| From
the January/February 2003 issue of The Horn Book Magazine
Editorial
Ears Wide Open
n polling our reviewers and making our selections for this year’s
Fanfare list (which, annotated for the first time, appears here),
it occurred to us that no one seemed entirely sure what Fanfare
meant, exactly. Here’s a shot at a definition.
In every issue of the Horn Book, we bring
to your attention those books we think deserve it. Some of those
books — the ones that are exceptional in their genre, or in
the publishing season, or in an author or illustrator’s body
of work — are singled out for stars. Our annual Fanfare list
is a further winnowing; it also gives us a chance to rethink a previous
evaluation — some stars brighten, some grow dim, some we see
for the first time. Most important, while Fanfare’s purview
is retrospective, its outlook is to the future: we sound the fanfare
for those books that we believe stand out beyond their genre, or
publication date, or provenance, and that we believe will and should
continue to flourish in the years to come.
The very first Horn Book Fanfare, published
in the March 1939 issue, included such robust survivors as Andy
and the Lion, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins,
Mr. Popper’s Penguins, and The Hobbit. It
also listed titles that, for better or worse, have long since ceased
to be read, let alone celebrated. Choosing the year’s best
books is a subjective business; seeing into the future is an imperfect
one — every Fanfare list is bound to hit, if not some wrong
notes, then at least some ephemeral ones. It really doesn’t
matter. In What Charlie Heard, a Fanfare selection this
year, Mordicai Gerstein describes Charles Ives as being born with
his “ears wide open” to all noise, including the “glorious
noise” of music. The important thing for us, as we choose
the best books to herald each year, is to keep our ears wide open
for the most glorious noises we hear.
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