Featured Posts
This Is the Nest that Robin Built
Denise Fleming loves bright colors and texture, and this book's palette is all about springtime, with all its yellow-greens and blues setting off the warm browns and reds of the foreground figures. She has moved away from her signature paper pulp … [Read More...]
Seeing Into Tomorrow
Seeing Into Tomorrow is a marriage of two unique talents of different eras: the text is by Richard Wright, author of Native Son (1940) and Black Boy (1945); the art is by Nina Crews, known for her picture books pairing texts with photographic collage … [Read More...]
Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotten
Our first book post this Calling Caldecott season is Libba, a picture-book biography of African American folk musician Elizabeth Cotten, written by Laura Veirs and illustrated by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. The flap copy refers to the book's artist as a … [Read More...]
Sylvia Acevedo 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 In her middle-grade memoir Path to the Stars, Sylvia Acevedo draws a straight if … [Read More...]
Week in Review, September 10th – 14th
This week on hbook.com… Jarrett J. Krosoczka Talks with Roger (LIVE Video Edition) and Meg Medina Talks with Roger September Notes from the Horn Book: 5Q for Zetta Elliott, more fantasy/magical realism stories for intermediate readers, concept … [Read More...]
Blogs
Hey, You
On Monday, September 10th at 2:00 PM EST, I'll be interviewing Jarrett J. Krosoczka about his new graphic memoir Hey, Kiddo. Sponsored by Scholastic Press, this edition of Talks with Roger will be webcast live and we'll even be taking questions from … [Read More...]
September Notes is on the way!
This afternoon subscribers to Notes from the Horn Book will receive the September issue, in which we chat with Zetta Elliott about her middle-grade urban fantasy series-starter Dragons in a Bag. This issue also boasts more fantasy/magical … [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...]
This Is the Nest that Robin Built
Denise Fleming loves bright colors and texture, and this book's palette is all about springtime, with all its yellow-greens and blues setting off the warm browns and reds of the foreground figures. She has moved away from her signature paper pulp … [Read More...]
Review of the Week
Review of Betty Before X audiobook
Betty Before X by Ilyasah Shabazz with Renée Watson; read by Ilyasah Shabazz Intermediate, Middle School Macmillan Young Listeners Rev. 3/18 4 CDs 4.5 hrs. 978-1-4272-9368-8 $29.99 Long before she was the wife of Malcolm X, Betty Shabazz was a girl growing up in 1940s Detroit within a solid churchgoing community engaged in the fight for racial equality; a childless couple from this community raised Betty when her own mother rejected her. Having co-written her mother’s … [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 Betty Before X audiobook
Betty Before X by Ilyasah Shabazz with Renée Watson; read by Ilyasah Shabazz Intermediate, Middle School Macmillan Young Listeners Rev. 3/18 4 CDs 4.5 hrs. 978-1-4272-9368-8 … [Read More...]
Review of The Squirrels’ Busy Year
The Squirrels’ Busy Year [A First Science Storybook] by Martin Jenkins; illus. by Richard Jones Preschool, Primary Candlewick 32 pp. g 7/18 978-0-7636-9600-9 $16.99 A pair of … [Read More...]
Review of Louisiana’s Way Home
Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo Intermediate Candlewick 230 pp. g 10/18 978-0-7636-9463-0 $16.99 Readers first met Louisiana Elefante in Raymie Nightingale (rev. 3/16) as … [Read More...]
Review of Quiet
Quiet by Tomie dePaola; illus. by the author Preschool, Primary Simon 32 pp. 10/18 978-1-4814-7754-3 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4814-7755-0 $10.99 A grandfather, a girl, a boy, and … [Read More...]
Review of Friends and Foes: Poems About Us All
Friends and Foes: Poems About Us All by Douglas Florian; illus. by the author Primary Beach Lane/Simon 48 pp. 7/18 978-1-4424-8795-6 $17.99 e-book ed. 978-1-4424-8796-3 … [Read More...]
Interviews
Sylvia Acevedo 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 In her middle-grade memoir Path to the … [Read More...]
Jarrett J. Krosoczka Talks with Roger (LIVE Video Edition)
This LIVE Talks with Roger interview was originally presented as a free webinar on September 10th, 2018. Talks with Roger is a sponsored supplement to our free monthly e-newsletter, Notes from the … [Read More...]
Five questions for Zetta Elliott
Zetta Elliott's Dragons in a Bag (Random, 8–11 years) kicks off a new middle-grade fantasy series starring Jaxon, a young African American Brooklynite who gets a glimpse of the magical possibilities … [Read More...]
Meg Medina 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 With Merci Suárez Changes Gears, … [Read More...]
Oge Mora 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 Debut picture book creator Oge Mora … [Read More...]
