Betty Carter:
Holes by Louis Sachar (Foster/Farrar, 1999 Fiction Award winner). The circular nature of this novel, from Stanley Yelnats’s palindromic name to the combination of family histories, creates a full and satisfying read. But Sachar’s restraint, both in the pacing of the action and the revelations about the characters, is pure genius.

Jonathan Hunt:
Well, I think 2009 was a particularly strong year, but I’m biased.  [ed. note: JH was on the committee that year] I’m pleased to see a pair of my all-time favorites in Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game (Dutton, 1978 Fiction Award winner) and Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising (Atheneum, 1973 Fiction Award winner), but perusing the list of winners underscores the unique eligibility period. The Boston Globe-Horn Book committee considers books published between June of a particular year and May of the following year; Newbery follows the calendar year (January through December). In 1991 Jerry Spinelli’s Maniac Magee (Little, Brown, 1990) won the Newbery Medal and Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Orchard, 1991) was the lone Newbery Honor Book. But they both got to be winners with the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards: Charlotte Doyle was the 1991 Fiction Award winner and Maniac Magee was the 1990 Fiction Award winner.

Susan Dove Lempke:
I love many of the BGHB books, but the one that pops into my head very frequently is M. T. Anderson’s prophetic Feed (Candlewick, 2003 Fiction Honor Book). It has a great opening line (“We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck”) that captures the attention of the reader while showing the malaise and limited vocabulary of the futuristic narrator. Much of what Anderson wrote has already come true, and this thoughtful but also funny novel gives us a chance to ponder what the pitfalls of all-knowing technology might be.

Dean Schneider:
Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don’t You Grow Weary by Elizabeth Partridge (Viking, 2010 Nonfiction Award winner) is one of my all-time favorite nonfiction books, a masterful blending of the eyewitness narrative and gorgeous photography. It’s now the heart of a civil rights unit I do with my seventh graders, along with Kekla Magoon’s The Rock and the River.

Robin Smith:
My favorite BGHB winner is A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams (Greenwillow, 1983 Picture Book Award winner). Every time I read it to my second graders, they are completely taken in by the story of this one little girl, her loss, and the community that lifts her family. It’s one book that draws them back for an extra private look during free reading time. I always find a few copies tucked away in desks weeks after I read it out loud. It speaks directly to the hearts of children.

For more Boston Globe–Horn Book love, click on the tag my favorite BGHB winner.

The post My favorite BGHB winner, reviewer edition appeared first on The Horn Book.

Q: Two books have won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Fiction Award, the National Book Award, and the Newbery Medal. Can you name them?

A: Virginia Hamilton’s M.C. Higgins, the Great (Macmillan) was the first book to win all three awards, receiving the Fiction Award in 1974 and both the National Book Award and the Newbery in 1975. Holes (Foster/Farrar) by Louis Sachar followed suit, winning the NBA in 1998 and the Fiction Award and the Newbery in 1999.

Q:  Five books (in addition to M.C. Higgins, the Great and Holes) have won both a BGHB Award and the Newbery Medal. What are the five double winners?

A: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Dutton; 1978 BGHB Fiction Award and 1979 Newbery)
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown; 1990 BGHB Fiction Award and 1991 Newbery)
A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers written by Nancy Willard, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen (1982 BGHB Picture Book Award and Newbery)
Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (Jackson/Orchard; 1992 BGHB Fiction Award and 1993 Newbery)
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Lamb/Random; 2010 BGHB Fiction Award and Newbery)

Q: Besides M.C. Higgins, the Great and Holes, which three BGHB–winning books also won a National Book Award?

A:
Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak (Harper; 1981 BGHB Picture Book Award and 1982 NBA)
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick; 2006 NBA and 2007 BGHB Fiction Award)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Ellen Forney (Little, Brown; 2007 NBA and 2008 BGHB Fiction Award)

Q: Three BGHB Picture Book Award winners also won the Caldecott Medal. What are they?

A:
Lon Po Po: A Little Red Riding Hood Story from China translated and illustrated by Ed Young (Philomel; 1990 BGHB Picture Book Award and Caldecott)
Grandfather’s Journey written and illustrated by Allen Say (Houghton, 1994 BGHB Picture Book Award and Caldecott)
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers written and illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein (Roaring Brook; 2004 BGHB Picture Book Award and Caldecott)

Q: Only one author has won three Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards. Who is it?

