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Though we won’t miss 2020 (good riddance), we will miss the world that Megan Whalen Turner created in her Queen’s Thief series, complete with political maneuvering, backstabbing, power grabs...oh, wait. World-building was perfected by Turner, and is used to great effect in these recent YA titles. If kindhearted skunks and...
I can’t tell you how happy I am to write a January/February editorial where I don’t have to make a snide remark about the new president’s disdain for reading. Joe Biden reads poetry. Out loud, even. Goodness knows that an appreciation of books is not a guarantee of good character,...
Ready to celebrate? I bet you are, and our annual Holiday High Notes list of recommended seasonal titles is here to help you get the party started. It’s not too early, he says, having picked up two boxes of chocolate peppermint cookies earlier today, and while to keep household peace...
The problem with the November/December issue is that it comes out a little too early. Looking back at the 2016 editorial co-written by Martha Parravano and me: “At the time of this writing, we don’t yet know the outcome of the presidential election. (Anyone with a time-travel device, please let...
We hope you’ve been enjoying attending our first-ever virtual Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards, with coverage of this year’s BGHB winners — videos, interviews, articles, and more — each week in October. It’s all archived, and everything is free — find the full schedule here. In this issue of Notes and...
The lyric “You can’t live with ’em, you can’t live without ’em” from The Muppet Movie got stuck in my head last week as I was working on our siblings section for this month’s Notes. Perhaps it was my subconscious’s way of telling me something (though my older sister and...
Welcome to the September/October issue of The Horn Book Magazine, with, among other riches, 120 book reviews blowing the horn for the best new books. This issue is also the second one whose reviews are the result of a completely digital process, with nary a hand to physical book or...
I can only laugh, mordantly, as we send you this, our annual Back-to-School issue of Notes from the Horn Book. There are some funny (We Will Rock Our Classmates), adventurous (Field Trip to the Ocean Deep), courageous (Something to Say), and sporting (Dragon Hoops) choices among them, but much as...
Did you miss the Speeches? We have them — the Coretta Scott King, Newbery, Caldecott, and Legacy acceptance speeches — in the latest issue of The Horn Book Magazine. Print subscribers should be receiving the issue per usual; it is also available in digital format for all comers for free....
Welcome to our annual ALA Awards issue. When it became clear that we would not be reopening the country anytime soon and that there would be no celebration of the ALSC and CSK awards at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago in June, I worried that there would...
It is a tough time for celebration, that’s for sure. But in this issue of Notes we recommend books for "Pride" and books for "Father’s Day," and I hope those who observe these holidays find a way to do so amidst the at-once turbulent and static conditions we are facing....
If there’s one book on our 2020 Summer Reading list that speaks best to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s Remy Lai’s Pie in the Sky, about two brothers who find communion in baking, of all things, in order to “adjust to life in an ‘alien’ world.” Sound familiar? Otherwise, my eye...
Believe me, we are — we are now, anyway — well aware of the irony involved in publishing a special issue called “Breaking the Rules” during the coronavirus spring of 2020, when following the rules is the best hope we have. Please, everyone: wash your hands and keep your distance...
I hope you are all healthy and managing at home, with — perhaps? — more time to read what you really want to. Even when your boss calls you into a Zoom meeting: just say your camera’s broken and keep those pages turning. A shoutout, too, to the libraries and...
I hope you are all enjoying the March/April issue of the Magazine; here in the office we are busily pulling together the May/June special issue, whose theme is "Breaking the Rules." Jarrett J. Krosoczka is creating the cover; inside the issue fourteen authors and illustrators share stories (and comix) about...
The late Andrew Clements, whom we remember in this issue in my look back at his novel The Janitor's Boy, was a practitioner in a core and long-hallowed subgenre of children’s literature. He wrote what adult-book critics would call “domestic fiction” and what we would call “everyday life,” “friendship,” or...
Yes, Notes from the Horn Book looks and works a little different/ly and we hope you find it works for you! (Send any complaints or compliments to newsletter@hbook.com.) It’s a very busy time in the Horn Book office: the March/April issue of the Magazine goes to the printer today and...
