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Newcomers
The Horn Book is always on the watch
for talented newcomers to the children’s literature scene.
This page highlights exceptional work by the latest crop of novice
authors and artists. All these books were reviewed in The Horn
Book Magazine during the last year.
Becky
Baines Your Skin Holds You In
National Geographic
(Preschool, Primary)
Reviewed 9/08
Here’s science for the very young about a topic that always
catches their interest: themselves. Thirteen short sentences describe
skin (“Skin can come in different colors”) in all its
glory. Additional facts appear in smaller print (“Skin color
comes from a pigment called melanin. The more melanin you have,
the darker your skin”) on the same pages with the main idea
sentences. Photographs of people, outlined in white and reproduced
on brightly colored pages, serve as diagrams for important elements.
For example, one sentence states that skin grows and stretches.
A photograph of a pregnant woman, with an arrow pointing to her
very round belly, shows where the baby resides. Adult readers may
have to clarify a few oversimplifications (such as what and where
pores are), but exuberant double-page spreads encourage looking
and talking. A concluding spread lists questions, ideas, and experiments
such as “Does a feather feel the same on your nose as on your
elbow?” spurring youngsters to think about the ideas and concepts
mentioned and beginning the process of scientific inquiry.
B.C.
Ellen
Booraem The Unnameables
Harcourt
(Intermediate, Middle School)
Reviewed 1/09
In this quirky, gentle fable sure to have wide appeal, Booraem depicts
a repressive, orderly Island society to which thirteen-year-old
Medford Runyuin, a shipwrecked orphan, has had to adapt despite
the many ways in which he doesn't belong. His meaningless name sets
him apart from a community of people named for their trades; even
more troubling and isolating is his urge to "waste time"
by carving playful sculptures instead of the Useful bowls and spoons
he should be producing. The Island culture values Usefulness only,
and self-expression and the making of art are an abomination. Then
the Goatman shows up, a smelly Pan-like figure who explodes Medford's
careful secrecy and, with it, the Island society's self-understanding.
Booraem's Goatman is an endearing, anarchic figure, a gust of creative
wildness in a controlled, Puritan-esque community that distances
itself from the modern, gas- and electric-powered Mainland. An optimistic
story about the importance of art (and its marketability), this
also plays lightly with questions of language and naming; friendship
and integrity, too, are notable themes. The novel's humor and amiable
tone make it a highly accessible but thought-provoking read. DEIRDRE
F. BAKER
Kristin
Cashore Graceling
Harcourt
(High School)
Reviewed 11/08
Lady Katsa of the Middluns, the most central of the Seven Kingdoms,
was born with a terrifying Grace (the Seven Kingdoms term for the
hyper-developed talents that occasionally surface in their populations).
Katsa's seems to be for killing, and her thuggish uncle, the king,
makes her his brute squad. She rebels by forming the Council, a
sort of social justice league, and it is through this affiliation
that she is drawn into a mystery involving the kidnapping of an
elderly cross-kingdom prince, the secret Grace of the king of nearby
Monsea, and the kidnapped royal's wicked cute, super-sensitive grandson
Po — also, like Katsa, a Graceling. Katsa's assertion of her
independence, and her harnessing of her Grace as subservient to
her humanity, form the philosophical skeleton of the narrative,
but for the most part this is a straightforward journey-adventure
with a hearty dose of too-good-to-be-true romance. Creepy villains
aside, Graceling is light fare, anchored in Katsa and Po's
fairly simple relationship; with a butt-kicking but emotionally
vulnerable heroine, it should appeal to fans of recent girl-power
urban fantasies as well as readers who've graduated from Tamora
Pierce's Tortall series. CLAIRE E. GROSS
Laura
Espinosa Otis and Rae and the Grumbling Splunk;
illus. by Leo Espinosa
Houghton
(Primary)
Reviewed 5/08
Otis and Rae, jolly friends out for their first camping trip, work
through their fears with good humor, spunk, and the magic of PB&B
(for banana) sandwiches. In their first picture book, the Espinosas
bring graphic innovation to the familiar best-friend story. With
elements of comic strips, a retro color scheme, and a winning sense
of humor, they tell a story that will draw in new readers and listeners
alike. Otis (decked out in blue) and Rae (in rose) bravely face
the wilderness together. Well, Rae does the bravery part —
Otis is a bit short in the guts department. He is afraid of wild
animals, scary stories by the fire, and even the sounds of crickets
in the night. But, when it really counts, Otis has the brains to
get out of a tough situation. The (seemingly hairless) pals wear
stylish hats with expressive ears that flatten and move like antennae.
Their eyes communicate every emotion, changing from tiny dots to
terrified circles in response to the shadowy figures that pop out
of the darkness. Each spread is filled with action and enough detail
to entertain viewers for many return visits. R.L.S.
Richard
Farr Emperors of the Ice: A True Story of Disaster
and Survival in the Antarctic, 1910-13
Farrar
(Middle School)
Reviewed 11/08
For anyone who doubts that the line between fiction and nonfiction
has blurred practically beyond recognition, take a look at this:
the story of Scott's tragic South Pole quest retold as a first-person
memoir by one of the expedition members, Apsley Cherry-Garrard.
Farr protests in the preface that this is not fiction, and everything
about the book asserts itself as nonfiction — plentiful archival
photographs in a familiar photobiography format; extensive backmatter,
including a chronology and an impressive bibliography; interspersed
maps and manifests; even that "true story" in the subtitle.
However, although based on "Cherry's" own memoir The
Worst Journey in the World, Farr's narrative is not an adaptation
but a complete revisioning — "what [Cherry] would
have written had he been able to...absorb the arguments that have
continued to rage over the expedition to this day and consider all
evidence...from the viewpoint of our own time." Cataloging
issues aside, it's an enthralling tale, told with marked immediacy,
verve, and force of personality. "Imagine dragging a sledge
from Paris to Rome and back. But with higher mountains in the middle,
and fewer hotels." And, following the calamitous loss of a
tent on a high-risk scientific side-expedition: "Yes, we replied,
yes we're all right, which was true in the narrow sense that we
were not actually dead." Farr's/Cherry's story rivals that
of Shackle-ton for sheer suspense, details of Antarctic conditions,
and vicariously lived adventure; it is also a rewardingly intimate
view of the members of the doomed Polar Party, most notably Bill
Wilson, "Birdie" Bowers, Titus Oates, and the infamous
Captain Scott himself. M.V.P.
Kazuno
Kohara Ghosts in the House!; illus. by the author
Roaring Brook
(Preschool, Primary)
Reviewed 9/08
This picture book gets back to basics with three-color illustrations,
a simple text, and old-fashioned charm that isn’t at all dated.
Kohara’s child-friendly pictures help set the tone. Attention-holding,
uncomplicated compositions feature clean jack-o’-lantern-like
shapes in warm black, pumpkin orange, and translucent white (for
the ghosts, natch). The story is just as straightforward. A girl
and her cat move into an old house and discover it’s haunted.
Luckily, “the girl wasn’t just a girl. She was a witch!”
Better yet, “she knew how to catch ghosts.” Donning
her black pointy hat, the witch girl and her cat familiar (wearing
a black-cat suit) hop on her magic broom and start ghost wrangling
— which, frankly, looks like a lot of fun. The ghosts seem
as happy to be caught as not; the mostly smiling characters make
clear that no one is really scared. After she’s caught the
ghosts — and washed and dried them — the resourceful
girl repurposes her charges around the house. Her still-smiling
curtains, grinning tablecloth, and, of course, peacefully sleeping
bed sheets are the perfect ending to a happy Halloween story.
K.F.

