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May the Force be with you (and your reading!)
[cue 20th Century Fox intro] [cue Star Wars theme song] Tomorrow, Saturday October 6, 2012 is the first National Star Wars Reads Day, designed to “celebrate reading and Star Wars.” While this may be an...
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Rookie Yearbook One
I’ve been a steadfast follower of blogger Tavi Gevinson and her fashion/feminist escapades for years now, so perhaps I am a biased reader, but I absolutely loved Rookie Yearbook One (Drawn &...
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Dear Teen Me
Writing to our younger, naive selves with words of wisdom? It’s a simple concept that’s presented brilliantly on DearTeenMe.com and in the paperback anthology Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to...
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Deck Z
Chris Pauls and Matt Solomon’s adult novel Deck Z: The Titanic: Unsinkable. Undead. (Chronicle, September 2012) begins in early April, 1912, when German pathologist Theodor Weiss is summoned to...
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Sumo
I’ve never witnessed an actual sumo wrestling match, so this graphic novel about sumo caught my curiosity. Thien Pham’s Sumo (First Second, December 2012) follows Scott, an American college graduate...
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Missed Connections: F4I [fan for illustrator]
–F4I [fan for illustrator] (Boston) I saw you from across the Paresky Center at the 2011 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards ceremony. You were accepting your honor for illustrating Pecan Pie Baby. Charmed...
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Secret Origami
Origami is an fun craft experience for both boys and girls, and the paper shapes created can serve purposes beyond the decorative. At least, that’s what these two Secret Origami books, Origami X: Paper...
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Ye olde children’s poetry
Belt up your kirtles and hold onto your snoods. Fleas, Flies, and Friars: Children’s Poetry from the Middle Ages by Nicholas Orme (Cornell University Press, May 2012) presents a variety of verse from...
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Down in the Bottom of the Bottom of the Box
From down in the bottom of the Horn Book boxes comes JonArno Lawson’s newest paperback collection of children’s poetry from Canadian publisher The Porcupine’s Quill. Down in the Bottom of the Bottom of...
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My Epic Fairy Tale Fail
Once upon a time — last Friday, March 1st, to be exact — my friend and former writing professor Anna Staniszewski released My Epic Fairy Tale Fail (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, March 2013), sequel to her...
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The White Bicycle
It’s always disappointing when we miss the opportunity to blow our horn for a really good book — but in this case the ARC arrived too late to review in the Magazine. Fortunately, this year’s Printz...
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Delirium Stories
There are some story worlds readers just don’t want to leave behind. This has happened to me oh so many times: I race to the end of book, breathlessly finish, and then feel totally abandoned. I read...
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A whole bunch of questions for Lucy Knisley
In her adult graphic-novel memoir Relish: My Life in the Kitchen (First Second, April 2013), Lucy Knisley portrays specific periods of her life and their associated “taste-memories” in a series of...
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Writing about writing
Around the same time, two books about writing arrived at the Horn Book office. Always keen to brush up on my writing skills, I was curious to find out what advice these books would offer. As screamed...
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Evaluating nonfiction: At War with the Empire
To better understand the criteria for judging children’s books, I started reading frequent Horn Book Magazine contributor Kathleen T. Horning‘s From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children’s...
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Smugglers, secrets, and the Sasanach
Combine the words “historical,” “fiction,” and “smugglers” in the same sentence, and most people immediately think of buccaneers and tropical seas. But as Morgan Llywelyn shows in Cave of Secrets...
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Leggo my LEGO
In stylish coffee-table book Beautiful LEGO (No Starch Press, October 2013), “internationally acclaimed LEGO® artist” Mike Doyle showcases the work of dozens of his fellow artists from around the...
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“HORMONES SUCK. But being a young person doesn’t always.”
Rookie, popular e-zine for teenage girls and brainchild of teen blogger Tavi Gevinson, has steadily garnered fans since its launch in 2011. With monthly issues, the site offers engaging, cutting-edge,...
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Rule-breakers and rising stars
Joining Rookie Yearbook Two (“HORMONES SUCK. But being a young person doesn’t always”) are two recent teen-centric anthologies, each with a different focus but both with teen appeal. Break These Rules:...
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Winter crafts; or, know your audience
It’s not unusual for the Horn Book to receive submissions from adult publishers, and we recently opened a box from Lark, an imprint of Sterling Publishing (whose children’s books we do review). Lark...
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