The Horn Book » Simmons College

Let me give you what you’ve been waiting for

Roger Sutton — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:46:35 +0000

Elissa and Katie have begun uploading our reports and photos from the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards and Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium this past weekend. Aside from having to periodically remind people to speak into their microphones, the two days went very smoothly. The highlight for me was a panel I moderated for HBAS with Julie Fogliano, Erin Stead, Mac Barnett, and Jon Klassen about picture book collaboration. I was very nervous about it because we had inadvertently scheduled it for 90 minutes and I thought we would run out of material, and I had hosted a similar panel a couple of years ago and it was a complete dud. But these four were terrific and the time whizzed by. More to come. The picture above is me giving out the trophy bowls to Mac and Jon on Friday night, where I was also glad to learn that it’s Jon Klawsen not Classen, and Chuck Close as in Teddy Pendergrass and not Karen Carpenter.

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>Shocking? I hope so.

Roger Sutton — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:02:00 +0000

>The Simmons College Center for the Study of Children’s Literature is gearing up for its biannual Summer Institute, this year themed “The Body Electric” and taking place July 28-July 31st. Simmons’ favorites Jackie Woodson, Jack Gantos and M.T. Anderson will be there along with a host of others; hope to see you there.

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2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards

Roger Sutton — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:54:00 +0000

The 2011 BGHB winners are:

Fiction
Winner: Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones (Candlewick)

Honor: Chime by Franny Billingsley (Dial)
Honor: Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke (Kane Miller)

Nonfiction
Winner: The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin (Flash Point/Roaring Brook)

Honor: Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air by Stewart Ross, illustrated by Stephen Biesty (Candlewick)
Honor: Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins, illustrated by Vicky White (Candlewick)

Picture Book
Winner: Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes by Salley Mavor (Houghton)

Honor: Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by
Rick Allen (Houghton)
Honor Pecan Pie Baby by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Sophie Blackall
(Putnam)

[Go here for the complete press release.] Judged by Jennifer Brabander (chair), Robin Brenner, and Dean Schneider, the BGHB Awards will be awarded on Friday evening, September 30th, 2011 at a ceremony at Simmons College. The following day, we will again present The Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium, led by me and Cathie Mercier, Associate Dean and Director of the Simmons Center for the Study of Children’s Literature, and featuring this year’s winners with presentations, conversations, and workshops. You can sign up now.

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BGHB/HBAS Pics

Roger Sutton — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 18:54:00 +0000

While we ran a little long and no one could ever find a cab, I would have to say that our first Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards at Simmons and the next day’s first Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium went swimmingly. Here are a few photos:


Nonfiction winner Betsy Partridge channeling Miss Brodie

Laurel Croza and Matt James, picture book winners


Hmm, fiction winner Rebecca Stead seems more amused than her editor, Wendy Lamb


That’s my grandson you’re autographing for, Peter, so cheer up!

Lost In Translation, sans scotch

Picture-book royalty, Helen Oxenbury and John Burningham

Next year’s BGHB chair Jen Brabander with Raina Telgemeier and her husband Dave Roman. That smile was totally worth it, Raina!

You can’t see much of it here, but Megan Whalen Turner won the prize for Best Dress


Judge Gregory Maguire presents the picture books

Judges Julie Just and Martha Parravano tell all

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BGHB and HBAS

Roger Sutton — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:42:00 +0000

We’re in the final hours of planning the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards (tomorrow night) and the Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium (Saturday). Thanks mainly to the super-capable and farsighted Katrina Hedeen, we seem to be on track, but last night I dreamed that Seal and Heidi Klum RSVPed late and I could not find room for them. Pictured above are the swag bags Katrina, Katie, Cindy and the interns pulled together for Saturday. They are bunched in groups of five and held together by heavy duty rubber bands, making them both easy to count and easy to carry. Given all the time and resources in the world I still never would have thought to do that. And those kids even knew how to rent something called a Zip Car to get them all over to Simmons. I am in awe.

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What did Liz Taylor say to the microwave?

Roger Sutton — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:54:00 +0000

(Anybody besides me and Elizabeth remember that joke?) But, yes, if you are thinking about signing up for the Horn Book at Simmons, hurry because we are going to run out of spaces soon.

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Please Come to Boston

Roger Sutton — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:42:00 +0000

in the fall. We’re in the midst of planning the Horn Book at Simmons, a one day colloquium on October 2nd, focused on this year’s crop of Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winners and honor books. When Cathie Mercier (Simmons College), Andrew Thorne (Media Source) and I first began planning the day, we didn’t even know what was going to win, so it was interestingly speculative. But now we know, and we have a theme: Collaboration (used in a different sense from The Statement, a movie about Vichy France we watched this weekend in pursuit of my current Tilda Swinton fixation. P.S. Don’t bother). Collaborations between writers and illustrators, book creators and editors and designers, authors and readers, librarians and young people. There is quite a lineup of speakers and while it is going to be like herding cats to get them all into the day in a coherent fashion, I know it can be done. DO come. All participants will also receive a ticket to the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards ceremony held the evening before, also at Simmons for the first time. Fun fact: Horn Book founder Bertha Mahony Miller was a member of the first Simmons College class. Fun fact two: she received a C+ in her library class.

