Horn Book Magazine Reviewers

Lara K. Aase teaches American Indian youth literature and other AIS courses at California State University San Marcos. She has an MA in comparative literature (Spanish/English) from the University of New Mexico and an MLIS from the University of Washington.

Jessica Agudelo is the youth collections coordinator at BookOps for the New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library, and a member of the 2023 Newbery committee.

Julie Hakim Azzam is the assistant director of the MFA program in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University and has a PhD in literary and cultural studies, with a specialization in contemporary postcolonial literature from Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

Deirdre F. Baker teaches children’s literature at the University of Toronto and is the children’s book reviewer for the Toronto Star.

Grace McKinney Beermann serves as a Primary guide at Chesterfield Montessori School and works as a bookseller at The Novel Neighbor in St. Louis, Missouri. She holds an MA in children's literature from the Center for the Study of Children's Literature at Simmons University.

Sarah Berman is a middle school special education assistant. She attended the University of St. Andrews, where she studied literature and wrote a dissertation about violence in children's fiction. 

Jennifer M. Brabander is former senior editor of The Horn Book Magazine. She holds an MA from the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature from Simmons University.

Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres is a Honduran-American library executive and musician. He serves as COO for Communication and Outreach at the Prince George's County Memorial Library System in Maryland and is adjunct faculty in library and information science at The Catholic University of America.

Pauletta Brown Bracy is professor of library science at North Carolina Central University.

Emily Brush is the Early Literacy Librarian at the Novi Public Library in Michigan. She also reviews picture books for School Library Journal and serves as an ambassador on the Michigan Library Association Mitten Award Workgroup. She holds an MLIS from Wayne State University. 

Anita L. Burkam is a former associate editor of The Horn Book Magazine.

Eric Carpenter is the school librarian at Toomer Elementary School in Atlanta, Georgia.

Betty Carter, an independent consultant, is professor emerita of children’s and young adult literature at Texas Woman’s University.

Shenwei Chang is a graduate of the Simmons University dual degree master's program in children's literature and library and information science. They work as a book blogger and a freelance sensitivity reader and linguistic/cultural consultant. They are currently based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Julie Danielson ran the picture book blog Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast for sixteen years and reviews picture books for the Horn Book, BookPage, Shelf Awareness, and Chapter 16.

Jerry Dear, information strategist at the San Francisco Public Library, also teaches in the Library Information Technology program at City College of San Francisco. He contributes to the blogs for APALA, Hyphen magazine, and No Flying No Tights.

Monica de los Reyes is assistant editor of The Horn Book, Inc.

Summer Edwards is a Trinidadian American author, children’s book editor, educator, and K-12 literacy specialist. She holds an M.S.Ed. in Reading, Writing, Literacy from the University of Pennsylvania and founded the online Caribbean children’s and YA literature magazine Anansesem.

Sarah Ellis is a Vancouver-based writer and critic, recently retired from the faculty of The Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Shoshana Flax is associate editor of The Horn Book, Inc.

Kitty Flynn is book reviews editor of The Horn Book, Inc.

Patrick Gall works as a librarian for children in preschool through eighth grade at the Catherine Cook School in Chicago.

Elissa Gershowitz is editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc.

Monique Harris is a public educator, reading specialist and independent educational consultant. She holds a Master of Science degree in education from Simmons College. She resides in Boston, Massachusetts.

Katrina Hedeen Eftekhari is a former Horn Book editor.

Marva Anne Hinton is articles development editor of The Horn Book, Inc.

Gabi Kim Huesca is the Assistant Branch Manager at Fairfax County Public Library's City of Fairfax Regional Library. She holds a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Maryland.

Jonathan Hunt is the coordinator of library media services at the San Diego County Office of Education.

Yesica Hurd is a children's librarian at the Berkeley Public Library at the Central Children's Room.

Shelley Isaacson teaches children’s literature at Simmons University and Tufts University. She holds an MA in Children’s Literature and an MFA in Writing for Children from Simmons and a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Annisha Jeffries is an experienced librarian with over twenty-seven years of professional experience managing youth services at the Cleveland (OH) Public Library. She has an impressive record in this field. Annisha served on the 2018 Caldecott Award committee and chaired the 2021 Caldecott Award committee. Additionally, she teaches a digital literacy course for Library Juice Academy.

Rachel L. Kerns is a project manager for an educational publisher. She holds a master’s degree in library and information science from Simmons College.

