Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year (year 5779!); Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins next Tuesday, September 18, at sundown. These are times in the year for family, community, and self-reflection (and our thoughts are with Shoshana’s family!). My family started a new, anachronistic “tradition” by making purple-potato latkes — with applesauce, […]
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Raising readers is the goal of every reading parent and is at the heart of the Horn Book’s mission.
Grandparents Day 2018
September 7, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Grandparents Day is Sunday, September 9. Here are some recent books for young readers and listeners about grandparents, grandchildren, and intergenerational friendships that celebrate the special bond between children and their elders. Reviews are from current or forthcoming issues of The Horn Book Guide. Brantley-Newton, Vanessa Grandma’s Purse 32 pp. Knopf 2018 ISBN 978-1-5247-1431-4 LE […]
Mama-Llama Day 2018
May 11, 2018 by 1 Comment
We’d been wondering why a four-year-old Lolly’s Classroom blog post was generating so many new comments. Then we realized that Netflix had just released a new animated series based on the Llama Llama books by the late Anna Dewdney (you can read her heartfelt and very Family Reading-appropriate keynote speech from The Horn Book’s Fostering […]
Nic Stone in Parents Magazine
April 12, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Though I don’t go out of my way to read parenting magazines (and I will likely never have it together enough to “Pack a Super-Fun Lunch!”), if I do see one, I’ll give it a browse. I was so glad to discover Nic Stone‘s article “My Boy and the Bus” in the February 2018 issue […]
Field Notes: Lucha Libros: Bilingual Battle of the Books
November 28, 2017 by Leave a Comment
On May 3, 2017, fifty-six second- and third-graders and their parents gathered in the Pasadena Public Library’s Donald R. Wright Auditorium for the final battle of our third annual Lucha Libros reading competition. That month’s selection was Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox / El Superzorro. As I looked around the room and felt the excitement […]
Books in the Home: What My First Grader Taught Me About Reading
August 22, 2017 by Leave a Comment
What does it mean to learn to read? As a former first-grade teacher and a professor of literacy education, I have constructed plenty of answers over the years. But witnessing the process as a parent has led me to challenge any overly simplistic explanations and assumptions I had held. The most important things I’ll probably ever […]
Share your summer reading lists
June 23, 2017 by Leave a Comment
With schools finished for the season, most have posted summer reading lists. Back in my school days, I remember two kinds of lists: the ones with required reading (classics to be read before grade 9) and the much-preferred lists of books we were encouraged to read just for fun. At the Horn Book, we create […]
BGHB at 50: Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay
May 23, 2017 by 1 Comment
In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards, established in 1967, we will be publishing a series of appreciations of BGHB winners and honorees from the past. Further installments will appear in the Magazine and on hbook.com/bghb throughout 2017. Here is a conversation I had on the phone with my nineteen-year-old […]
On “Radio Penderwick,” bedtime (audio)books, and more
January 13, 2017 by 1 Comment
Just like their print counterparts, audiobooks play many roles in the home. This week we looked at some different ways audiobooks accompany families — at bedtime during road trips, and really any time (or, Rachael Stein’s case, all the time). Here’s a roundup of our mini-celebration. At Family Reading on Monday, Kitty Flynn shared her […]
Books in the Home: “Mommy, Do I Have White Skin?”: Skin Color, Family, and Picture Books
November 16, 2016 by 2 Comments
When my son was five, he was watching TV when a commercial came on that showed a woman slathering her peach-colored arms with lotion. He glanced down at his own brown arm. After poking it with a finger, he asked: “Mommy, do I have white skin?” It was a moment that seemed straight out of […]
