Publications about books for children and young adults
In May’s Notes from the Horn Book, I chat with Emily Jenkins (yay!) about her new picture book Water in the Park, people-watching, and quirky pet names. Also in this issue: – more picture books about outdoor play – biographies of sports heroes – heroines of historical fiction – YA adventure stories on audio Subscribers to [...]
Many of the books in this issue of Notes implicitly enjoin us to look up from the page and head out into nature (or, as my mother would say, “put down that book and go out and play!”). As I write this, we’re just coming off of Screen-Free Week, an annual effort in which young [...]
Fill those earbuds with great adventure books, from a WWII spy thriller to sci-fi dystopias. These four audiobooks will keep teens on the edge of their seats. Elizabeth Wein’s Code Name Verity was among the best of last year’s young adult fiction, and this audio version does it justice. Here is the intimate story of [...]
Baseball and basketball, auto racing and boat-jumping. The following picture book biographies of historical sports stars will inspire youngsters to pick up a bat, go for the dunk, or just zoom around for a while. Is there a bigger baseball fan in the children’s book world than Matt Tavares? His sixth title on the sport, [...]
The first book about the feisty Penderwick sisters, The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, won the National Book Award in 2005. Since then, the family has expanded in soul-satisfying ways — as has fans’ love for the series. The third volume, The Penderwicks at Point Mouette, [...]
Strong-willed, memorable female protagonists are the stars of these historical novels for middle-grade and middle-school readers. A small gold-mining town in Alaska; early-twentieth-century San Francisco; 1870s rural Wisconsin; and Reconstruction Louisiana provide the backdrops for their entertaining adventures. Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes is the story of a spirited ten-year-old African American girl who works [...]
Three new picture books for young children feature the great outdoors as the setting for small, familiar dramas. On the nonfiction side, a new photo-essay celebrates a school garden as an outdoor classroom and gathering place for the school community. In David Martin’s Peep and Ducky, two bird pals meet in the park for an [...]
April is National Poetry Month! In this month’s Notes of the Horn Book, Roger chats with poet Marilyn Singer on the reverso (her original verse form) and her latest poetry collection Follow Follow. Here’s what else you’ll find in this issue: – more poetry picture books – primary and intermediate animal nonfiction – middle-grade fantasy [...]
Spring is here, and love is in the air (be sure to catch What Makes a Good YA Love Story? by Katrina Hedeen and Rachel L. Smith in the upcoming May/June 2013 issue of the Horn Book Magazine). Here are four more books that will make teens contemplate love in all its forms. The main [...]
On April 25th, the Horn Book, along with our partners Reach Out and Read and the Cambridge Public Library, is presenting “Fostering Lifelong Learners: Prescribing Books for Early Childhood Education,” a free one-day conference for professionals in ECE (librarians, teachers, daycare providers). The day will begin with a keynote speech by Dr. Robert Needlman, a [...]
