Roger Sutton

  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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Thanks to all who have emailed, called, texted or tweeted their concern for our safety and well-being. We are all fine. The attack coincided with an all-staff conference call with our New York colleagues, so I didn’t find out about it until later in the day when information was available but fragmentary and spookily fact-free, [...]

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Llama Llama… author-illustrator and rock star to preschoolers Anna Dewdney will be our special guest at the Fostering Lifelong Learners conference on April 25th, joining in the conversation about making and sharing great books for preschoolers. Here are five questions for her. 1.What did your own children teach you about creating books for preschoolers? My [...]

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