Horn Book: family reading issue.

A new issue of the Horn Book has arrived in the library. It's theme is family reading and you'll find articles such as  What makes a good book for all ages, Boy books and Girl books. In addition, in Reading on the spectrum, Ashley Waring writes about the reading experiences of her two sons, one of whom is autistic, and Leonard Marcus discusses The size of things in relation to picture books - giant or miniature? Size matters.

The Horn Book is a US publication so the reviews aren't always relevant here, but the articles are usually interesting and you can keep up to date online via http://www.hbook.com/ - they have a blog and newsletter.

Find the Horn Book going back to 1964 on the Serials Gallery at S808. If you check our catalogue, SUPrimo, you can also access it electronically (Strathclyde staff and students only).

Horn Book - the trouble issue.

A fascinating edition of the Horn Book has just come in, which is billed as a salute to troublemakers. There are several articles on censorship and challenged or banned books*(see Betsy Hearne, Susan Patron and Pat Scales); Madelyn Travis writes about the Middle East conflict in British children's books; Marc Aronson bemoans the problems of writing non-fiction in the age of Google; Stephen Roxburgh reminisces about his time as Roald Dahl's editor; Rukhsana Khan discusses stereotyping of ethnic minorities and Lelac Almagor discusses narratives for black urban children. As if all that wasn't enough, there are shorter pieces interspersed with the main articles in which authors remember times when they were in (or caused) trouble.

* To follow up on this idea, see our own Banned Books list of controversial titles. Some of them will surprise you!

Neil Gaiman and the Newbery Medal

See the July/August Horn Book for Neil Gaiman's Newbery Medal acceptance speech (he won for The graveyard book), plus an article about him by his editor, Elise Howard. The book, about a boy raised by ghosts, has won other awards since the Newbery, picking up the Hugo best novel prize at the fantasy convention Worldcon in Montreal recently, as reported in the Guardian last week.

Horn Book

The May/June issue of The Horn Book Magazine has just arrived. It has a running theme of "Food for thought" with various food-related snippets, and a longer article by Linda Sue Park: Still hot: great food moments in children's literature. Food is deeply ingrained in our different cultures - apparently, it is only the fourth thing that immigrants lose through the generations after dress, language and religion. Park approaches the subject both as a writer (using food can identify characters and settings, and putting people together to develop relationships is easily done over a meal) and as a reader (she goes through each meal of the day picking out favourite passages from books). I was delighted that for dinner she picked a section from one of my favourite books - Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt. Not read it? Then you're missing a wonderful heroine, Dicey Tillerman, who leads her younger siblings on a walk hundreds of miles long to reach their estranged grandmother when their mother disappears. It's the start of a series, so lots more in store after that.

Other articles include an interview with Sarah Dessen. I hadn't heard of her, but we do have one of her books, Truth about forever (Puffin, 2008), a teenage novel in which the death of the heroine's father takes place before the book actually begins, but sets in motion all the things that happen to her. Lizza Aiken writes about her mother, the respected children's author Joan Aiken, and Debby Dahl Edwardson writes about the implications of worldview in children's books, those that reflect the child's own worldview and those that allow them insight into another culture. She uses the experience of her own children growing up in Alaska to illustrate this. Finally, Janet Hamilton asks What makes a good science book?

Check out the Horn Book in the library, or see its website.

Margaret Mahy

The latest Notes from the Horn Book features an interview with Margaret Mahy, the veteran author from New Zealand. Since 1969, when her first book was published, Mahy has written for every age group, from picture book readers to teenagers. She's won many awards, including the Carnegie Medal twice for The Haunting and The Changeover - the latter was the first of her books I ever read. It's a powerful, supernatural romance which I strongly recommend. In 2006, she also won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, which is given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to honour an author who has made a lasting contribution to international children's literature. For more information about Margaret Mahy, see the pages from Christchurch City Libraries where she worked before becoming a full time writer, and see our library catalogue for a list of the titles we hold.

The Horn Book

The Horn Book for March/April 2009 has arrived. One of the longer articles, and several shorter columns, examine the importance of words and letters. For example, in A friendship of words (pp. 137-145), Susan Fletcher describes her relationship with her Iranian translator, whom she never met. She uses their friendship to illustrate that people need books from other countries to learn about the world.

In The adventures of Mommy Buzzkill (pp. 149-152), Catherine Gilbert Murdock asks: why are mothers so often absent in children’s adventure stories? Think about A series of unfortunate events, The secret garden and The lion the witch and the wardrobe, to name just a few from different periods. Murdock thinks mothers would be what she calls giant "buzzkills" - constantly advising "wear your helmet, finish your homework first", etc. She concludes that this is not to denigrate motherhood but to idealise it - a mother can't be in a story in which a child might need protection because she would instantly rush to his / her defence thus removing all danger and spirit of adventure.