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>One more award

Roger Sutton — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:27:00 +0000

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I was a member of the ALSC Distinguished Service Award committee this year, along with Cynthia Richey (chair, and a new friend), Joan Atkinson (an old YASD–yes, that old–buddy with whom it was great fun to work again), Peggy Sullivan (who I’ve known since library school), and Terry Borzumato-Greenberg (from Holiday House; the youngest person in the room but who I also feel I’ve known forever), and with great pleasure we selected Margaret (Maggie) Bush, professor emerita at the GSLIS of Simmons College, as the winner. I knew Maggie slightly before I came to the Horn Book in 1996, but once I was in Boston I realized she was the Zena of New England, sending generations of children’s librarians out into the world to continue her good work. Congrats, Maggie!

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>Is It a Crime?

Roger Sutton — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:36:00 +0000

>Drinks for anyone but Elizabeth who can identify the musical quoted in the title.

The Simmons program Crime and Misdemeanors is ending this morning with closing remarks from M.T. Anderson, and my responsibilities–save paper-grading–will be through. I’ve been twittering away from the back of the room, but it’s difficult to convey the extravagant genius and delivery of a Jack Gantos in 140 words. (And something tells me that Mr. Tobin Big Words won’t be any easier.) If you go to the HornBook feed (linked over there on the right) you can at least get a sense of who’s been talking.

Yesterday I was on a panel with Vicky Smith (Kirkus) and Deborah Stevenson (BCCB) about reviewing; the best moment for me was when Deborah and I confessed to letting House in the Night slip by while Vicky quietly crowed that Kirkus had named it the best picture book of the year. What we neglected to get into is how incestuous this whole business is–I used to run BCCB, Vicky formerly reviewed for the Horn Book, Deborah taught the Simmons summer course the last time and has an article coming up in our November issue. It’s a very small pond.

I’ll try to get you some more moments from the Institute later this week but am off tomorrow for some kind of management retreat in Ohio. If they think I’m doing trust circles or paintball wars . . . .

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School of the Air

Roger Sutton — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:12:00 +0000

I totally wanted to go to one of those. But here’s your chance, if you feel like playing along with the class I’m teaching at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children’s Literature. The class begins today and is called Crimes and Misdemeanors, and it is something of a lead up to the Center’s biannual Institute, which you can attend, and which will take place at Simmons July 24-26.

But if you’re lonely in the outback, here’s the reading list to keep you warm. Asterisks by the title indicate that the author will be appearing at the Institute.

Anderson, Laurie Halse, Chains, Simon and Schuster, 2008
*Anderson, M.T. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party
*Avi, Nothing but the Truth, pub? 1991
*Babbitt, Natalie, The Devil’s Storybook, Farrar, 1974`
*Balliett, Blue, Chasing Vermeer, Scholastic, 2004
Bannerman, Helen, The Story of Little Black Sambo, HarperCollins
*Brooks, Martha, Mistik Lake, Kroupa/FSG, 2007
*Cashore, Kristin, Graceling, Houghton, 2008
Cormier, Robert, The Chocolate War, Pantheon, 1974
Forbes, Esther, Johnny Tremain, Houghton, 1943
*Gantos, Jack, Hole in My Life, Farrar, 2002
*Gantos, Jack, Rotten Ralph books, Houghton and Farrar, various (read a few)
Harris, Robie, It’s Perfectly Normal, Candlewick, 19994, 2004
*Henkes, Kevin, Lilly’s Big Day, Greenwillow, 2006
*Henkes, Kevin, Olive’s Ocean, Greenwillow, 2003
*Hinds, Gareth, The Merchant of Venice, Candlewick, 2008
Lamb, Charles and Mary, “The Merchant of Venice” in Tales from Shakespeare
*Lawson, JonArno, Black Stars in a White Night Sky, Boyds Mills, 2008
*Levine, Ellen, Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories, Putnam, 2000
*Look, Lenore, Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything, Atheneum/Schwartz, 2006
Myers, Walter Dean, Monster, HarperCollins, 1999
*Nelson, Marilyn, The Freedom Business, Boyds Mills, 2008
Parnall, Peter, And Tango Makes Three, Simon and Schuster, 2005
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Levine/Scholastic, 1998
*Silvey, Anita. “Has the Newbery Lost Its Way?” School Library Journal, October, 2008
Von Ziegesar, Cecily, Gossip Girl, Little, Brown, 2002

Can I borrow your notes?

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