by James Cross Giblin There are now in Europe about ten thousand public and private vehicles that are self-moving. They are usually called “automobiles.”. . . It is thought that there are now about three hundred such vehicles in this country. The automobile is the coming vehicle. We shall see it in all our cities [...]
Danger! Dialogue Ahead
April 23, 2013 By 1 Comment
When writing nonfiction, including dialogue can be a dangerous proposition. Several years ago, I asked an author about the snappy dialogue in his nonfiction picture book about a poet. He said the words were a combination of excerpts from the poet’s autobiography and some things the author “rather assumed.” The book, he continued, got “whacked [...]
Narrative Nonfiction: Kicking Ass at Last
April 23, 2013 By 4 Comments
Between songs, Arlo Guthrie likes to strum his guitar and tell a story he learned from his father, Woody Guthrie. It goes like this: Two rabbits, a mama and a papa, are running full speed from a pack of baying hounds. Spotting a hollow log, the rabbits rush in and are immediately surrounded by the [...]
Review of Deadly!: The Truth About the Most Dangerous Creatures on Earth
April 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Deadly!: The Truth About the Most Dangerous Creatures on Earth by Nicola Davies; illus. by Neal Layton Primary, Intermediate Candlewick 64 pp. 3/13 978-0-7636-6231-8 $14.99 Readers with a taste for the grisly realism of nature will revel in the latest Davies and Layton collaboration, featuring the ways in which animals cause lasting harm or death [...]
Weevils and worms and snakes, oh my!
April 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment
The truth is often stranger than fiction when it comes to animal behavior. Four recent nonfiction books introduce young readers to marvels of the animal world. Nic Bishop returns with his always-amazing photographs in Nic Bishop Snakes. The text describes snake behavior, physiology, and eating habits. Seemingly impossible-to-get shots of the sinuous, scaly animals feature [...]
Review of Miss Moore Thought Otherwise
March 27, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Miss Moore Thought Otherwise: How Anne Carroll Moore Created Libraries for Children by Jan Pinborough; illus. by Debby Atwell Primary Houghton 40 pp. 3/13 978-0-547-47105-1 $16.99 Nowadays, Anne Carroll Moore is remembered as the fiercest of the library ladies whose influence on children’s library service and publishing was both inspirational and — sometimes — intractable. [...]
Review of Courage Has No Color, the True Story of the Triple Nickles
February 27, 2013 By 2 Comments
Courage Has No Color, the True Story of the Triple Nickles: America’s First Black Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone Middle School, High School Candlewick 148 pp. 1/13 978-0-7636-5117-6 $24.99 e-book ed. 978-0-7636-6405-3 $24.99 “How does one survive and outlast the racism that was our daily fare at that time?” asks artist Ashley Bryan in the [...]
How to publish for the CCSS
February 13, 2013 By 7 Comments
Ha ha, not really. I hope everybody is getting some use out of our latest newsletter, Nonfiction Notes from the Horn Book. I’ve been thinking about NF a lot since ALA, where I spent two solid days talking to publishers about what they were planning for the coming year(s). Along with inflicting upon the world [...]
Review of Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America
February 6, 2013 By 1 Comment
Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America by Andrea Davis Pinkney; illus. by Brian Pinkney Intermediate, Middle School Disney-Jump at the Sun 243 pp. 10/12 978-1-4231-4257-7 $19.99 Presenting ten biographical vignettes in chronological order — Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, A. Philip Randolph, Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Malcolm X, [...]