In The campaign for shiny futures (pp. 155-161), Farah Mendlesohn asks why science fiction for children and teenagers doesn't get the same attention or respect as fantasy. She thinks that SF readers often have different priorities - they want literature to give them ideas and information and to teach them about the world, whereas realistic or fantasy fiction is more concerned with relationships and emotions.

Finally, Joanna Rudge Long, pp. 171-178, asks "What makes a good Three little pigs?" Answer (after comparing several versions): Some pigs!

Don't forget about The Horn Book website, including its newsletter, blog and podcasts.

Mo Willems

Mo Willems is the author, amongst other titles, of Don't let the pigeon drive the bus! - a very popular book in this library. The latest Notes from the Horn Book (an email newsletter) features an interview with him.

Notes from The Horn Book

I've blogged before about the Horn Book and its various spin-offs. Their latest email newsletter has just come out - Notes from the Hornbook. For this first month of the year, and with a big First in the offing (new American President), they've decided to focus on some other Firsts: novels, chapters, eggs, and groundbreakers. Of particular interest to British readers is an interview with Sally Nicholls, whose first book Ways to live forever, a novel for eight- to twelve-year-olds, won last years' Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize. The book takes on a tough subject — the death of a child — and narrates the story in the voice of eleven-year-old Sam, who is dying of leukemia. It is honest, heartbreaking, and richly funny, as Sam deals with his parents, his wishes, and the “Questions Nobody Answers.” (See my last post for details of another article about Sally Nicholls). The section on eggs (which came FIRST, the chicken or...) is an amusing idea, though we might not have all the books here. You can sign up to the newsletter here.

Horn Book

Here are some highlights of the November / December issue of the Horn Book Magazine - Vol 84 (6):

Greenstone, D. (2008). Ain’t I great! The problem with self-esteem, pp. 675-680.
A history of the concept of self-esteem and how books can promote it.

McDonnell, C. (2008). Safe passages, pp. 667-673.
What makes a good early-expert-reader book?

Roxburgh, S., Ruth, S. & Ferriter, B. (2008). When e- is for reading, pp. 633-643.
Three children’s book experts share their thoughts about the future of reading in a screen-based world.

Wynne-Jones, Tim. (2008). Tink and Wittgenstein: or, the correspondence between things, pp. 658-662.
Text of a talk ranging over philosophy, the meaning of language and Peter Pan.

Don't forget the Horn Book website where you can access some of the magazine's content, read the editor's blog, sign up for a monthly newsletter or subscribe to their podcast. The last email newsletter contained, for example, an interview with Mini Grey, author of Traction Man.

The Horn Book

The Horn Book Magazine is an American publication about books for children and young adults. The current edition (May / June 2008) has a theme about family reading, which starts with an article by Megan Lambert in which she writes about looking for books that reflect her family’s reality:

Lambert, M. (2008), Reading about families in my family. Horn Book, 84(3), pp. 261-263.

This is followed by a number of short contributions from parents (who are also writers) on how they encouraged their children to read.

Major articles include an interview with Rudine Sims Bishop who has contributed significantly to the scholarship dealing with African American children’s literature:

Horning, K. (2008). An interview with Rudine Sims Bishop. Horn Book, 84(3), pp. 247-259

Susan Cooper, author of the Dark is Rising sequence argues fantasy writers provide parables to explain life’s mysteries:

Cooper, S. (2008). Unriddling the world. Horn Book, 84(3), pp. 271-281.

Patty Campbell writes about a trend for young adult literature to feature dead characters:

Campbell, P. (2008). YA lit and the deathly fellows. Horn Book, 84(3), pp. 357-361.

Finally, Anne Quirk contributes to the ongoing controversy over whether Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is anti-religion:

Quirk, A. (2008). God knows, Philip Pullman. Horn Book, 84(3), pp. 362-3.

The Horn Book also has a website where you can access some of the magazine's content, read the editor's blog, sign up for a monthly newsletter or subscribe to their podcast.

The Horn Book

The Horn Book Magazine is an American publication about books for children and young adults. The current edition (March / April 2008) has a running theme throughout where authors write brief articles about their relationships with their editors. Major articles include a consideration of what makes a good alphabet book by Lolly Robinson and an appreciation of the new (British) Children's Laureate, Michael Rosen, by Madelyn Travis.

The Horn Book also has a website where you can access some of the magazine's content, read the editor's blog, sign up for a monthly newsletter or subscribe to their podcast.