A: Virginia Hamilton won the Fiction Award twice: in 1974 for M.C. Higgins, the Great (Macmillan) and in 1983 for Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush (Philomel). She also won the 1988 Nonfiction Award for Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave (Knopf).

Q: Who is the youngest author to be honored by the Boston Globe–Horn Book committee?

A: Kate Lied wrote 1997 Nonfiction Honor Book Potato: A Tale of the Great Depression at age eight.

Q: What four picture books illustrated with photographs have received BGHB Awards?

A:
The Weaver’s Gift written by Kathryn Lasky, illustrated with photographs by Christopher G. Knight (Warne; 1981 Nonfiction Award)
1,2,3 written and illustrated with photographs by Tana Hoban (Greenwillow; 1985 Special Citation)
A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder written and illustrated with photographs by Walter Wick (Scholastic; 1997 Nonfiction Award)
Red-Eyed Tree Frog written by Joy Cowley, illustrated with photographs by Nic Bishop (Scholastic; 1999 Picture Book Award)

Q: What BGHB Award–winning book was originally published as an adult book?

A: The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child by Francisco Jiménez (University of New Mexico Press), which received the 1998 Fiction Award, was originally published for adults.

Q: What beloved author/illustrator won a BGHB Honor but never received a Caldecott?

A: Bernard Waber received a BGHB Picture Book Honor in 1971 for A Firefly Named Torchy (Houghton) but was never honored by the Caldecott committee.

The post BGHB trivia appeared first on The Horn Book.

Danielle J. Ford reviewed

The conversational text tells how Berger, a paleontologist, used Google Earth satellite images to discover a group of collapsed caves in the area of South Africa known as the Cradle of Humankind — an area previously rich in hominin fossils. Berger believed the Cradle to have been totally picked over by paleontologists; he had already explored the region himself for seventeen years, finding little. Now armed with new information, Berger, accompanied only by his postdoc assistant Job Kibii, his son Matthew, and his dog, began exploring the cave locations. It was Matthew who literally stumbled upon a fossil jawbone at one of these sites.

Berger’s excavation uncovered nearly an entire skeleton of a previously unknown hominin he named Australopithecus sediba. He found a second partial skeleton nearby. The two skeletons (a juvenile male now known as “Karabo” and an adult female), with a mixture of human and ape features, have given paleontologists a better understanding of the evolutionary steps between “Lucy” (Australopithecus afarensis) and our more immediate ancestor Homo erectus.

Berger’s concept of human evolution as a “braided stream”

In April, National Geographic released an interactive e-book edition of The Skull in the Rock, which adds few bells and whistles to the presentation of this information. What is added is high in value, enriching the content and enhancing the user’s understanding.

Here the “illustrative material” Danielle praises in her review of the print version (including “photographs of Berger; the research site from which the fossils were extracted; the fossils themselves, both in situ in the rocks and later reconstructed in skeletal form; and striking facial reconstructions of these ancient ancestors”) is expanded with additional zoom-able photos and maps. The design is a bit cleaner than the book’s, surrounding the clear photographs and sans-serif text with plenty of white space. A video introduction narrates animated Google Earth views of the Cradle, allowing users to see what Berger saw when he found the caves. Even more interesting is the reconstruction of Karabo’s skull, created with a composite of X-rays and presented with a 360-degree view.

Karabo’s digitally reconstructed skull

Tapping a highlighted word brings up its glossary entry, along with a link to the full glossary index and one to an online dictionary definition. As with many other e-books, users can also highlight or annotate the text as they read.

Those interested in learning more about sediba and the ongoing research on this hominin ancestor should visit www.scimania.org, the site maintained by Berger and Aronson to keep Skull in the Rock readers up to date on developments. I hope that the authors and National Geographic will integrate some of these breaking findings into the e-book’s bibliography in future updates.

Available for iPad; $9.99.

The post Review of The Skull in the Rock e-book appeared first on The Horn Book.