Happy New Year, everybody, and I hope you all found some time for reading — by which I mean reading for the fun of it — over the December holidays. (Mine was divided between The Turn of the Key, Ruth Ware’s recent homage to The Turn of the Screw, and...
This past November we put out a call on the Calling Caldecott blog for mock “nominations,” asking readers to name a few 2019 books they considered top contenders for the Caldecott Medal. Horn Book Editor in Chief Roger Sutton cheekily touted Small in the City — knowing full well that...
Over on a great Facebook group called Jewish Kidlit Mavens, the members have been discussing their childhood reading (or not) of C. S. Lewis’s Narnia series and how each maven variously dealt with its Christian themes and allegorical elements. The reactions in the group have run from childhood delight to adult reservations, but...
I have my own version of the Anthony Browne story Cathie Mercier tells on page 26 in commemorating her great colleague and friend Susan P. Bloom, who died on June 7th at the age of eighty. In my version, it is the summer of 1989 and I am at Boston's...
Thank goodness the inclusion of the 2019 ALA awards speeches in this issue allows me to talk about the Coretta Scott King Book Awards again (see our just-previous May/June issue celebrating the CSK’s fiftieth anniversary). Congratulations to all the winners, as well as to those receiving Legacy, Newbery, and Caldecott...
We are thrilled — yes, thrilled — to announce the (re)launch of The Horn Book Guide, begun in 1990 as a semiannual print publication. It's been through a few iterations (anyone remember the CD-ROMs?) and we are happy to give its latest a home here. Please go over and poke...
What could be better than icy-cold raspados on a hot summer day? Isabel Quintero and Zeke Peña’s new picture book My Papi Has a Motorcycle has had us dreaming of shave ice since our Five Questions Summer Reading interview revealed their favorite flavors (limon for Zeke; for Isabel: “Strawberry and...
Welcome to The Horn Book’s celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards. As you may know, we publish a special themed issue annually, and when Andrea Davis Pinkney called to ask what The Horn Book might be able to do to commemorate the CSK’s fiftieth...
If you haven't already had the chance, please look at the gorgeous cover, by Kadir Nelson, of our upcoming May/June Horn Book Magazine: Special Issue: CSK Book Awards at 50. Called "the gold issue" by guest editors Andrea Davis Pinkney and Rudine Sims Bishop, this special issue of the Magazine...
March is Women’s History Month, and we’d like to wish a very happy birthday to KidLitWomen*, a group started in March 2018 by Friends of the Horn Book Grace Lin (read her Magazine article “Speak with Us, Not for Us”) and Karen Blumenthal (read her Calling Caldecott interview with Julie...
Our lead article, “In the Breaking, Maybe Something Beautiful,” is by acclaimed author and poet Benjamin Alire Sáenz, adapted from his profound and powerful 2018 Charlotte Zolotow Lecture. In it (and be sure to read every word), he says, “I believe that my dissent is what makes me a loyal...
You may know this from your copy of the latest issue of The Horn Book Herald, but I want again to direct you to our bounteous content about all the ALA award winners announced late last month. There are an interview with and five questions for Newbery Medalist Meg Medina;...
Happy New Year, everybody. I hope you got some good reading done over the holidays. Me, I shuttled among Tim Mohr's Burning Down the Haus (a history of punk rock in East Germany), Ruth Ware's The Death of Mrs. Westaway, and Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, those latter choices, each about...
The January/February Magazine is a good metaphor for the new year, with its ruminations on What Came Before and an eye toward the future. In October we celebrated the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards, where Elizabeth Acevedo performed a powerful original poem; Isabel Quintero and Zeke Peña shared their origin story...
As award-speculation season begins, don't forget you can join in the chatter about the Caldecott Medal on our Calling Caldecott blog, and about the Newbery on the Heavy Medal blog over at SLJ. We are in the midst of reading and discussion for Fanfare, the Horn Book's own choices for...
I was saddened to hear of the death of librarian and storyteller Ellin Greene in August. Ellin was my professor of children’s library work at Chicago, and taught me a core practice of the profession I hold as dear as any of Ranganathan’s Laws: “Get down on your knees,” she...
