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, [...]
Review of My First Day
January 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment
My First Day by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page; illus. by Steve Jenkins Preschool, Primary Houghton 32 pp. 1/13 978-0-547-73851-2 $16.99 “What did you do on your first day — the day you were born? Probably not much” begins this book about baby animals’ first hours of life. Jenkins and Page’s simple text effectively highlights [...]
Will this be on the test?
January 9, 2013 By 1 Comment
I’d like to have been at this NYPL panel on nonfiction put together by Betsy Bird. The four panelists are among the best of our nonfiction writers, and I would have loved to ask them how their job prospects were looking under the Common Core State Standards. With the CCSS (have we agreed this is [...]
Island: A Story of the Galápagos
January 7, 2013 By 3 Comments
So, enough people have mentioned Island: A Story of the Galápagos that I thought I would do a little exercise with you. Many people wonder how the real committee members look at all the books they have to consider. I have no idea how others deal with this, but I have a little procedure. First, I just [...]
Review of One Times Square
January 2, 2013 By Leave a Comment
One Times Square: A Century of Change at the Crossroads of the World by Joe McKendry; illus. by the author Intermediate Godine 64 pp. 9/12 978-1-56792-364-3 $19.95 You are there at the birth, the decay, and the revival of Times Square, the “crossroads of the world” for a century. McKendry (Beneath the Streets of Boston, [...]
Review of Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey
December 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Spirit Seeker: John Coltrane’s Musical Journey by Gary Golio; illus. by Rudy Gutierrez Intermediate, Middle School Clarion 48 pp. 10/12 978-0-547-23994-1 $17.99 There have been other picture books about gifted jazz musician and composer John Coltrane that have focused on his music or his childhood, but this one dares to take on the complexity of [...]
Review of Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
November 7, 2012 By 2 Comments
Electric Ben: The Amazing Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by Robert Byrd; illus. by the author Intermediate Dial 40 pp. 9/12 978-0-8037-3749-5 $17.99 With a jacket showing Benjamin Franklin as a cross between a mad scientist and a superhero standing amid wild lightning bolts and surrounded by all manner of electrical devices, this book [...]
Review of Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad
October 23, 2012 By 1 Comment
Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole; illus. by the author Primary Scholastic 40 pp. 11/12 978-0-545-39997-5 $16.99 This wordless picture book opens with a calm scene: a quilt hangs over a rural split-rail fence. A young girl enters the scene on the next double-page spread, leading a cow and watching a [...]
Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle
October 8, 2012 By 5 Comments
Some of you who were here last year already know my deep love of Claire Nivola’s work. This year, instead of personal memoir, Nivola returns to nonfiction, a biography of oceanographer Silvia Earle. I heard an NPR interview with Earle the very day I received a copy of this fascinating book. Let’s take a swim [...]
