Lunar New Year begins on Sunday. Happy Year of the Rabbit! We wish all who are celebrating a new year full of joy and prosperity. Here is our Lunar New Year reading list with fiction and nonfiction books featuring the holiday for preschool, primary, and intermediate readers. All of the...
“The course of true love never did run smooth,” as Lysander points out in the beginning of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As Valentine’s Day approaches on February 14, these six recent young adult novels may help readers realize how complex romance can often be. Lark & Kasim Start a...
These seven historical fiction novels for middle-grade readers introduce a variety of important and engaging topics from different places and time periods in the last century. Wildoak by C. C. Harrington; illus. by Diana Sudyka Intermediate Scholastic 288 pp. 9/22 9781338803860 $17.99 This novel, set in 1963, consists of three...
Before, during, and after February’s upcoming celebration of Black History Month, young readers can check out these six recent picture-book biographies highlighting important figures in American history. See also our five questions interview with debut illustrator Dare Coulter about An American Story, written by Kwame Alexander. Little Rosetta and the...
Perhaps now more than ever, Martin Luther King Jr. Day provides an opportunity to reflect not only on the life of the great civil rights leader, but also on how far we've come — and how very far we still have to go. Notably, on January 13, 2023, the unveiling...
Sleigh bells ring. People pleading for some gifts made for reading. They’re new and they’re old and festively told: stories for a winter wonderland.* Here’s our annual list of recommended illustrated holiday books, new or reissued — season’s greetings from the Horn Book staff! *with apologies to lyricist Jeremy Stuart...
These five absorbing YA biographies introduce readers to an iconic Olympics activist; a groundbreaking civil rights activist; a German Jewish artist; a suspected Lincoln assassination conspirator — and present well-known lives (e.g., Einstein’s) in eye-catching ways. Hanged!: Mary Surratt & the Plot to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln by Sarah Miller Middle...
A lifelike robot boy; a cybernetically enhanced cat; a sentient space rover; and ocean creatures in a diving suit on land are the central characters in these four entertaining science fiction stories (two of which are graphic novels) for middle-grade readers. Brand New Boy by David Almond; illus. by Marta...
Here are five recent picture books that creatively introduce (in different ways) the concept of storytelling. The Guide/Reviews Database also includes the subject Storytelling; when browsing that extensive list you’ll find other picture books in the same vein, such as Nahid Kazemi’s Shahrzad & the Angry King (rev. 1/22) and...