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The revision for my next picture book was late. I usually meet my deadlines, but this time I had a good excuse. A routine colonoscopy had revealed a large tumor, and it was cancerous. My treatment schedule would last a year, including two rounds of chemo, radiation, and two surgeries. As...
Not all deserving books bring home ALA awards. The books that didn’t win. Not-dog Every Dog in the Neighborhood by Philip C. Stead; illus. by Matthew Cordell Don’t Worry, Murray by David Ezra Stein Locked out Farmhouse by Sophie Blackall Swept away A Day for...
In 2013, in commemoration of the Caldecott Medal's seventy-fifth anniversary (first awarded in 1938), the Horn Book ran a series of articles by the venerable Kathleen T. Horning looking back at the award decade by decade. Our May/June 2022 issue celebrated the Newbery's centennial, and Linda Sue Park's article "From...
This year’s ALA Youth Media Award winners represent a range of experiences, expertise, interests, and topics. There are previous, beloved winners and there are newcomers to the stage — notably Doug Salati for the Caldecott Medal and Amina Luqman-Dawson for both the Newbery and Coretta Scott King Author awards. Three...
Future editor of Freewater. Photo courtesy of Alexandra Hightower. On a recent visit to her family home in Atlanta, Alex(andra) Hightower came across some papers from her tenth-grade English class. Looking at her essays and the notes in the margins, Alex was struck by how the work she did in...
Sonali Fry and Frank Morrison. Photo courtesy of Sonali Fry. Every time I speak with Frank Morrison, I learn a cool fact about him. For instance, during one conversation, he told me that when he was a child, his favorite pastime was drawing Quicky, the official Nestle’s Nesquik mascot. What...
Jonda C. McNair and James E. Ransome in 2001. Photo: James J. Bishop. One of the highlights of my time as a doctoral student was serving as a hostess for esteemed authors and illustrators when they came to town to participate in the now-defunct The Ohio State University Children’s Literature...
Doug Salati. Photo: Erin V. Carr. To be perfectly honest, I don’t really know how he did it. For the past four years I’ve sat roughly six feet from Doug Salati, inadvertently (and sometimes intentionally) listening to and watching him work on Hot Dog, from its foggiest beginnings to its...
Amina in seventh grade. Photo courtesy of Amina Luqman-Dawson. Working with Amina Luqman-Dawson has been nothing short of joyous. Back before the incredible double whammy of the Coretta Scott King and Newbery awards, before Freewater became a New York Times and Indie bestseller, I knew from my very first editorial...
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