We presented the 2018 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards on October 5th, and, as far as anyone has told me, a good time was had by all. Please look at our online BGHB coverage for photos of the event and for more about this year’s winners.Roger SuttonEditor in Chief...
As a subscriber to Notes from the Horn Book you also receive Talks with Roger, a series of interviews with authors and illustrators of new books, sponsored by their publishers. You can find the archive here — including my first-ever live Talks, with newly minted National Book Award long-lister Jarrett...
In choosing to rename the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, the Association for Library Service to Children did the right thing. The new name is bland but accurate, describing exactly what the award is for: to honor an author or illustrator whose books over the years...
It's still summer, and we all should remain as relaxed as possible, so let me just take a moment to happily acknowledge how relaxed everybody is getting about book boundaries, especially when it comes to a book for beginning readers. As Shoshana and Cindy ask of Fox + Chick: The...
We are back from the ALA Conference in New Orleans and have the Newbery, Caldecott, and Coretta Scott King Awards speeches for you over at hbook.com; Jackie Woodson's Children's Literature Legacy Award (formerly known as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award) will come your way in September. My thoughts on the...
In this July/August issue we present our usual record of the American Library Association award winners’ speeches* as well as our annual “Mind the Gap” awards, the Horn Book editors’ choices of good books left out by ALA. We also announce the winners of the 2018 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards....
Elissa, Martha, and I are all headed south later this month to ALA in New Orleans and I do hope you will say hello. The Horn Book can be found at booth 1425 in the exhibit hall, and we'll be giving away posters of Caldecott-winner Matthew Cordell's cover for the...
Pie Is for Sharing, as our Five Questions interviewees remind us, and so is this special issue of Notes from the Horn Book, which presents our 2018 Summer Reading list. We’ve selected our top ten suggestions, including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, for all age ranges — fifty books in all...
Welcome to our seriously special issue on the theme of “making a difference.” With a deep sense of history and purpose and interconnection (how many times is Virginia Hamilton cited?), and with some thirty contributors, from Susan Cooper (on Ursula K. Le Guin) to Dhonielle Clayton (on Hamilton’s Willie Bea)...
April in Boston means Opening Day for the Red Sox, April Fools' Day jokes (Shoshana is responsible for this year's #TBTV), signs of springtime, and our upcoming Horn Book Herald: Spring News e-newsletter. Topics include: the environment (Earth Day is April 22) and poetry (April is also National Poetry Month),...
March is Women’s History Month, and this issue of Notes includes almost all new books by female authors and illustrators. The Horn Book is also pleased to be participating in the #KidLitWomen initiative on social media and amplifying the group’s mission: “calling attention to the gender inequities of the children’s...
Despite everything I’ve ever loved about reading and hated about camping, I find myself wanting to sign up for Michelle H. Martin and Rachelle D. Washington’s Camp Read-a-Rama, a summer camp “for children ages four to eleven [that] uses children’s books as the springboard for all other camp activities, including...
Congratulations to all the authors and illustrators honored this week by the American Library Association! For a complete list of winning titles, with links to the Horn Book's reviews, please click here. The July/August issue of The Horn Book Magazine will include the acceptance speeches and profiles of the Caldecott,...
Calling Caldecott will be wrapping up its picture book coverage of 2018 Caldecott Medal hopefuls this month, so get on over there to learn everything before the winner is announced on February 12. This week Edi Campbell considers Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, which would make my shortlist;...
We were pleased to celebrate in October the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards, coverage of which can be found in this issue, on pages 24–45 and at hbook.com/bghb17. I’ve always loved the literal offbeat-ness of this award: its consideration year is June 1 to May 31, making...
It's Calling Caldecott season, so make sure you head on over to the sometimes feisty debates. Martha and Lolly and Jules and their crew of contributors are doing a wonderful job of turning the contenders upside-down and inside-out to get at just what we mean when we say "the most...