Meg
Medina Milagros: Girl from Away
Ottaviano/Holt
(Middle School)
Reviewed 9/08
Twelve-year-old Milagros lives with her mother on the island of
Las Brisas, an idyllic community in the Caribbean. But after Milagros
finds a message in a bottle warning that “Happiness and jealousy
are bad cousins,” outside evil creeps in. Las Brisas erupts
in violence as the neighboring Rubians attack and murder nearly
everyone on the island. Milagros escapes and, guided by the stingrays
beloved to her mother, encounters her long-lost father’s pirate
ship. Father and daughter share stubbornness and pride, and Milagros
refuses his help. Miraculously, her dinghy carries her to an island
off the coast of Maine. Woven into the story of Milagros’s
new life as an outsider in present-day Maine are concurrent chapters
set aboard her father’s ship. Not all is what it had appeared;
he’s not a fearsome pirate but a lowly deckhand, and her mother,
rescued from the island massacre, is now a servant. Medina’s
use of magical realism keeps readers tantalizingly off-balance as
she navigates among settings. Her language, too, is as changeable
as the sea, sometimes lulling readers with gentle alliteration and
flowing metaphor, other times jolting them with menacing foreshadowing
and sharp dialogue. Milagros is a survivor, and though her strange,
haunting tale ends on a hopeful note, a melancholic echo of all
that she endured will remain with readers. ELISSA
GERSHOWITZ

Sally
Nicholls Ways to Live Forever
Levine/Scholastic
(Intermediate)
Reviewed 1/09
Sam is eleven, and he is dying of leukemia. In this journal record
of the final four months of Sam's life, Nicholls creates a character
and a world that are authentic, buoyant, honest, and stripped of
sentimentality. The story is structured around Sam's eight goals,
from breaking a world record to going up a down escalator, from
being a teenager (smoking, drinking, having a girlfriend) to seeing
the earth from space. In varied, plausible ways he accomplishes
all his goals, and with each one he grows as a person. The world
record involves his friend Felix and their construction of the world's
smallest nightclub, a classic vignette of a middle-grade project
gone awry. Sam's achievement of a girlfriend (a relationship that
lasts as long as a single kiss) reveals the further quirky kindness
of Felix. The texture of the narrative, with lists, clippings, footnotes,
and doodles, allows for quick shifts in tone. In all the events
recorded by Sam we see his degenerating physical condition without
Nicholls ever once explicitly alluding to it. The overarching story
is the hard-won rebuilding of Sam's relationship with his father,
a man who simply denies the tragedy of Sam's illness. Most original
of all is Nicholls's handling of the religious questions that Sam
faces. Nobody provides him with easy or doctrinaire answers, but
in his passionate exploration of spiritual issues he reveals himself
to be fully alive until the moment of his death, engaged with the
world, trying to make sense of it, being and becoming a unique,
thinking, questing human. The energy and joy of this novel is a
remarkable feat.S.E.

