I was surprised and also not surprised to learn the book Everywhere Babies has been the focus of conservative outrage in Walton County, Florida. I was surprised because I hadn’t realized this book, written by Susan Meyers and illustrated by Marla Frazee, was well known. I have an embarrassing tendency...
This week on hbook.com... May Notes from the Horn Book Newsletter: 5Qs for Ruta Sepetys about I Must Betray You; 4 books for older readers about the costs of conflict; 5 middle grade titles about the Jewish experience for Jewish American Heritage Month; 6 middle grade realism novels for...
In celebration of literary legend Gary Paulsen’s birthday on May 17th, we are thrilled to announce Rebekah Lower as the winner of the Gary Paulsen Northwind Storytelling Contest for her submission "Storyless." Rebekah is a fourteen-year-old writer from Clinton, Iowa, and has always wanted to be a writer. The runners-up...
This week on hbook.com... Minh Lê and Dan Santat Talk with Roger about The Blur From the May/June 2022 Horn Book Magazine Special Issue: The Newbery Centennial: Family Memories of Frederic G. Melcher by Sue Melcher After the Call: Love Letters by Susan Cooper After the Call: The...
I fully expected my older grandchildren to start pulling away from reading together by now. They’d be nice about it. They’d gently explain — and by gently, I mean raucously, interrupting and overlapping each other, but still gently, in the sense that they’d sincerely not want to hurt my feelings...
This week on hbook.com... May/June 2022 Horn Book Magazine Newbery cover key by Cynthia K. Ritter Fables, Folktales, and Puppets for the Pandemic by Helen Kelly From the May/June 2022 Horn Book Magazine Special Issue: The Newbery Centennial: Table of Contents Editorial: Newbery Forever? by Kathleen T. Horning A...
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...
Happy Cinco de Mayo! Celebrate with three updated booklists from the Guide/Reviews Database starring the holiday itself, Mexican and Mexican American protagonists, and the Spanish language. We've got recommended fiction and nonfiction titles for primary, intermediate, and older readers. Grade levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion....
Feel kinda like you're living in a dystopian sci-fi/fantasy story? You're not alone. The Guide/Reviews Database: Subject: Dystopias has lots of book recommendations; mostly YA, some middle-grade, and a handful of picture books (hi, Tomi Ungerer!). See also "What Makes a Good YA Dystopian Novel?" (from 2012) and other links and...