Picture books about the great outdoors
Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff, Simon/Beach Lane, 2–5 years.
10 Hungry Rabbits: Counting & Color Concepts by Anita Lobel, Knopf, 3–6 years.
Blue Sky by Audrey Wood, Scholastic/Blue Sky, 4–8 years.
A Stick Is an Excellent Thing: Poems Celebrating Outdoor Play written by Marilyn Singer, illus. by LeUyen Pham, Clarion, 5–8 years.

Middle-grade humor
Mr. and Mrs. Bunny—Detectives Extraordinaire! written by Polly Horvath, illus. by Sophie Blackall, Random/Schwartz & Wade, 9–12 years.
Cold Cereal by Adam Rex, HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, 9–12 years.
I Don’t Believe It, Archie! written by Andrew Norriss, illus. by Hannah Shaw, Random/Fickling, 8–11 years.

Turn of the (last) century
Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917 by Sally M. Walker, Holt, 12 years and up.
Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson, Scholastic, 12 years and up.
The Fairy Ring: Or, Elsie and Frances Fool the World by Mary Losure, Candlewick, 10 years and up.

Story time for big kids
A Monster Calls written by Patrick Ness, read by Jason Isaacs, Candlewick/Brilliance Audio, 12 years and up.
Okay for Now written by Gary D. Schmidt, read by Lincoln Hoppe, Listening Library, 12 years and up.
Bluefish written by Pat Schmatz, read by Luke Daniels, Candlewick/Brilliance Audio, 12 years and up.
The Scorpio Races written by Maggie Stiefvater, read by Steve West and Fiona Hardingham, Scholastic Audio, 13–16 years.

The post Books mentioned in the March 2012 issue of Notes from the Horn Book appeared first on The Horn Book.

Roger Sutton
Editor in Chief

The post From the Editor – March 2012 appeared first on The Horn Book.

In Patrick Ness’s haunting tale of pain and redemption, A Monster Calls, thirteen-year-old Conor O’Malley faces the death of his mother from cancer. Reader Jason Isaacs effortlessly shifts from Conor, his peers, and the adults in his life to the sonorous Monster, whose midnight visits compel Conor to confront his feelings. An author interview plus a bonus disc featuring illustrations from the book and accompanying audio excerpts are included. (12 years and up)

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt follows Doug Swieteck (from The Wednesday Wars) and his family to boring old Marysville, New York, in 1968. With the help of some new friends, Doug’s rough-and-tumble life begins to turn around after he discovers his artistic side, courtesy of a collection of John Audubon bird prints. In this 2012 Odyssey Award honor book, narrator Lincoln Hoppe effectively channels Doug’s ready-to-fight persona along with his more unguarded moments. (12 years and up)

Travis Roberts and Vida “Velveeta” Wojciehowski, two lonely eighth graders, gradually form a friendship in Pat Schmatz’s Bluefish. Luke Daniels performs the text, and his voicing of each character is admirably distinct. Reticent protagonist Travis speaks slowly and quietly; sassy Velveeta is intensely vulnerable. At the end of each chapter, Kate Rudd endearingly performs Velveeta’s letters. This audio edition ably interprets the protagonists’ quiet but profound evolution. (12 years and up)

Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races tells of the titular contest featuring man-eating fairy water horses. A girl has signed on to race for the first time, and she catches the attention of four-time winner Sean Kendrick. Chapters trade off between Kate “Puck” Connolly and Sean, with Steve West and Fiona Hardingham reading their respective first-person narratives. West employs a measured voice for the reserved Sean; Hardingham does a good job of conveying Puck’s fiery and introspective character. Listeners to this 2012 Odyssey Award honor book will be swept along for the entire ride. (13–16 years)