Maeve Visser Knoth is a librarian at Phillips Brooks School, Menlo Park, California, and formerly adjunct faculty at Notre Dame de Namur University and Lesley University.

Laura Koenig is the team leader for Central Library Children's Services at the Boston Public Library.

Megan Dowd Lambert created the Whole Book Approach storytime model in association with The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and is a former lecturer in children’s literature at Simmons University, where she also earned her MA. A children’s book author, reviewer, and consultant, Megan is president of Modern Memoirs, Inc., a private publishing company specializing in personal and family histories.

Michelle Lee is a librarian from New York City.

Susan Dove Lempke is director of the Lincolnwood Public Library and an adjunct faculty member at Dominican University in their Master of Arts in Youth Literature program.

Jessica Tackett MacDonald is a collection development librarian at the Boston Public Library, specializing in youth and teen collections. She holds masters degrees in library science and children’s literature from Simmons College.

J. Elizabeth Mills graduated with a PhD in Information Science and works as a program manager at OCLC WebJunction. 

Nicholl Denice Montgomery is currently working on a PhD at Boston College in the curriculum and instruction department. Previously, she worked as an English teacher with Boston Public Schools.

Eboni Njoku is a children’s librarian at the Anacostia Neighborhood Library Branch of the DC Public Library.

Martha V. Parravano is contributing editor for The Horn Book, Inc.

Adrienne L. Pettinelli is the director of the Henrietta (NY) Public Library. She has served on several book award committees and is the author of Helping Homeschoolers in the Library (2008).

Norah Piehl is the executive director of Litquake, San Francisco's literary festival. She has developed youth programming for Litquake, the Bay Area Book Festival, and the Boston Book Festival.

Sarah Rettger is an independent bookseller in Boston, Massachusetts.

Cynthia K. Ritter is managing editor of The Horn Book, Inc.

Julie Roach is the collection development manager for the Boston Public Library.

Alicia Rogers lives in Massachusetts and is Worcester Public Library's first dedicated Tween Services Librarian.

Hill Saxton is a youth services librarian at the Cambridge Public Library in Massachusetts.

Dean Schneider teaches eighth grade English at the Ensworth School in Nashville, Tennessee.

Emma Shacochis holds a Master of Arts in publishing from Emerson College and works as a children’s book reviewer, freelance production editor, and digital editorial assistant with Includas Publishing.

Sadaf Siddique is co-author of Muslims in Story: Expanding Multicultural Understanding through Children’s and Young Adult Literature and co-founder of Kitaabworld. She writes about Muslim kid lit and South Asian kid lit at Lantern Reads.

Vicky Smith is access serivces director at the Portland (Maine) Public Library and adjunct instructor in children's literature at Simmons University.

Miriam Steinberg-Egeth works at Hadar. She is the writer and creator of “Miriam’s Advice Well" and co-editor of the book, Warm and Welcoming: How the Jewish Community Can Become Truly Diverse and Inclusive in the 21st Century. Miriam lives in Philadelphia with her family.

Jennifer Hubert Swan is the library department chair and upper school librarian at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY. She is also an adjunct assistant professor at Pratt Institute School of Information, where she teaches youth literature and library programming. She blogs at Reading Rants.

Kristine Techavanich is a youth services librarian at the Timberland Regional Library System. She served on the 2023 Newbery committee. 

Amanda R. Toledo (she/her/ella) is a youth services librarian at Skokie Public Library. Raised on a steady stream of books and croquetas, she has worked in youth services in public libraries for six years and is passionate about diverse representation in books and library collections.

S. R. Toliver is an assistant professor of literacy and secondary humanities at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her public and academic scholarship can be found on her website ReadingBlackFutures.com. Follow her on Twitter @SR_Toliver.

Sylvia Vardell is a professor in the School of LIbrary & Information Studies at Texas Woman's University and author of Children's Literature in Action, Poetry Aloud Here, A World Full of Poems, and the Poetry for Children blog.

You-Ling (Weileen) Wang loves to write, read, and illustrate. She attended Vanderbilt University, where she studied child development and fell in love with children's literature. She holds a master's degree in arts in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Brian E. Wilson works as a children's librarian at the Evanston Public Library in Evanston, IL.

Jenna Wolf is a school librarian at a progressive 9-12 boarding school outside Boston. She is a citizen of Muscogee Nation (Oklahoma) and is passionate about Indigenous representation in literature.