Featured Posts
Be “the hero and the author” of your story
If you have the opportunity to see Elizabeth Acevedo speak, go. I was lucky enough to attend two of her events as the inaugural Gwen Ifill Mentor-in-Residence at Simmons University last week, and I still can't get enough.* (And that's in addition … [Read More...]
Week in Review, February 11th – 15th
This week on hbook.com… February 2019 issue of Notes from the Horn Book: #5Q for Claire Hartfield, intermediate/middle-school nonfiction for Black History Month, picture books that model self-love, community, and pride for very young children of … [Read More...]
All a-Twitter 2019
Happy Valentine’s Day! What might characters of children’s and YA lit tweet to their valentines? We’ve got some ideas! See if you can guess who’s tweeting to whom — and feel free to add your own sweet kidlit tweets in the comments. @PianoHazel: … [Read More...]
R.I.P. Tomi Ungerer and a Letter from Leda
We were sorry to hear about the death of Tomi Ungerer, whose is the name I hear mentioned most frequently when illustrators talk about their heroes. The New York Times has a sympathetic and informative obit of the artist but takes one cheap shot up … [Read More...]
A big place to run and play
My husband recently took a picture of me reading to our five-year-old granddaughter. He takes such pictures often; his phone holds dozens of photos of our granddaughter and me behind a variety of books. On this occasion, he caught us at an exciting … [Read More...]
Blogs
R.I.P. Tomi Ungerer and a Letter from Leda
We were sorry to hear about the death of Tomi Ungerer, whose is the name I hear mentioned most frequently when illustrators talk about their heroes. The New York Times has a sympathetic and informative obit of the artist but takes one cheap shot up … [Read More...]
Be “the hero and the author” of your story
If you have the opportunity to see Elizabeth Acevedo speak, go. I was lucky enough to attend two of her events as the inaugural Gwen Ifill Mentor-in-Residence at Simmons University last week, and I still can't get enough.* (And that's in addition … [Read More...]
Haiku: A Small Poem with Great Potential
snow melting the village brimming over… with children! --Issa (1763-1828) (translated by David Lanoue) Yes, I was taught that a haiku, a short poem that originated in Japan centuries ago, was supposed to consist of three lines of five, seven, … [Read More...]
The 2019 Robin Smith Picture Book Prize
Perched on her rocking chair (brightly painted by her students with Alabama outsider artist Chris Clark), teacher Robin Smith would launch with glee and gusto into a beloved picture book, her second graders in a semicircle at her feet. Every day for … [Read More...]
Review of the Week
Review of Undocumented: A Worker’s Fight
Undocumented: A Worker’s Fight by Duncan Tonatiuh; illus. by the author Middle School, High School Abrams ComicArts 24 pp. 8/18 978-1-4197-2854-9 $19.99 “You don’t know our names but you’ve seen us.” The accompanying illustration is of Juan, an undocumented immigrant, with one hand raised in a fist and the other holding a megaphone from which the text and the subsequent illustrations appear to flow. Juan is an Indigenous man from “a small village in Mexico” who crosses the … [Read More...]
App Review of the Week
Sesame Street app review
Can you tell me how to get to…tons of wonderful educational videos and games for preschoolers? Just like the neighborhood itself, the Sesame Street companion app (Sesame Workshop, 2014; iOS and Android) is the place to be: a free account gives a child access to a large selection of games as well as new and classic (ad-free) video clips from the television show. The home screen offers a handful of featured videos and games. Below that, large icons link to additional videos organized by topic … [Read More...]
Recommended Books
Review of Undocumented: A Worker’s Fight
Undocumented: A Worker’s Fight by Duncan Tonatiuh; illus. by the author Middle School, High School Abrams ComicArts 24 pp. 8/18 978-1-4197-2854-9 $19.99 “You don’t know our names … [Read More...]
Review of The Mad Wolf’s Daughter audiobook
The Mad Wolf’s Daughter by Diane Magras; read by Joshua Manning Intermediate, Middle School Listening Library Rev. 7/18 6 CDs 6.62 hrs. 978-0-525-53134-0 $50.00 Drest is … [Read More...]
Review of Just Right: Searching for the Goldilocks Planet
Just Right: Searching for the Goldilocks Planet by Curtis Manley; illus. by Jessica Lanan Primary Roaring Brook 48 pp. 1/19 978-1-250-15533-7 $18.99 The ever-fascinating idea that … [Read More...]
Star-crossed love
Space, time, war, death, capricious gods: teen protagonists defy cosmic forces to be together in these out-of-the-ordinary love stories. On a Sunbeam, Tillie Walden's serial webcomic turned epic … [Read More...]
Picture book love and community
These new picture books model self-love, strength in community, and pride in identity for very young children of color. Hands Up! by Breanna J. McDaniel, illustrated by Shane W. Evans, is an … [Read More...]
Interviews
Five questions for Claire Hartfield
With painstaking historical detail, Claire Hartfield’s nonfiction book A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 (Clarion, 12–16 years) recounts the week of violence in 1919 Chicago that left … [Read More...]
All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah: Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour
Welcome to the first stop on the 2019 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour! Author Emily Jenkins and illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky were kind enough to answer my questions about All-of-a-Kind Family … [Read More...]
Five questions for Newbery Medalist Meg Medina
Meg Medina is the winner of the 2019 Newbery Medal for Merci Suárez Changes Gears (read The Horn Book Magazine's starred review here). For our February issue of The Horn Book Herald: ALA Youth Media … [Read More...]
Walter Wick Talks with Roger
Talks with Roger is a sponsored supplement to our free monthly e-newsletter, Notes from the Horn Book. To receive Notes, sign up here. Sponsored by Twenty years after winning the Boston … [Read More...]
Publishers’ Preview: Middle-Grade Novels: Five Questions for Yoon Ha Lee
This interview originally appeared in the January/February 2019 Horn Book Magazine as part of the Publishers’ Previews: Middle-Grade Novels, an advertising supplement that allows participating … [Read More...]