Katie:
One of my own fond childhood memories is listening to my dad read aloud with funny, nuanced voices for each character. Picture books and short chapter books with plenty of dialogue allow father and child alike to engage in this kind of reader’s theater. The kooky cast of Mo Willems’s Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, 2012) makes it a fantastic read-aloud — it was recently test-driven with great success by my own father for Read Across America Day. With their call-and-response format, Bob Shea’s energetic Dinosaur Vs. books published by Hyperion would also be good choices (although probably not right before bedtime!).

Kitty:
A Day with Dad by Bo Holmberg (illustrated by Eva Eriksson; Candlewick, 2008) celebrates a loving father-son bond while quietly acknowledging the difficulty of divorce. After saying good-bye to his mom, Tim and his dad spend the whole day together, and everywhere they go Tim proudly introduces his father around. The colored-pencil illustrations clearly show the relationships between characters and reinforce the notion that while the grownups might not love each other, they love their son very much. The satisfying story offers comfort to children (and their parents) in similar circumstances.

Siân:
One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo (illustrated by David Small; Dial, 2012), beautifully showcases a somewhat strange but obviously loving relationship between a father and a son. And it also really focuses on the old adage, “like father, like son,” through its lovely twist ending.

Elissa:
I’m partial to the Leslie Patricelli board books with the gender-neutral baby published by Candlewick: Yummy Yucky (2003), Potty (2010), Tubby (2010), The Birthday Box (2009). Also very popular in my house is Higher! Higher! (2009) Even though it’s a girl and her father, my little boy doesn’t mind.

Shara:
Every Friday (Holt, 2007) by Dan Yaccarino, a beautifully simple story about a weekly breakfast ritual shared between father and son, captures the importance of one-on-one time spent between parent and child, even amidst the everyday hustle and bustle of life in a city.

Jen:
I’d recommend Donald Hall’s Ox-Cart Man (illustrated by Barbara Cooney; Viking, 1979), because the father is the main character, but it’s also about a family working together from year to year.

Martha:
Love suffuses every page of First Pink Light, Eloise Greenfield’s classic picture book about a little boy named Tyree who is determined to stay up all night in order to surprise his father, who’s been away for a whole month. Can he persuade his mother to skip bedtime and let him stay in his tricky hiding place under a wooden chair until dawn (“first pink light”)? Once he’s been convinced to move to the big soft armchair, all decked out with pillows and blankets, can he stay awake long enough to “hear his daddy’s car door slam, and hear his daddy’s hard shoes on the steps, and hear his daddy’s key clicking in the door”? Well, no, but it doesn’t matter: the reunion between father and son is plenty poignant anyway. Greenfield gets everything right, from the family dynamics to young Tyree’s perspective and the intensity of his feelings. The book has been illustrated twice, first by Moneta Barnett (Crowell, 1976) in soft, intimate pencil sketches, and later by Jan Spivey Gilchrist (Black Butterfly, 1991) in full color; both editions have their charms.

Cindy:
An oldie but a goodie: In Tomi Ungerer’s The Mellops Go Diving for Treasure (Harper, 1957; republished by Phaidon, 2011), Mr. Mellops and his four sons go on a sea voyage that yields little profit but leaves five pig tummies hungry for Mrs. Mellops’s cream cake. It’s a humorous adventure story involving, among other things, a treasure map, a merpig, and sunken ships, and it is just long enough for any father and son to cozy up and spend some quality time reading together before embarking on a treasure hunt of their own. And if you can’t get enough of the quirky Mellops father-sons team, Ungerer wrote four other Mellops books: The Mellops Go Flying, The Mellops Strike Oil, Christmas Eve at the Mellops (all republished by Phaidon, 2011), and Mellops Go Spelunking (republished by Roberts Rinehart, 1998).

Reading about frazzled fathers can be funny for kids, so I would also recommend two relatively recent father-daughter picture books (and Caldecott Honor Books) that are entertaining to read aloud together: Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein (Papa is continually interrupted while trying to read bedtime stories) and Mo Willems’s Knuffle Bunny (one daddy’s frantic search for a beloved missing stuffed animal).

Roger:
My Father’s Arms Are a Boat by Stein Erik Lunde (illustrated by Øyvind Torseter and Kari Dickson; Enchanted Lion, 2013) is a really sad book about grieving, but the eerily beautiful collage illustrations and hushed intimacy of the text provide an unforgettable portrait of love between a father and son.