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In Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917, Sally M. Walker sets the stage with a brief history of Halifax, Nova Scotia; a summary of World War I; an introduction to the two fated ships; and an agonizingly suspenseful account of the collision that resulted in one of history’s largest human-caused explosions. Through the eyes of five local families, we experience the disaster, its aftermath, relief efforts, and finally, the rebuilding of a community. Black-and-white photographs and maps further enliven Walker’s consummate storytelling. (12 years and up)

Without overdramatizing, Deborah Hopkinson objectively chronicles a well-known tragedy in Titanic: Voices from the Disaster. The “characters,” real survivors whose voices relay the events, include crew members as well as first, second, and third class passengers; their contrasts are shown but also their night’s-end bond. Admirably restrained coverage includes details like the foreshadowing of iceberg reports, the boarding of (too few) lifeboats, and the agony of the freezing water. Extensive back matter offers more information for further research. (12 years and up)

Mary Losure’s The Fairy Ring: Or, Elsie and Frances Fool the World addresses our timeless fascination with the supernatural through the story of Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright’s staged photographs, which  many viewers believed proved the existence of fairies. In an engaging account focusing sympathetically on the young photographers, readers are given a sense of their personalities, life in WWI England, and events that may have provoked their trick — as well as evidence that hints it wasn’t all made up. This meticulously researched volume includes reproductions of the photos themselves, fine source notes, and a bibliography. (10 years and up)

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In Mr. and Mrs. Bunny — Detectives Extraordinaire!, Madeline, in the manner of many previous Polly Horvath heroines, has lost her parents. It turns out that they have been kidnapped, and capable Madeline engages the services of a couple of detectives. So much for sensible; bring on the absurd. The kidnappers are foxes; the detectives are rabbits; lovers of the zany will revel in this laugh-out-loud funny and highly original romp, illustrated with aplomb by Sophie Blackall. (9–12 years)

Adam Rex’s Cold Cereal takes place in the town of Goodborough, home to the Goodco cereal company, where new kid Scott is seeing things. Specifically, a rabbit-headed man, a unicat, and a leprechaun. When Scott discovers that he and his only friends, brainy twins Erno and Emily, are subjects in a dastardly Goodco experiment, the three set out to right some wrongs. Built on a happily preposterous edifice of a plot, this wacky adventure is consistently entertaining. (9–12 years)

In Andrew Norriss’s I Don’t Believe It, Archie!, ordinary kid Archie always seems to be in the middle of crazy happenings. For instance, his mother sends him out to mail a letter, but on the way he sees a piano racing down the street, then saves two people from being buried alive in gravel. Of course, he never mails the letter. Archie’s mother is unaware that anything exciting has ever happened; she is only exasperated that he hasn’t completed the errands. Each chapter ends with her frustrated “Honestly! I don’t believe it, Archie!” Hannah Shaw’s humorous black-and-white spot illustrations help move the action along in this benign slapstick comedy. (8–11 years)

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A young bear explores his surroundings in Ashley Wolff’s Baby Bear Sees Blue. Baby Bear asks about the birdsong he hears, the fragrance he smells, the wings that tickle him. Each time, Mama gives him the answer, and Baby Bear stops to look at the corresponding color: blue jays, red strawberries, orange butterflies. Block print and watercolor illustrations capture both the natural world and the loving relationship between parent and child. (2–5 years)

In Anita Lobel’s 10 Hungry Rabbits: Counting & Color Concepts, Mama Rabbit plans to make vegetable soup for dinner, so her ten children — each wearing a different color — gather ten matching colorful ingredients: one purple cabbage, two white onions, three yellow peppers. Each ingredient appears in a large, realistic portrait with the corresponding color-coded number. Concept books don’t get much better than this. (3–6 years)

Audrey Wood’s Blue Sky presents a succession of double-page spreads showing skies, from “blue sky” to “sunset sky” to “moon sky.” The pastel illustrations feature a wordless story about a small boy and his family, who wait out a storm (“rain sky”) and then head to the beach, enjoying their day by the shore (“sun sky”) all the way through “star sky.” The progression through the day makes for a satisfying journey. (4–8 years)

