Earlier this fall, I was able to see Hamilton on Broadway, with Leslie Odom Jr., thrillingly, reprising his role of Aaron Burr. I will forever associate Odom with my unforgettable experience of accepting the Mentor Award on behalf of The Horn Book at The Carle Honors Benefit Gala in fall 2024 — just a little over a year ago, but it sure feels like longer. Odom hosted the event, and we were recognized alongside Julie Gribble, founder of KitLit TV; and Ellen Oh, accepting for We Need Diverse Books, introduced by Grace Lin. In absentia were Marlo Thomas for Free to Be…You and Me and, for his body of work, Uri Shulevitz, who passed away only a few months later. The mood was festive, the company fantastic, and the consensus clear: books and media for young people are uniquely situated to raise awareness of ourselves and others, and that is something to celebrate.

Anyone who has heard Lin, winner of the 2022 Children’s Literature Legacy Award, eloquently describe her own career trajectory knows how influenced she was by lack of positive representation. As Melissa Hung paraphrases in this issue, “She began making [work] featuring Asian characters because she never saw any depictions of people who looked like her in the literature that she read as a child. She only saw racist caricatures.” Starting on page 18, Hung, who curated The Art of Grace Lin: Meeting a Friend in an Unexpected Place on view at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art through December 31, 2025, relates the process of putting together an art show based on Lin’s beloved and copious portfolio of work. And I can attest: the show is immersive, interactive, child-friendly, and thought-provoking. As Lin said to her childhood BFF and editor Alvina Ling on their podcast Book Friends Forever: “My hope is that when [people] go through this exhibit, they see the joy, they see it’s bright, they see it’s light — but it’s not shallow. There’s a depth to it even though it’s bright.”

Joy, too, is one of the values that Jason Low, publisher and co-owner of Lee & Low Books, brings up in his article on page 21 about the “Modern-Day Merits of Diverse Books.” As someone with an unwavering and longstanding mission to seek out and welcome underrepresented stories and people into the industry, Low spells out values we can no longer afford to take for granted, from “compassion and empathy” and “kindness and respect” to “books that are just plain fun.” Blueberry Awards cofounder Martha Meyer’s points about anti-anxiety criteria for nature and climate books, beginning on page 26, also bring joy and community into the activist equation, with a “glorious explosion of brilliant nature and climate books” by creators offering hope through age-appropriate (though as we always say, “the individual child is the real criterion”) stories, suggestions, and messaging.

The right fit may be of a more literal nature in Rachel G. Payne’s “That’s About the Size of It” board book column on page 30, but the intention is the same: for readers and listeners to be able to discover their just-right books. Wonder and exploration — and silliness — are all very valid reasons to enjoy reading, and a trend toward soul-soothing funny books is welcome these days. Jumping off from Lin’s point that bright can be deep, funny can — of course — also be deep. Then again, it doesn’t need to be: sometimes a trouble-making, out-of-season, sentient candy corn’s reason for being is primarily a good laugh. Find more silly and serious holiday-themed tales in our annual Holiday High Notes recommendations on page 10, and share some of your favorites, old and new, with us and other readers via social media and at hbook.com.

From the November/December 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

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