We are just done with this year's Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards and Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium: "Resistance." With record attendance for both events, I can't remember a more engaged and enthusiastic audience, and our speakers and discussion leaders were variously inspiring and provocative, and always informative. Congratulations to our...
We're looking forward to the 2017 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards on October 6th and the following day's Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium, "Resistance," in which all ten of our awarded authors and illustrators will be participating. It will be a special pleasure for me to moderate a conversation between my...
Robin Smith (1959–2017) was, famously, a talker. When I first met Robin some twenty years ago, we were sitting in a Children’s Literature New England lecture hall waiting for the day to begin. It was immediately apparent that she was something out of the ordinary: not only was she talking...
A reminder that registration is now open for the 2017 Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium: Resistance: Children’s Books in Troubled Times, which takes place in Boston on October 7, the day after the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards. Your ticket to the Colloquium gets you in to the awards ceremony, and...
In case you need some mid-point inspiration for your summer reading, sign up for the August 9th SLJTeen Live! virtual conference devoted to YA literature. Speakers include Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Reshma Saujani, and Barry Lyga; panel discussants include such Horn Book favorites as Tanya Lee Stone, Ibi Zoboi, Jason Reynolds,...
The other day I was visiting Liz Phipps Soeiro’s elementary school library in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when a young, preternaturally polite girl came in looking for a book recommendation: “I would like something that moves my emotions.” Liz asked her to ask me; I asked the girl to name the book...
Kwame Alexander was kind enough to join me in announcing the 2017 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards in New York on May 31st. And I hope you will join us for the BGHB Awards ceremony and Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium on October 6th and 7th in Boston. Our theme this...
"Summer readin' / had me a blast…" By now you should know that The Horn Book's philosophy regarding summer reading is just do it, but the it is wide open to interpretation. Summer reading should not be a way to trick kids into doing school. Sure, reading can be learning...
What can I say? When we were planning our annual special issue and decided on the topic of humor, it was last summer, and everyone was feeling very optimistic. Now I suppose we can only hope, as the old saying goes (and as Lisa Yee reminds us), that comedy is...
Don't miss the annual special issue of The Horn Book Magazine, this year on the theme of humor. Wow, that sounds deadly. But it isn't, trust me! Along with mostly-serious articles about how and why to be funny in books for young people, we've also solicited some of our author...
I'm completely taken with the "Reading Without Walls" challenge made by our National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Gene Luen Yang. Gene is asking something very simple of each of us: to read one book about a character who doesn't look like you or live like you OR read one...
My kind of contest: read a book about a character unlike yourself, or read a book about a subject you don’t know much about, or read a book in a format different from what you’re used to. These parameters for the “Reading Without Walls Challenge,” devised by National Ambassador for...
To commemorate Black History Month, we are highlighting specific articles, speeches, and reviews from The Horn Book, past and present, that are by and/or about African American authors, illustrators, and luminaries in the field — one a day through the month of February, with a roundup on Fridays. Look for...
It is ALA awards month, and I hope you can join us at the association's Midwinter Conference in Atlanta, January 20th through 24th. The Horn Book will be at booth #2117 in the exhibit hall, and executive editor Martha V. Parravano and I will be making the rounds and picking...
Dr. Carla D. Hayden, Librarian of CongressLibrary of Congress101 Independence Avenue, SEWashington DC 20540Dear Carla:You know, the last time I wrote to a librarian in DC, she never got back to me. But then Laura Bush and I did not go to library school together, and I certainly never worked...
At the time of this writing, we don’t yet know the outcome of the presidential election. (Anyone with a time-travel device, please let us know things turned out okay.) But it sure has been A Year for women. We’ve been quite busy with our roaring and our woman-card-playing and our...
I hope you can join The Horn Book this Saturday at the Boston Book Festival in Copley Square and its environs. Courtesy of our friends at The Boston Globe, we have a booth (#61, prime placement right outside the Boston Public Library), so come say hello and pick up some...
Today marks the debut of our newest blog, Family Reading, which will concern itself with all things books in the home. The blog will feature new and classic articles from The Horn Book Magazine as well as posts from parents and caregivers of all stripes about connecting their children with...