The post Picture book father-son reading recommendations appeared first on The Horn Book.

- more middle-grade family novels
- picture books
- folklore and fairy tales from around the world
- brand-new YA dystopian societies

You can read the issue online, but you’ll want to subscribe here to receive Notes from the Horn Book newsletter — and its supplement Nonfiction Notes — in your inbox. Browse the newsletter archives for more recommended books and author/illustrator interviews.

The post June’s Notes is here! appeared first on The Horn Book.

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 contenders.

At the end of the month, we posted Kathleen T. Horning’s review of Bear and Bee by Sergio Ruzzier. The art in this book looks so simple that it might not get a lot of Caldecott attention, but look closely and you’ll see that it’s spot-on for the audience.

Now we are finally caught up with our monthly Review of the Week round-up.

The post May picture book reviews of the week appeared first on The Horn Book.

Better to Wish

The post Review of Better to Wish appeared first on The Horn Book.

It seems everyone’s falling for Fiction Award winner Eleanor & Park! Katrina recently blogged about E&P, calling it a “late addition” to her article with Rachel Smith, “What Makes a Good YA Love Story?” (from the May/June 2013 Horn Book Magazine). For more YA romance recommendations, read Elissa’s “Love, exciting and new” piece from April’s Notes from the Horn Book.

Both BGHB Fiction Honor books this year are fantasy novels. Can’t get enough fantasy? Roger discusses the boom in fantasy books for children and young adults in “What Hath Harry Wrought?” (from our May/June 2012 issue), and our new booklist recommends titles across a wide range of ages.

Fans of Jaclyn Moriarty’s Honor book A Corner of White will want to track down her other work. In Honor book Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, protagonist Seraphina navigates the treacherous political territory between humans and dragons. Click here for more dragon-centric fantasy novels.

Find reviews of all of the winners and honors here.

The post BGHB fiction day appeared first on The Horn Book.

Dragon Castle
by Joseph Bruchac
Middle School     Dial     346 pp.
6/11     978-0-8037-3376-3     $16.99

Rashko, the younger — and only sensible — son of a goodhearted but dim king and queen, finds responsibility heavy on his shoulders when his parents are enchanted away to the Silver Lands just as their kingdom is threatened by the wicked Baron Temny, who seeks to marry his sorcerous daughter to Rashko’s goodhearted but dim brother Paulek. The Baron wants something that was bequeathed to the brothers by their ancestor Pavol, who defeated a dragon and initiated a long reign of peace. Meanwhile, alternating chapters tell Pavol’s own story: when his parents are murdered by the invading Dark Lord, Pavol prepares to avenge them under his disguise as Pavol the Foolish. The two narratives encourage parallels, helped along by a mysterious tapestry that shows Pavol’s life but also elements from Rashko’s; frequent hints in Rashko’s narration (unremarked on by Rashko himself ) suggest not only that the kingdom is less unprotected than he believes but also that his parents and brother are less feebleminded than he takes them for. While the reader assembles pieces of the puzzle over Rashko’s head, Rashko assembles the puzzle of what the Baron is after — and how to defeat the Baron while remaining true to his peace-loving ancestor Pavol. Gypsy proverbs and frequent interjections add a Slovak flavor to the mountain setting, while humor enlivens the tone — Pavol’s encounter with the dragon is a particularly amusing set piece. The plot coheres into one magnificent whole as the various strands combine for a triumphal finish. [Anita L. Burkam]

From the September/October 2011 Horn Book Magazine.

The Runaway Dragon
by Kate Coombs
Intermediate, Middle School     Farrar     293 pp.
9/09      978-0-374-36361-1     $16.99     g

