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 [...]
Different Drums: Border Crossing
March 22, 2013 By 1 Comment
The Horn Book Magazine asked Mitali Perkins, “What’s the strangest children’s book you’ve ever enjoyed?” At first glance, there’s absolutely no compelling reason why a young immigrant from India would choose Hans Brinker, or, The Silver Skates: A Story of Life in Holland by Mary Mapes Dodge as a favorite read. And yet I did. [...]
Reading: It’s More Than Meets the Eye
March 21, 2013 By 2 Comments
I work at a library that provides reading materials for the “print disabled” — those people who cannot read a traditional print book for a physical reason. It’s a network library of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), a division of the Library of Congress, and the program has been [...]
The Horn Book’s inaugural editorial
March 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment
We chose this title — THE HORNBOOK — because of its early and honorable place in the history of children’s literature, but in our use of it we are giving it a lighter meaning, as Mr. Caldecott’s three jovial huntsmen on the cover suggest. Just as they are so full of exuberant joy for the [...]
Realms of Gold and Granite
March 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment
The Bookshop for Boys and Girls was born, in a twelvemonth, with a pedigree and a distinguished list of patrons. Its role was largely determined from the outset. But life, real life, is also a string of accidents. Bertha Mahony was thirty-three and restless after ten years as a good right-hand at Boston’s Women’s Educational [...]
Review of Poison
March 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Poison by Bridget Zinn Middle School Hyperion 280 pp. 3/13 978-1-4231-3993-5 $16.99 g Sixteen-year-old Kyra is a girl with more than her share of secrets. Living in the world of witches, dwarves, potion masters, shape shifters, and the like, she is reluctant to trust anyone, even her best friend and the future queen, Ariana. Readers [...]
Different Drums: Seven Little Ones Instead
March 15, 2013 By 1 Comment
The Horn Book Magazine asked Elizabeth Bird, “What’s the strangest children’s book you’ve ever enjoyed?” “No answers are provided, no hints are given. This lack of resolution makes for an ultimately unsatisfying story.” So said SLJ of the early 1990s Swedish import Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies by Pija Lindenbaum (and adapted by Gabrielle [...]
Z Is for Elastic: The Amazing Stretch of Paul Zelinsky
March 14, 2013 By 1 Comment
What would Margaret Wise Brown have been without Clement Hurd? There’d have been no Goodnight Moon. What would Ruth Krauss have been without Maurice Sendak or Crockett Johnson or Marc Simont? There’d have been no Hole Is to Dig or Carrot Seed or Happy Day. Some of the most original, imaginative picture book scripts have [...]
Review of Never Say Die
March 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Never Say Die by Will Hobbs Intermediate, Middle School Harper/HarperCollins 212 pp. 2/13 978-0-06-170878-7 $16.99 Library ed. 978-0-06-170879-4 $17.89 e-book ed. 978-0-06-222384-5 $9.99 Set in the Yukon Territory hard by the Beaufort Sea, Hobbs’s latest turbocharged wilderness survival story has heavy weather, savage river waters, treacherous trails, and, as chief antagonist, a “grolar bear.” Just [...]
Jack (and Jill) Be Nimble: An Interview with Mary Cash and Jason Low
March 12, 2013 By 29 Comments
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 [...]
