Articles & Opinion
In 2024, Mercier guest curated "Pictures at Play: Metafiction in Art" at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. It featured picture-book images that "illustrate how artists experiment with styles, typography, and page design to disrupt the rules of how books usually work." The following article is inspired by...
One year ago, we were putting the finishing touches on our special issue highlighting “Our Centennial” during a yearlong celebration of The Horn Book Magazine’s hundredth anniversary. If you haven’t seen it recently (or at all), please check it out; commemorative copies are still available for purchase, and you’ll find...
Cover © 2025 by Edel Rodriguez. Features Between Fiction and Reality by Cathryn M. Mercier The playground of metafiction in picture books. Reality Reimagined We asked fourteen sci-fi/fantasy authors how reality shapes their work. Worlds, Worries, and Wishes by Tracey Baptiste Zombies and Ghosts and Aliens, Oh My! by Adrianna Cuevas The...
Downpour. © 2025 by Yuko Ohnari and Koshiro Hata. As longtime readers know, pleasure reading is a core value of the hundred-plus-year-old Horn Book, and Summer Reading provides an opportunity to follow that bliss. Or to discover a new type of bliss. Or to have your bliss challenged. We welcome...
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...
Special Issue: Perception and Reality Original cover art by Edel Rodriguez. Cathryn M. Mercier on the “playground” of metafiction in picture books. A Publisher’s Perspective: Charlesbridge editor Karen Boss reflects on the “two-brained intersection” between creativity and commerce. “Reality Reimagined”: essays and comic from Tracey Baptiste, Kamilah Cole, Adrianna Cuevas,...
Illustration: Denise Maldonado. Over the years, The Horn Book Magazine and I have crossed paths at pivotal times: when I worked as an elementary school librarian, during my graduate studies in child development, and — most recently — through research for the education chapter of my book on the history,...
My name is Shifa, spelled S-h-i-f-a, for most of my life pronounced shee-fa, sometimes said Shiff-a, but really in Arabic it’s she-faa’ with an emphasis at the end like a silent t, although usually I just stay quiet and nod however it’s said, because for some reason, my ears have...
7,079 articles
ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? LOG IN
We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.
ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? LOG IN
Thank you for visiting.
We’ve noticed you are using a private browser. To continue, please log in or create an account.