Princess Meg of Greeve (The Runaway Princess, rev. 9/06) may have foiled her parents’ plot to marry her off, but she’s not out of  the woods yet. When her adopted dragon Laddy hits adolescence and runs away (busy with princess lessons, Meg hasn’t been visiting him very often), she embarks on a quest to find him — a proper one this time, with ten royal guardsmen to keep her from doing anything rash. Luckily, they are turned into squirrels shortly after the expedition enters an enchanted forest, and Meg (along with the loyal, mismatched compatriots introduced in the previous book) is free to outwit the giant who kidnaps her friends; save a long-haired princess (name of Spinach) from a tower; and challenge the petulantly evil sorceress Malison, who’s entrapped some very familiar bandits in her fortress. Coombs again takes a familiar setup — feisty princess, fractured-fairy-tale kingdom — and makes it fresh with droll humor, brisk plotting, and multidimensional characters. Even as the world they inhabit grows increasingly zany, the characters themselves are never satirized, which allows the narrative to function at two levels: the ironic send-up and the earnest hero tale. Combined, they make for a warm, witty story that will leave readers clamoring for the next installment. [Claire E. Gross]

From the September/October 2009 Horn Book Magazine.

The Last Dragonslayer [Chronicles of Kazam]
by Jasper Fforde
Middle School, High School     Harcourt     286 pp.
10/12     978-0-547-73847-5     $16.99     g

Foundling and indentured servant Jennifer Strange runs Kazam Mystical Arts Management in the absence of its founder, the Great Zambini, hiring out the agency’s sorcerers, carpeteers, and pre-cogs for practical jobs to keep the company afloat. Flying carpeteers deliver organs for transplants; sorcerers magically fix plumbing and electrical systems; and pre-cogs are useful in flower nurseries, predicting colors of blooms in ungerminated bulbs. The power of magic is at a low ebb, making even these  mundane spells difficult. Then a pre-cog has a premonition of the death of the Last Dragon, and Jennifer learns that she herself is the Last Dragonslayer. All her skills at negotiating product endorsements, bribes, and threats are put to the test — as is her ability to handle the much-vaunted Big Magic. Full of “wizidrical” and literary energy, Fforde’s fantasy is smart, funny, and abundantly imaginative in its critique of commercial culture. Jennifer is an endless, zesty font of wit and comic analogies; the brisk, businesslike rhythm of her account deepens the comedy and gives the story irresistible momentum. Reminiscent of Pratchett in tone, this is nevertheless Fforde’s own creature entirely —  and entirely satisfying. [Deirdre F. Baker]

From the September/October 2013 Horn Book Magazine.

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn
by Alison Goodman
Middle School     Viking     536 pp.
12/08     978-0-670-06227-0     $19.99

Eon is in a fierce competition to be selected as the apprentice to the Rat Dragon (one of twelve who guard the Empire) and is engaged in a dangerous deception. If anyone discovers that he is secretly a she, not only is her death assured, but so is that of her master and sponsor. Eon is least favored among the candidates — her crippled hip is considered ill fortune — but she needs to be chosen or face financial ruin, slavery, or worse. Goodman writes deliberately, fleshing out her Japanese- and Chinese-inspired fantasy world with textures and colors, superstitions and mythology, prejudices and taboos, but the narrative is so driven by the impending contest that the protracted setup doesn’t drag. Then, at the ceremony, a surprise, and Eon is plunged into the perilous world of court alliances and struggles surrounding the ailing Emperor. The usual girl-dressed-as-a-boy trope gets a weightier-than-usual treatment here, and readers intrigued by gender issues will find plenty of interest in a pair of supporting characters, a eunuch and a male-to-female transsexual. The setting is so richly evoked and the complications so well paced that readers will be drawn on steadily to the bloodbath coup at the climax — but the outcome of significant developments in this book will only be seen in the projected sequel. [Anita L. Burkam]

From the March/April 2009 Horn Book Magazine.

The Dragon of Trelian
by Michelle Knudsen
Intermediate    Candlewick     406 pp.
4/09     978-0-7636-3455-1     $16.99     g

After a chance encounter, Calen, the mage’s apprentice, is befriended by Princess Meglynne (“King Tormon’s third and least  patient royal daughter”). Neither one realizes that within weeks the fate of two kingdoms will rest in their hands. Meg’s older sister is pledged to marry the prince of the neighboring rival country, a union that should end years of bitter hatred, strife, and warfare. As the castle prepares for the momentous occasion, Meg herself becomes quite smitten by Wilem, a courtier from the rival kingdom, but her deepest secret — that she has found a dragon and has bonded with it — she shares with Calen alone. As the two work together to learn more about the dragon, they uncover Wilem’s betrayal, a plot to kill Meg’s sister that threatens to plunge the kingdoms back into war. Using their combined resources — his knowledge of magic and her mindlink with the dragon — they race to avert the impending disaster. The length of the story dilutes the pacing, but otherwise this strong debut novel should find a welcoming audience among Gail Carson Levine and Shannon Hale fans. Moreover, the villain’s ultimate escape opens the door for further adventures featuring this endearing duo. [Jonathan Hunt]

