Publications about books for children and young adults
Promoting good books for children and young adults is the heart of The Horn Book’s editorial mission. Archived here are annotated lists of recommended titles.
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 [...]
Celebrate Father’s Day with a good picture book! Here are our recommendations for fathers and their sons — or daughters — to read together. What picture book would you recommend for a father-son read? (See our YA mother-daughter reading list here.) Katie: One of my own fond childhood memories is listening to my dad read [...]
On May 6, we posted Elissa Gershowitz’s review of Water in the Park: A Book About Water & the Times of the Day by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Stephanie Graegin. Loosely based on Prospect Park in Brooklyn, this is a book I want to come back to when we start posting for Calling Caldecott [...]
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 [...]
2013 Boston Globe–Horn Book Fiction Honor book Seraphina, written by Rachel Hartman, follows a protagonist navigating the treacherous political territory between dragonkind and human society. For readers whose flights of fancy take the form of dragons, we recommend these recent novels. Dragon Castle by Joseph Bruchac Middle School Dial 346 pp. 6/11 978-0-8037-3376-3 $16.99 Rashko, [...]
Five questions for Ann M. Martin Better to Wish [Family Tree] by Ann M. Martin, Scholastic, 10–14 years. Middle-grade family stories The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata; illus. by Julia Kuo, Atheneum, 10–14 years. The Romeo and Juliet Code and Romeo Blue by Phoebe Stone, Levine/Scholastic, 10–14 years. One Crazy Summer and P.S. Be [...]
The thing about family is that it can be unpredictable. These four new books present families from different eras in all their unique and messy complexities. In Cynthia Kadohata’s funny but poignant The Thing About Luck, twelve-year-old narrator Summer lives with her brother, parents, and grandparents in contemporary Kansas. Her parents, who drive combines for [...]
The books recommended below were all published within the last several years and reviewed by The Horn Book Magazine. Grade levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion. Picture books Suggested grade level listed with each entry The Other Side of Town by Jon Agee (Scholastic/di Capua) A New York City [...]
What makes for better summer reading than a page-turning thriller? Four recent titles introduce young adult readers to brand-new dystopian societies and their courageous teen rebels. In Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave, aliens have invaded Earth and killed seven billion humans in waves of systematic attacks. Sixteen-year-old survivor Cassie prepares herself for the fifth wave, [...]
From the depths of the jungles to Middle Eastern marketplaces to magical fairy forests, the following books span diverse settings. The stories illustrate just how effectively narrative can represent and transmit different cultures’ traditions, heritage, mythos, and history. In Odile Weulersse’s Nasreddine, Mustafa and his son Nasreddine set out for the market four times, facing [...]
Newbery, Printz & Caldecott