"My hope is that in the future there will be more and more diversity in children's literature so that kids of all different backgrounds can see their cultures and histories depicted in the books they read." Illustration (c) 2024 by Duncan Tonatiuh. From the May/June 2024 special issue of The...
As a wide-eyed debut author in the century before this one, I had a kind of breathless regard for The Horn Book Magazine. It was partly the trim size, which somehow gave it a booklike heft and purpose. It was also the infrequency of its appearances — just six times...
It was a glistening gift that sparked an unforgettable celebration. In 2019, as the Coretta Scott King Book Awards approached their fiftieth anniversary, I called Horn Book Editor in Chief Roger Sutton with an idea: to create a commemorative issue solely devoted to the history, legacy, and future of the...
"An' they hollo'd, and they blew their horns, and general book pandemonium ensued..." Illustration (c) 2024 by Barbara McClintock. From the May/June 2024 special issue of The Horn Book Magazine: Our Centennial. For more Horn Book centennial coverage, click here. Find more in the "Blowing the Horn" series here. Art...
With Scott Green, Colonial Williamsburg's "Benedict Arnold." Photo courtesy of Steve Sheinkin. Back in June 2011, well before I was making a living as a writer, I got an email from Deirdre Langeland, my editor for The Notorious Benedict Arnold, which had come out the previous fall. The subject line...
M. T. Anderson: The first time I went to the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards, I was overwhelmed. I was a young man with only a couple of novels out, which had sold only a handful of copies, mainly to wincing relatives. This was back when YA was still considered the...
The author's childhood copy. Photo: Minh Lê. One of my favorite childhood picture books was A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams. In it, a community rallies to help a family following a devastating fire. Then, looking to move forward from the wreckage, the family starts collecting coins...
Early on the morning of August 1, 2022, I joined a group of hikers at the gates of what was once the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, and we set off on a six-day, 140-kilometer trek across southern Poland. Within a couple of hours, it became clear that I was in for...
We have it all Brilliance, talent, artists, writers, philosophers, scholars, educators, scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs, Activists, and me Illustration (c) by Frank Morrison. From the May/June 2024 special issue of The Horn Book Magazine: Our Centennial. For more Horn Book centennial coverage, click here. Find more in the "Blowing the Horn"...