Best Of

From Marilyn Nelson’s sublime poetic reimagining of the Seneca Village to Ruta Sepetys’s latest novel to Douglas Florian’s delightful musings on rabbits, this month’s starred titles are by turns gentle, funny, poignant, and deeply moving.

The following books will receive starred reviews in the January/February 2016 issue of The Horn Book Magazine:   I Hear a Pickle; (and Smell, See, Touch, and Taste It, Too!); written and illustrated by Rachel Isadora (Paulsen/Penguin) Emma and Julia Love Ballet; written and illustrated by Barbara McClintock (Scholastic) Unbecoming; by Jenny Downham (Fickling/Scholastic) Ling & Ting: Together […]

The post Starred reviews, January/February Horn Book Magazine appeared first on The Horn Book.

The Red Hat By David Teague Illustrated by Antoinette Portis Disney Hyperion (an imprint of Disney Book Group) $16.99 ISBN: 9781423134114 Ages 4-7 On shelves December 8th There is a story out there, and I don’t know if it is true, that the great children’s librarian Anne Carroll Moore had such a low opinion of […]

Later today Joy will be posting about the pretty amazing A Song for Ella Gray, David Almond’s third (third! Does the man not sleep?) book out this year. In the meantime, I wanted to say a few words about the awesome SLJ Best Books list. Sometimes I forget to highlight it, because you’re here, and […]

Plucked out of a bleak foster home by the manipulative pimp Daddy and groomed into a life of prostitution, 13-year-old Dime gives voice to her pain as she attempts to write a note, the intent of which is revealed toward the end of the book. Exploring an oft-overlooked subject, Frank has crafted an honest and raw true-to-life narrative—and one laced with the barest sliver of hope.

A heartbreaking memoir about how the iconic Latina educator and TV personality found her way to Sesame Street from her modest upbringing in the South Bronx. Opening with fragments from her early childhood and ending with her life-changing audition for the educational program, the book includes vignettes that offer glimpses of a singular coming-of-age filled with poverty and violence but also with love and music. A stark and powerful work.

The Groove” takes readers on a tour of the origins and demise of Motown, the musical powerhouse responsible for Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and Stevie Wonder. Centering around Berry Gordy, the talented visionary and eventual mogul, the ingenious narration highlights the company’s humble beginnings, its successes and failures, and its place in sociocultural history. A well-researched and melodic ride.

Dominic Hall, a British youth from a working-class family, finds himself wavering between attachment to his childhood friend, the artistic Holly Stroud, and the literary future he dreams of, and the powerful, inexplicable draw of Vincent McAlinden, a violent neighborhood bully. Set in the shadow of the 1960s shipbuilding community on the banks of the River Tyne, this beautifully written story is as taut and as exhilarating as the high wire.

Anderson vividly sets the scene with Shostakovich’s young years on the eve of the revolution and the Lenin era, his coming-of-age as a composer, and the rise of Stalin’s reign of terror. The central story of the creation and performance of the Leningrad Symphony while the city was in the crippling throes of a two-and-a-half year siege is devastating, enlightening, and, ultimately, inspiring. A narrative nonfiction triumph.