As we asked while putting together the book review section in this issue — as we seem to ask while putting together the book review section of every issue — what should we do when a book has a “(Mostly) True Story” in its subtitle? Where do we put it?Sometimes...
Perhaps it was only ever a fantasy of mine that every child in America started the school year on the same day I always did (the Tuesday after Labor Day) but now, all over the map, it's all over the map. And for those unfortunates who attend "year-round school" —...
Podcast the 24th in which Siân chats with Charlesbridge Publishing editor Karen Boss about acquisitions, books, and (not a little bit of) travel.Books we talk aboutKate Messner's The Seventh WishRoald Dahl and Quentin Blake's BFGPatrick Ness's A Monster CallsRoger Priddy's First 100 WordsMargaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd's Goodnight MoonEric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What...
If you missed ALA in Orlando — or if you just miss ALA in Orlando — the Horn Book is here to help. We have published the acceptance speeches by and profiles of the Coretta Scott King, Newbery, Caldecott, and Wilder winners, and Siân and I discuss the conference on...
When I arrived at the Horn Book in the spring of 1996, it was in the midst of a dustup caused by that January’s editorial, “A Wider Vision for the Newbery,” written by then–senior editors Lauren Adams and Martha V. Parravano. They decried the Newbery-winning predominance of middle-grade fiction by...
We've just announced the 2016 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards — and via video no less! — the fiftieth time we've done so (which is a lot if not quite enough to constitute a fiftieth anniversary; ask a math teacher). The awards will be conferred in a ceremony on September 30th...
On June 2nd, the Boston Globe and the Horn Book will be announcing the winners of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards for the fiftieth time. Arguments have been raging in the office on the difference between the 50th occurrence of something and the 50th anniversary, which is actually the 51st...
Last fall Horn Book editor Roger Sutton interviewed wife-and-husband picture-book creators Erin E. Stead & Philip C. Stead for our Publishers’ Previews advertising section. Here’s one part of their exchange:Roger: I’ve always maintained that there’s a significant difference between “and” and “&.”Erin & Philip: Now that you mention it, there...
I can't think of a genre that scares more book reviewers than poetry (maybe sports books). Perhaps they are afraid that some eagle-eyed reader is going to find out the reviewer doesn't know the difference between a spondee and a dactyl, but, really, this is making the task more difficult...
Please have a listen to our new podcast, in which Siân Gaetano and I talk about goings-on at the Horn Book and in the world of children's books. Episode one is devoted to the pleasures and perils of social media; in episode two, I get Sorted into Ravenclaw. Who knew?I'll...
Along with our perpetual mission concisely originated in Bertha Mahony Miller’s first editorial in October 1924, to “blow the horn for fine books for boys and girls,” each of The Horn Book Magazine’s seven editors in chief has had to address the world around her or him. Bertha guided us...
In honor of Black History Month, we are daily posting key articles from the Horn Book archives about the African American experience in children's and young adult literature. Up today: Augusta Baker's "The Changing Image of the Black in Children's Literature," a speech she gave in 1974 in honor of...
Well, a few years ago the Caldecott Medal went to what many people thought was a novel (The Invention of Hugo Cabret), and this week we have the Newbery going to a thirty-two page picture book, the first time this has happened since A Visit to William Blake's Inn in...
Last month, while reading and re-reading books for The Horn Book’s annual “Fanfare” discussion, I teased followers of the Read Roger blog with mention of a book that had me excited for YA publishing all over again: “Granted, the half-dozen books I have to get through before [the meeting] are...
As a result of the baby boomlet of the late 1980s, we saw subsequent picture book publishing grow, not just in sheer numbers of new titles but in the expansion of the traditionally preschool genre's reach into books intended for older children and even adults. In this edition of What...
People are already fighting about Starbucks's holiday cups, there were Christmas tree ornaments on sale at CVS this morning, and The Horn Book is pulling together Fanfare, our list of the best books of the year. While I see that Publishers Weekly has already published its list of bests (which...
