Publications about books for children and young adults
“I’ve always dreamed of opening a bookstore when I retire.” We used to hear this all the time, a shy confession from book-loving customers and tourists delighted to find an independent bookstore tucked away in a small Vermont town. It was the words “when I retire” that made us smile, this cozy perception of bookselling [...]
In an era in which books want to have sequels, sequels want to spawn series, series want to be like that other guy’s series, and those other guys become fewer and fewer as publishing consolidates itself, we thought it might be nice to take a time-out in favor of the outliers. Welcome to the Horn [...]
Editor in chief Roger Sutton’s editorial from the February 2013 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.
Tuesday’s Caldecott post mortem entry has raised an issue in the comments that I think warrants its own post. First, Robin provided a link to Minh Le’s NY Daily News Page Views blog entry, “This is Not My Hat: Reading (a little) too much into the 2013 Caldecott winner.” I think Le is spot-on in his [...]
Both the new Common Core State Standards in English/Language Arts and the soon-to-be-released Next Generation Science Standards emphasize competencies in nonfiction literacies: the CCSS in its bold push for a central role for informational text in reading instruction, and the NGSS in its just-as-purposeful spotlight on the critical reading, writing, visual, and oral practices of [...]
Greetings, readers! Happy New Year to all! If this sounds like the opening of one of those annual roundup letters tucked inside holiday cards, it kind of is. We’ve got a lot to celebrate at the Horn Book — much of it reflected in this issue, and beyond. The Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards were presented [...]
Poet Theodore Roethke said that poetry was an act of mischief. I’ve always liked that. But to my mind, even more than poetry it is the picture book that is truly an act of mischief. Mischief: “Playful misbehavior or troublemaking, especially in children.” “Playfulness that is intended to tease, or mock or to create trouble.” [...]
by Esther Averill from Caldecott Medal Books: 1938–1957 edited by Bertha Mahony Miller and Elinor Whitney Field; published by The Horn Book, 1957 The time has come to attempt a critical appraisal of the twenty books which have won the Caldecott Award for their illustrators. I almost wish the task had fallen to another person, [...]
“It’s language that’s intellectual,” notes Michael Hazanavicius, director of the 2012 Academy Award-winning silent film The Artist. “Images are about feelings.” Different images, different feelings. Distinct images, distinct feelings. A closed door is a mystery. What’s inside? Who will come out? One house sits prettily in a garden, set apart — vines curving up in [...]
Neil Gaiman has his own, very good, reasons for asking, “What the [Very Bad Swearword] Is a Children’s Book Anyway?” and you can read all about them, starting on page 10. The question is great, but he doesn’t really have an answer. Don’t feel bad, Neil: here at the Horn Book, we’ve been asking that [...]