From the May/June 2009 Horn Book Magazine.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
by Grace Lin; illus. by the author
Intermediate     Little     282 pp.
6/09     978-0-316-11427-1     $16.99

Minli lives with her father, a storyteller and dreamer, and her disapproving mother in a poor village in the shadow of Fruitless Mountain. An encounter with a goldfish peddler prompts Minli to seek the Old Man of the Moon, who makes his home atop the forebodingly named Never-Ending Mountain, to ask him for help in changing her family’s fortunes. On her arduous journey, Minli is assisted by folklore creatures, including a talking fish who points her in the right direction and a dragon who becomes her closest compatriot. Other children, too, help on her quest; twins (collectively named Da-A-Fu) outsmart wicked Green Tiger, and Minli’s friendship with a buffalo boy prefigures her success. The story’s many elements are entwined, neatly symbolized by the intricately tangled red threads of destiny that, as Minli discovers, are overseen by the Old Man of the Moon. The book’s format reflects this interconnectedness: interspersed with the main text are folktales explaining past events or stories allowing characters to relate their experiences. Likewise, as Lin’s appended author’s note indicates, her own life story informs the work, as do her dozen cited sources. Lovely full-page illustrations in blues, reds, greens, and luminous golds as well as delicate chapter-openers, all influenced by traditional Chinese art, contribute to this original, folklore-inspired fantasy’s sense of timelessness. The book’s numerous typos are unfortunate. [Elissa Gershowitz]

From the September/October 2009 Horn Book Magazine.

Dragon Run
by Patrick Matthews
Middle School     Scholastic     328 pp.
3/13     978-0-545-45068-3     $16.99
e-book ed. 978-0-545-52073-7     $16.99

On Testing Day, when twelve-year-olds are summoned to the castle to earn the dragon-mandated rank that will determine the course of their future lives, Al Pilgrommor is given a shameful score: zero, even lower than those who score a one and are forbidden to own property or father children. On the run from the Cullers who want to kill him, Al finds help: from the mysterious society of Evans that help him escape; from his friends Wisp and Trillia, who abandon their own apprenticeships to go into hiding with him; and from the sword his parents left him — which he can use to defend himself if he can teach himself to do more than parry. Author Matthews lays down his cards at a deliberately teasing pace as readers slowly begin to see the bigger picture: dragons are harvesting magical energy from the ranked humans, giving the dragons nearly unlimited power and preventing most humans from putting it to their own use. The society of Evans has a plan to loosen the dragons’ stranglehold on humanity, and Al, who is unsusceptible to magic, could play a role in that plan — if he can only figure out what he’s supposed to do. Stories that shed light; colorful characters who help the young protagonists along; and a plot that keeps getting bigger and bigger propel this sleeper tale to a whiz-bang conclusion. [Anita L. Burkam]

From the September/October 2011 Horn Book Magazine.

The post Dragon-centric fantasy appeared first on The Horn Book.

 The Ghosts of Ashbury High
by Jaclyn Moriarty
High School     Levine/Scholastic     486 pp.
6/10     978-0-545-06972-4     $18.99     g

Moriarty has found a winning formula for her thoroughly enjoyable, deceptively simple Ashbury High novels: she takes a clever, sophisticated epistolary format, adds sparkling, effervescent wit, and applies them to a mash-up of literary genres. Here she puts her eclectic cast of characters through the paces of gothic fiction and ghost story. Emily and Lydia (from The Year of Secret Assignments, rev. 3/04) return to narrate their senior year; their accounts are balanced by Toby, who is infatuated with — or possessed by — an Irish convict deported to Australia long ago, and Riley, a former Brookfield student with a dark past. In her endearingly inquisitive way, Emily becomes obsessed with Amelia and Riley, the mysterious new couple; the potential reunion of Lydia and Seb (following a premature break-up); and the ghost that has been haunting the music rooms. As Moriarty’s inspired silliness begins to yield up the novel’s mysteries, it becomes clear that there is some kind of relationship between the contemporary romances and the historical ones. There’s a lot of plot to untangle here, but The Ghosts of Ashbury High should satisfy diehard fans and bring new ones into the fold. [Jonathan Hunt]

From the July/August 2010 Horn Book Magazine.

