The Witch of Woodland by Laurel SnyderIntermediate, Middle School Walden Pond/HarperCollins 304 pp.5/23 9780062836656 $19.99e-book ed. 9780062836670 $10.99Becoming a bat mitzvah is not something Zipporah “Zippy” Chava McConnell had ever considered. Now almost thirteen, she’s surprised by her mom’s insistence that she at least give tutoring with Rabbi Dan a...
Link + Hud: Heroes by a Hair by Jarrett Pumphrey and Jerome Pumphrey; illus. by the authorsIntermediate Norton 240 pp.3/23 9781324016090 $16.95With underwear on their heads and kitchen implements held high (for example), brothers Lincoln and Hudson imagine themselves into various superheroic scenarios, wreaking havoc around their house. Their hardworking...
To the Other Side by Erika Meza; illus. by the authorPrimary Tegen/HarperCollins 40 pp.3/23 9780063073166 $18.99“‘The rules of the game are simple,’ my sister said. ‘Avoid the monsters. Don’t get caught. And keep moving.’” What sounds like make-believe play is actually quite a dire situation: two young siblings depart their...
Last month’s Notes from the Horn Book was our annual Summer Reading special issue, including a baker’s dozen of unique and enjoyable titles for each age range. If you haven’t yet downloaded the free PDF version, there’s no time like the present! In addition to being my birthday month, May...
Akunna Eneh is programs & community outreach librarian for the Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library, one of the hosts of the Greater Roxbury Book Fair. This FREE community event takes place on Saturday, May 20, 2023, from 12–5pm. 1. Your title is Programs & Community Outreach Librarian. What does your job look...
Just as I was not-a-Martha (at ALA Midwinter 2018), neither was I a Margaret growing up. No gentile mother, no rhinestone-wearing grandma*, and no increasing of bust, please and thank you very much. But like so many Gen Xers, I was (and am) a huge Judy Blume fan. And to echo...
Not breaking news, but motherhood is hard (fatherhood, too; check back next month). Of course it's also all the good stuff — rewarding, gratifying, exhilarating, heartwarming — but easy it is not; and, to borrow from The Princess Bride, "anyone* who says differently is selling something." Mother's Day is this Sunday, May...
The May/June issue of the Horn Book is customarily our themed “special issue,” in which we explore one topic in depth and from many angles. There are special issues and special special issues, and this one falls into the latter category. “Diverse Books: Past, Present, and Future” is the conversation...
It is with hugely mixed emotions that I announce the retirement of Martha V. Parravano as Book Review Editor on Friday, May 5, 2023. A longtime/lifelong (!) Horn Booker, she is known as "keeper of the Horn Book flame" (--Editor Emeritus Roger Sutton). Pause. For. Weeping. But now the very good news:...