News & Features

Congratulations to Alice Munro. What should I read by her? You might guess from that question that I am not the world’s heaviest lifter of “literary fiction,” and am not even sure I know it when I see it. The New York Times recently reported on a study published in Science which purported to suggest [...]

The post Science, My Aunt Fanny appeared first on The Horn Book.

Neil Gaiman's dark urban fantasy novel Neverwhere has been removed from both the school library and the required reading list at Alamogordo (NM) High School this week following the complaint of one parent, who objected to its sexual innuendos and "harsh" language, according to a report by New Mexico's local KRQE news station.

Author Lee Bennett Hopkins has pledged to give the Penn State University Libraries his 18,000-volume book collection and correspondence papers from his lifelong career in children’s literature. The children’s poetry and literature collection, valued at approximately $3.25 million, includes volumes from such authors as Nikki Grimes, Madeline L’Engle, and Maurice Sendak, many of whom have autographed their works.

Sesame Workshop has partnered with the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation to launch a new early literacy initiative, Every Day is a Reading and Writing Day. The program aims to be a free bilingual, digital resource made up of tips, games, and activities designed to improve a child's reading and writing capabilities from an early age.

For a joke, I decided to put a Very Hungry Caterpillar tattoo on my arm and tell my students it was real (just for a minute, then I came clean). Me (in front of a class of students): I probably shouldn’t be telling you this. But, uh, I got a tattoo. Class: Whoa!! (I didn’t [...]

Thanks to a partnership with nonprofit literacy organization Reading is Fundamental (RIF), McDonald’s will be offering print books in its Happy Meals from November 1–14, 2013. The company will also provide free ebooks from DK publishing via its McPlay Happy Meal app.

"There are 242 schools in the School District of Philadelphia. Only 16 librarians are left standing across that line. And what my [former] city colleagues tell me, is that NO Philadelphia public high schools have certified school librarians," writes Joyce Valenza. "Consider this divide."

Through the innovative Business Book Link Project, dozens of small local businesses in western Massachusetts have adopted elementary and middle schools in order to supply underserved kids with hundreds of books. The program is the brainchild of Link to Libraries, a Springfield, MA-based literacy group that also operates in Connecticut, Vermont, and New York.

At NBC’s fourth annual Education Nation Summit this week, libraries were more visible than in the past. The event strives to engage the public in solution-focused discussion about improving education and preparing American students for the jobs of the future. This year, the summit tackled the question of “What It Takes” to outfit students for success.