack of money that’s the issue here, in this first of what will be [...]
What is a picture book biography? Its simple title gives us everything we need to know: it is a picture book and it is a biography, and it is both of those things simultaneously and symbiotically. Imagine two spotlights on a stage. One light illuminates picture books, where story and style and the turn of [...]
Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani; illus. by Maris Wicks Middle School, High School First Second/Roaring Brook 140 pp. 6/13 978-1-59643-865-1 $19.99 A graphic format admirably propels this lightly fictionalized group biography of “Leakey’s Angels”: Jane Goodall (chimps in Rwanda), and Biruté Galdikas (orangutans [...]
The following books will receive starred reviews in the July/August issue of The Horn Book Magazine: Flora and the Flamingo; written and illustrated by Molly Idle (Chronicle) Niño Wrestles the World; written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Porter/Roaring Brook ) The Whole Stupid Way We Are; by N. Griffin (Atheneum) The Thing About Luck; by Cynthia Kadohata; illus. by [...]
Special Issue: Awards Original cover art by 2013 Caldecott Honoree Laura Vaccaro Seeger. Robin L. Smith, coauthor of the Horn Book’s Calling Caldecott blog, looks back at the 2013 Caldecott contenders. Jon Klassen’s Caldecott Medal Acceptance speech. Mac Barnett’s profile of his friend and collaborator, Jon Klassen. Horn Book Magazine executive editor Martha V. Parravano’s [...]
Since you know you can count on somebody else to purchase Oh, the Places You’ll Go! and Chicken Soup for the Soul for the new graduate, the Horn Book staff and reviewers thought we might offer some alternative suggestions, based on personal experience — both what we’ve given and what we’ve received — and on [...]
Review of Bear and Bee by Sergio Ruzzier. From the May/June 2013 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.
Bernard Waber, Author-Illustrator The House on East 88th Street 48 pp. Houghton $3.00 Library edition $2.90 Tried out with a picture-book group, this tale of a domesticated crocodile named Lyle proved consistently captivating. In his story, Lyle wins the hearts of new residents of a New York City house where an actor has left him [...]
Kelsey Green, Reading Queen [Franklin School Friends] by Claudia Mills; illus. by Rob Shepperson Primary Ferguson/Farrar 122 pp. 5/13 978-0-374-37485-3 $15.99 g e-book ed. 978-0-374-37488-4 $9.99 Kelsey might be the reading queen of her third-grade class, but her throne is threatened when principal Mr. Boone announces a school-wide reading challenge: two thousand books read before [...]
Newbery, Printz & Caldecott