The Spell Book of Listen Taylor
by Jaclyn Moriarty
High School     Levine/Scholastic     479 pp.
9/07     978-0-439-84678-3     $16.99     g

Moriarty (The Year of Secret Assignments, rev. 3/04; The Life Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, rev. 1/07) returns with another madly convoluted, over-the-top comedy-drama-mystery told from multiple points of view. Twelve-year-old Listen Taylor is too ashamed to tell her father and his new girlfriend, Marbie, that her friends have dropped her; her other secret is that she’s found a book of spells. Marbie Zing loves and adores Listen’s father, but finds herself inexplicably having an affair. Marbie’s sister Fancy is certain her husband, whom she despises, is having an affair. Fancy’s daughter’s teacher, Cath Murphy, begins an affair with another teacher. Each character has a secret, but the biggest secret of all is the one surrounding the Zing Family Secret Meetings, held every Friday night in Grandpa and Grandma Zing’s garden shed. While trying to figure out what the Zings are up to, readers will also be keeping close track of Listen’s spells and their repercussions. The novel demands careful reading (and even flipping back and re-reading) but amply rewards it. Moriarty’s book (a revised version of an adult novel) is like Listen’s spell book: each requires a leap of faith, but each also possesses an intriguing mystery and an authoritative, immensely witty voice; and in both, the end result is magically uplifting. [Jennifer M. Brabander]

From the September/October 2007 Horn Book Magazine.

The Life [Murder] of Bindy Mackenzie
by Jaclyn Moriarty
Middle School, High School     Levine/Scholastic     494 pp.
10/06     0-439-74051-7    $16.99

This companion to Feeling Sorry for Celia and The Year of Secret Assignments (rev. 3/04) is set in the same Australian high school and focuses on yet another of its students. Fans may remember Bindy Mackenzie as the fast typist who transcribed the school hearing in Secret Assignments; the top student whose eccentricities have left her with few friends. As in that book, the story here is told entirely through diaries, memos, e-mail, and letters. Bindy’s voice, both written and spoken, is old-fashioned and melodramatic — and very funny. Well-meaning and sincere, Bindy is hopelessly clueless about how pompous she sounds and how many enemies she’s made. Eventually it becomes clear that Bindy is in deep trouble: her habit of listening in on and transcribing people’s conversations has apparently angered someone, enough to make her an attempted murder victim. While completely over-the-top, the murder mystery will have readers going back to hunt for clues they missed. Fans of the first two books will be eager to visit Ashbury High and its intrigues again, and to find out just what makes brainy Bindy tick. [Jennifer M. Brabander]

From the January/February 2007 Horn Book Magazine.

The Year of Secret Assignments
by Jaclyn Moriarty
High School     Levine/Scholastic     344 pp.
2/04     0-439-49881-3     $16.95     g

From the author of Feeling Sorry for Celia comes a second comic novel about gal pals — and pen pals — set in the same Australian high school and focusing once again on the Famous Ashbury-Brookfield Pen Pal Project. The novel follows private school students Lydia, Emily, and Cassie as they are assigned to write letters to students at Brookfield High, despite Emily’s complaint to their English teacher that “it’s probably against our constitutional rights to make us associate with drug dealers and murderers.” The three girls have been friends 4-ever, but things haven’t been the same between them since Cassie’s father died a year ago, and Cassie gets even weirder once they begin writing to their pen pals, all boys. The novel — written entirely in letters, diary entries, e-mails, etc. — is fast and funny but not frothy. Moriarty’s story is complex, original, and unpredictable enough that it’s much more than a guilty-pleasure read. The format, along with the humor and romance, will draw Louise Rennison fans — and give them just as much flash, with a whole lot more substance. [Jennifer M. Brabander]

From the March/April 2004 Horn Book Magazine.

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