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I’m just catching up with SLJ’s Heavy Metal and our own Calling Caldecott (and I see Betsy Bird has posted her own award predictions, too). All good prep for a terrible prognosticator (who once told the Wall Street Journal that kids were gonna hate Lemony Snicket). I’m particularly enjoying the civilized debate following Martha’s post [...]
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I hope to see many of you tonight for Children’s Books Boston‘s opening gala (read: cash bar and hummus) at Simmons College this evening. Cathie Mercier wanted me to remind you not to drive unless you are rich (in which case CBB will expect you to buy drinks all around) because parking in the Simmons [...]
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Registration is now open for the 2013 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards and Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium, October 4th and 5th at Simmons College. Cathie Mercier, Katrina Hedeen, and I are still shaping up this year’s HBAS program, titled “Building Character.” Don’t worry, it won’t be nearly as stuffy as it sounds. Our confirmed HBAS [...]
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We’ve added a page with links to our recent posts and articles about race and children’s literature and we’ll be adding more material as we go. Please suggest anything you’d like to see.
The post Talking about race appeared firs…
The following books will receive starred reviews in the September/October issue of the Horn Book Magazine. Xander’s Panda Party; by Linda Sue Park; illus. by Matt Phelan (Clarion) Mr. Wuffles!; by David Wiesner (Clarion) OCD Love Story; by Corey Ann Haydu (Simon Pulse) The Year of Billy Miller; by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow) The Big Wet Balloon; by Liniers (Toon/Candlewick) Counting by 7s; by Holly [...]
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Mashable has posted a list of “15 Young-Adult Books Every Adult Should Read.” Ugh in so many directions: first, that “should.” Piss off, it’s summer, and I don’t need some internet page-view generator telling me what I should do when I’m having trouble getting to level 29 of Candy Crush. There are no fifteen books [...]
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Lee and Low’s blog is asking a good question: “Why hasn’t the number of multicultural books increased in eighteen years?” They have assembled a good variety of responses, and I have two more, one only semi-facetious and one perhaps semi-impolitic: Semi-facetious response: While the blog states the disparity between the non-white population in this country [...]
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Off tomorrow to my, what, 35th? ALA annual conference, and hope to see some of you there. Our booth is #1416, but I’ll be wandering the exhibit halls, mainly, drumming up business with Al Berman while Martha P. scouts the programming (she’s at the Caldecott pre-conference today, lucky girl). One non-work event I’m looking forward [...]
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Oh, I HATE costume parties. It’s enough trouble to get dressed, never mind dressed UP, never mind dressed up AS SOMEBODY ELSE. Be that as it may, ALSC is apparently asking attendees to this year’s Newbery-Caldecott banquet to acknowledge the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal in their sartorial choices for the evening. Since I’ve [...]
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*(And who can identify that quote from a Newbery speech?) Last Saturday at BEA Rebecca Stead–what a sport–and I announced the 2013 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, to be awarded on October 4th at Simmons College here in Boston. It was great fun, especially because two of the winners were on hand for the big reveal, [...]
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from Publishers Weekly: “Susan Cooper returns with Ghost Hawk in August; ‘it’s the best thing she’s written since The Dark Is Rising,’ said S&S BFYR publisher Justin Chanda.”
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The following books will receive starred reviews in the July/August issue of The Horn Book Magazine: Flora and the Flamingo; written and illustrated by Molly Idle (Chronicle) Niño Wrestles the World; written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Porter/Roaring Brook ) The Whole Stupid Way We Are; by N. Griffin (Atheneum) The Thing About Luck; by Cynthia Kadohata; illus. by [...]
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This is the announcement of the announcement. If you’re at BEA this week, I hope you will join us in the Librarians’ Lounge (booth number 757) on Saturday at 1:00PM, when Rebecca Stead and I will reveal the winners of the 2013 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards. Yep, good times ahead with Anne Hathaway and James [...]
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Katie Bircher and Elissa Gershowitz bring you our annual list of summer reading recommendations for kids. Strictly recreational, of course, and librarians are welcome to place a “COMMON-CORE FREE!” sticker on the PDF. What about your own reading? I’m juggling audio editions of The Woman Upstairs and Inferno on my phone; The Oracle Glass and [...]
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I had a great time at the Children’s Literature Council of Southern California Spring Workshop last Saturday in South Pasadena. Kristin Fontichiaro and I each spoke about the Common Core State Standards, she offering a great perspective on the ways school and public librarians can support CCSS curriculums while I pondered what effects and implications [...]
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There’s a provocative new comment over on Yolanda Hare’s “Beyond the Friends.” It has me wondering if the CSK awards ever suffer from Newberyitis, where some kids see the sticker and think, “oh, this is one of those books that’s supposed to be good for you.” Because light escapist fare they ain’t. (Nor are they [...]
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From Dr. Robert Needlman explaining the difference between babies falling asleep and learning how to go to asleep, through Cambridge librarians Julie Roach and Beth McIntyre coaching us through selecting books for preschool story time to Anna Dewdney using photographs to demonstrate how to transform unpleasant expressions on family members faces into picture book gold, [...]
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We mourn the death (last Friday) of E.L. Konigsburg, who never wrote a book I didn’t want to read. (Not that I love them all, but even where she went wrong, she did so magnetically.) I remember a slightly uneasy conversation with Konigsburg’s editor Jean Karl right after Elaine had won her second Newbery Medal [...]
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Boston was certainly an eerie place last Friday. I had gone to bed early the night before, missing all the news about the pursuit of the bombers, and was catching up early Friday morning when the news flashed across my phone that the T was shut down. I texted the Horn Book staff to wait [...]
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