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The author's Horn Book (and other) treasures. Photo: Celia C. Pérez. I keep a storage bin filled with ephemera from my writing life. It is a treasure chest of memories that includes everything from conference badges, event programs, and T-shirts from schools I’ve visited to letters and artwork I have...
Comedy is particularly well suited to the structural limitations of the beginning reader format, where few words can stand in contrast with illustrations that show so much more. In this selection, I’ve highlighted a lot of humorous books, ranging from gentle to as sharp as they come, as these are...
Which material to use to help the printed word survive rambunctious young readers is a long-running question, with solutions ranging from the translucent mica of early hornbooks to Tyvek in twenty-first-century “Indestructibles.” One solution is fabric. Books for children were first printed on cotton or linen in 1902 by toy...
As Simmons University celebrates its quasquicentennial, the Horn Book its first hundred years, and the Simmons graduate program in children’s literature its golden fiftieth birthday, I welcome this moment to thank all the Horn Book editors who have been teachers, mentors, and friends. The Horn Book has had only eight...
Telling my grandmother that I was going to be a Horn Book intern was comparable to what it would have been like telling other relatives that I was going to be working for the New England Patriots. Yaya (known to all but her grandchildren as Natalie Coleman) has her own...
There’s a brief mention of the pandemic in Throwback, my latest YA novel, about a Korean American girl who travels back to 1995 and meets her mother as a teen. It’s handled with an almost perceptively self-conscious breeziness — making a joke out of my protagonist’s anxiety spiral as she...
It all started when I was a baby. For my 돌 Dol, a traditional Korean first birthday ceremony, I sat in front of several objects. I grabbed a pen, which meant I would become a writer. That prediction came true. I started off as a newspaper and magazine reporter. Now...
McLinn as a new librarian circa 1985. Photo courtesy of Claudette S. McLinn. The Horn Book Magazine was my guiding light when I became a teacher-librarian. There is so much you can learn in library school, and after graduation, I felt it was my responsibility to keep learning and to...
Recently, a marketing professional in children’s publishing said to me, “This truly is the golden age of board books!” I found myself in agreement. Creators are experimenting with the format in new, inventive ways. I’ve been impressed with the many board books that are beautifully designed with lovely art and...
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