Publications about books for children and young adults
Welcome to the inaugural edition of Nonfiction Notes from the Horn Book, a quarterly supplement to our monthly e-newsletter Notes from the Horn Book. Each issue of Nonfiction Notes will contain brief reviews, taken from the Horn Book Guide, of new and recent informational books we think would be especially good for schools looking to [...]
As a historian, author, and longtime advocate for nonfiction, there are many things I like about the Common Core English/Language Arts Standards: their focus on historiography and authorial point of view, their mission of training young people to be problem-solvers, their validation of nonfiction-lovers’ passion for the genre. In this inaugural issue of Nonfiction Notes [...]
Like many writers, I had a reading childhood, but I’ve only recently understood how countercultural my mother was about my reading. My brother and sister and I are close in age, so when I was a child there were no big-kid books and little-kid books; no girl books and boy books. All the books belonged [...]
There was never anyone quite like her. Other amazing children’s writers have won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, but none had her extra‑ordinary range: verse; picture-book texts; books for every conceivable age group; scripts for radio, television, film; serials for newspapers and magazines. “I have been such a tradesman all my professional writing life,” she [...]
You can sometimes feel like the Old Stage Manager in this job, watching ’em all come and go for their hour upon the stage. Big picture books, little picture books, good girls and bad girls, vampires, angels, fallen angels, books for boys, fantasy, and realism. The players have producers: not just publishers but also the [...]
Having grown up in the Free to Be generation, I’ve tried as a parent to steer clear of limiting gender norms in raising, and reading to, my son. We’ve read about boys and girls of all types, and (just as Hilary Rappaport describes in her May/June 2012 Horn Book article “On the Rights of Reading [...]
We’ve just posted Leonard S. Marcus’s article “Give ‘Em Helvetica: Picture Book Type” from the upcoming September/October issue. Since “type is one of the major ingredients in the creation of a visual environment,” Marcus explores how different typefaces can enhance — or detract from — our reading experience. What’s your favorite font? (And perhaps an [...]
You are about to enter the courtroom of Judge Judy. The cases are real. The creatures are folkloric. The rulings are final. . CASE #10705: EVIL STEPSISTERS v. CINDERELLA Judge Judy: You two stepsisters are suing Cinderella and her prince because your feet were irrevocably damaged after trying on some shoes, correct? Evil Stepsister #1: [...]
While perusing the introduction to Paris: The Collected Traveler, An Inspired Companion Guide, edited by Barrie Kerper (Vintage Books, 2011 edition), Horn Book readers may be gratified (also surprised? we were!) to find the following passage. (Katie, our resident Nancy Drew, tracked its source to the April 2010 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.) [...]
Most likely to haunt award committees Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol Bone Dog by Eric Rohmann Better luck next time Good Luck, Anna Hibiscus! by Atinuke, illustrated by Lauren Tobia Tragic and tragically overlooked America Is Under Attack: September 11, 2001: The Day the Towers Fell by Don Brown Amelia Lost: The Life [...]