Sarah
Prineas The Magic Thief; illus. by Antonio Javier
Caparo
HarperCollins
(Intermediate)
Reviewed 9/08
Precocious Conn becomes a wizard’s apprentice when he pickpockets
a locus magicalicus stone off of “bent, bearded, cloak-wearing
old croakety croak” Nevery Flinglas and, to the wizard’s
astonishment, isn’t killed. Despite Conn’s mysterious
affinity for magic, one thing stands in the way of his new status
— he doesn’t possess a locus magicalicus of his own.
Searching through the neighborhoods of Sunrise (affluent) and Twilight
(a slum), Conn picks up information useful to his new master, who’s
trying to stem the catastrophic loss of magic from the city of Wellmet.
An amiable tale akin to that of another well-known boy wizard, The
Magic Thief sports a large font and generous leading; young readers
will also find the familiar character types and straightforward
plotting easy to grasp, while the evolving conflicts and distinctive
setting draw them on. ANITA L. BURKAM

Robert
Paul Weston Zorgamazoo; illus. by the author
Razorbill/Penguin
(Intermediate)
Reviewed 11/08
Katrina Katrell believes in "creatures of many remarkable shapes,"
such as ogres and hippogriffs, despite the chagrin of her guardian,
Mrs. Krabone. Morty Yorgle believes in such creatures because he
is one (specifically, a zorgle), and it's up to him to find the
missing zorgles of Zorgamazoo. Luckily, scaredy-zorgle Morty meets
the adventurous Katrina, who's on the run from Mrs. Krabone's plans
to have the whimsy lobotomized out of her. In rhymed anapestic tetrameter
— 171 pages of it! — Weston brings readers to planet
Graybalon-4 and back, showing them the dull gray horror of Tedium
Steam and the joy of its colorful opposite, Enchantium Gas. Though
written in a form virtually unseen since the days of epic poetry,
Zorgamazoo does not rely on its gimmick: Weston tells a
well-constructed story with fully realized characters and plenty
of humor. Still, the form stands out. The rhyme is almost flawless,
the meter less so, but some lines are gems: "The phoenixes
then set their bodies ablaze, / and took to the sky like a flock
of flambes." Fancifully frightening spot illustrations
and typographical trickery create an inviting visual package. Zorgamazoo
will have readers thinking in rhythm long after they have come to
"the finish / the curtain, / The End." SHOSHANA
FLAX

Martin
Wilson What They Always Tell Us
Delacorte
(High School)
Reviewed 9/08
Brothers James and Alex, a high school senior and junior, respectively,
live in Tuscaloosa, where reputations are “so damn important”
and “people’s secrets are like well-guarded jewels.”
Alternating chapters in a third-person voice that reflects the boys’
distance from their surroundings, James and Alex reveal their well-guarded
secrets. James disassociates from friends and acquaintances, hoping
only to get out of town, preferably to Duke University. Alex, who
swallowed a bottle of Pine Sol at a party several months ago, also
feels out of place with a discontent he can’t quite understand.
The catalyst that brings the two together is James’s friend
Nathen, who sees Alex’s potential as a runner and encourages
him in sports. Alex and Nathen become friends and then boyfriends
in a tender exploration of first love: the initial feelings of joint
euphoria, the not-quite-accidental touches, the secret glances,
and the beginnings of an affectionate sexual relationship. A subplot
involving a neighbor boy resolves too quickly, but the concepts
tied to both boys’ social suffocation develop at an unhurried
pace as the two brothers take their first steps toward adulthood.B.C.

Hyewon
Yum, illustrator Last Night
Foster/Farrar
(Preschool)
Reviewed 1/09
Whether this wordless book was meant as an intentional homage to
Where the Wild Things Are or is just displaying Sendak's
pervasive influence, the treatment is wholly original. A girl is
given a time out, presumably because she will not eat her dinner.
In her room, she fumes alone and then reaches for the comfort of
her stuffed bear. Either in a dream or reality, the small bear becomes
life-sized and animated, leading her into the woods where they meet
and play with wild animals. Over several spreads, the girl becomes
increasingly sleepy until she and the bear fall asleep. Waking up
in her own bed, she sees that her bear is back to his original size.
The final spread shows the girl descending the stairs to her mother
and a big hug. Yum's linocut illustrations with their foggily stippled
blocks of color are appropriate for the open-ended mystery, while
her palette hints at the mood of each illustration. Faces are revealed
with the simplest curved lines but never fail to indicate a precise
mood. The technique used, employing several blocks of different
color combinations for each illustration, requires much planning
and time-consuming execution, yet the result looks spontaneous and
intimate. LOLLY ROBINSON
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