Last month at the Cambridge Public Library, I moderated a panel of five middle-grade writers brought to town by their publisher, Random House: Jeanne Birdsall, Bruce Coville, Alice Hoffman, R. J. Palacio, and Rebecca Stead. The place was packed and the conversation lively.With just a few minutes left for questions...
I want to thank the Horn Book, Simmons College, and Boston Globe staff who worked so hard to make this year’s Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards and Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium: "Transformations" a big success. You can see a photo album of the events on our website, and look forward...
I’m happy to be attending the tenth anniversary Carle Honors, which this year honor the contributions to picture books by artist Helen Oxenbury, editor Neal Porter, the Cotsen Library at Princeton, and intellectual freedom advocate Joan Bertin. These recipients are matched in worthiness by the Eric Carle Museum of Picture...
A member of the child_lit listserv recently posted a query which anyone who works with children’s books will find familiar: “A former student contacted me to ask if I could give her information about how to get started in writing and publishing children’s books.” Even given this little information, the...
When I was walking around the ALA exhibits in San Francisco earlier this summer, I kept running into publishers eager to show me their "narrative nonfiction." I knew this was a concept (see Elizabeth Partridge's article "Narrative Nonfiction: Kicking Ass at Last" and more on narrative nonfiction from The Horn...
I’m happy to announce that Susan Cooper will be keynoting "Transformations," the 2015 Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium, to be held at Simmons College on October 3rd, following the presentation of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards the evening before. Susan, who won the BGHB Fiction Award in 1973 for The...
I'm just back from ALA in San Francisco (conveniently also home to my two adorable grandchildren), where the term I kept hearing throughout the exhibit halls was narrative nonfiction (last year it was bullying). As is so often true of these trends, the term meant different things to different people,...
Welcome to our annual issue devoted to the ALA book awards. You will find herein acceptance speeches by and profiles of the Coretta Scott King, Caldecott, Newbery, and Wilder award winners as well as some analysis of the winners and honor books; some Newbery history (where does K. T. Horning...
2010 BGHB Fiction Award winner Rebecca Stead and Horn Book Editor in Chief Roger Sutton announce the 2015 BGHB winners. Photo by Mark Tuchman of SLJ.Who got it right, the Newbery and Caldecott or the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards? This isn't exactly a fair fight as the different awards have...
It's that time of year again: the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards will be announced on May 27th. I'll be sharing the honor of naming the winners with Rebecca Stead, who won the 2010 Fiction Award for When You Reach Me, at 5:00 pm in New York City at SLJ's Day...
Late last summer, the Horn Book staff gathered at Roger’s house for our annual editorial and organizational planning meeting. It was one of those Goldilocks sorts of days: too hot in the sun, too cold in the shade. This winter’s Snowpocalypse wasn’t even a gleam in anyone’s eye.Our office had...
The Academy of American Poets chose wisely back in 1996 when they designated April as National Poetry Month. A book of poetry is the perfect choice for outdoor reading in spring. You can open to one page and put your hands back in your pockets to warm while you read....
The #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign is doing a great job of helping us (by which I mean children’s book professionals of all sorts) keep to the fore of our attention the need not just for books that articulate a multitude of experiences, but diverse creators to create them and diverse readers to...
Inadvertently or not, ALA heeded the call of the zeitgeist when it honored six books (out of ten in toto) by people of color in the 2015 Newbery and Caldecott medals and honors, announced last month at the Midwinter conference in Chicago. The winners were Kwame Alexander (African American) for...
The ALA has spoken, and this year’s roster of awards for children’s and young adult books is impressively diverse and Diverse. The forthcoming issue of The Horn Book Herald includes all the lowdown about the Newbery, Caldecott and other book awards announced earlier this month in Chicago — and 2015...
As we all peruse the best of the year lists from the various review journals (here’s ours) and look forward to ALA’s announcements later this month of the Newbery Medal, etc., I’d like to call your attention to something I glanced at in my editorial in this month’s issue of...
In this issue you’ll find “Fanfare,” The Horn Book’s selections for the best children’s and young adult books of last year. I’m happy to see so much variety among them, from a picture book about a bus driver to another about a haunted dog to a historical novel about Baba...
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