In A Stick Is an Excellent Thing: Poems Celebrating Outdoor Play, Marilyn Singer explores different kinds of outdoor games, from simple to complex. Singer’s range of poetry styles and forms complements the varied kinds of creative outdoor play throughout the day. LeUyen Pham’s slightly retro-feeling illustrations feature a multicultural group of children enjoying nature and imagination together. (5–8 years)

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Photo: Nicole Haley

After winning the 2011 Caldecott Medal for A Sick Day for Amos McGee, written by her husband, Philip, Erin E. Stead returns with a second picture book, this one about waiting and planning and hope. And Then It’s Spring (5–8 years) grows out of a long friendship; see below.

1. What about Julie Fogliano’s (glorious) text helped you decide to illustrate it?

Erin E. Stead: Julie is a friend of mine who, like me, is quite shy about her work. I met Julie almost ten years ago when we both worked in a bookstore in New York (she was my assistant manager). For the majority of those years, I knew Julie was a writer but never saw a thing she wrote. Since I was the same way, I never put any pressure on her. Then one day, out of the blue, she emailed me a poem. I loved it. I know her, so I knew it was her voice, but I also thought it had the lightness and the seriousness that I (or my six-year-old self) could relate to. She told me she had received some advice to push the text into a more traditional story. I suddenly felt very protective of the original poem. Obviously, the next step was to send it (without telling her) to my editor, Neal Porter.

Neal wrote: “This is lovely. Would you be interested in illustrating?”

So I did. I’ve been able to work with two writers (my husband, Philip, and Julie) with whom I am very close, which has really worked for me. They both give me plenty of say and plenty of space. Julie’s books (I am wrapping up the second book now) are so interesting to work on. The texts are abstract, which allows me to make a lot of decisions about how I’d like to pull the reader through the story. It’s a lot of freedom for an illustrator. Most of the time that is wonderful, but there are always moments where I am lying on the floor of my studio in despair. I want to do her delicate texts justice. It’s a great challenge.

2. What picture book text from the past do you most wish you could have illustrated?

EES: Tough question for an illustrator. There are many books I would love to have illustrated, but I wouldn’t be able to do as good a job as the illustrator whose name is already on the book. James Thurber’s Many Moons is probably one of my top picks, although I am no Louis Slobodkin — let alone Marc Simont.

3. My favorite spring song is “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most.” What’s yours?

EES: I haven’t been able to think of anything that tops Mel Brooks’s “Springtime for Hitler.”

4. You’re a signatory to the Picture Book Proclamation. Which of its sixteen “We Believes?” means the most to you?

EES: Tough question #2. I am not positive my answer would be the same every time you asked me. Four out of five times though, I would probably answer: “We should know our history.”

I don’t necessarily mean the books that have become part of the canon (although that is an excellent place to start). A lot of good books can get lost in today’s online-blogging-twitter-algorithm shopping, but it’s nothing a good library, new or used bookstore, or a little Leonard S. Marcus can’t fix. Sometimes I worry that we’ve given up a little of the weird or the dark in picture books, while not realizing that some of the books we still love are entirely weird. I love Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, but as an elevator pitch, that book is strange.

I also think knowing your history means learning about some mistakes. I own some beautifully illustrated books from the 1950s with story morals like: “So he pretended to be like everyone else, and finally everyone liked him. The end.” I’d like to try to avoid stories like that in my career.

Picture books are a restricted art form. Nonetheless illustrations and text can vary wildly from one book to another. I try to read as many as possible. There are times when this makes me a little tired, but I also hope it makes me better at my job.

5. What color could you not live without?

EES: I live in Michigan, where we hear things like “lake effect snow” and “overcast” for months at a time (I’m looking at you, February and March). There are entire weeks where I am convinced that there is no color left in the world. And then the sun comes out, and while my retinas might burn a little at its return, I realize I could not live without blue. And sometimes green.

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