Class is over, the January magazine has printed, and it's pretty slow here at the Horn Book office. But what should be a lovely empty schedule ideal for blog posting is being being filled with lots of important tasks that have been on the back burner and need to be done in 2016.

This is all to say that we won't be posting anything else here until January — but we have several posts that just need a little tweaking, so check back in two weeks for new content. There will be posts from Christina Dobbs, Teddy Kokoros, Briana Chan, and a bibliography of books about Ancient Egypt from current student Joyce Rafla. My aim will be to post twice a week until Lauren Adams's adolescent literature class book discussion starts January 24.

If you want to get a head start on Lauren's reading here's the list she sent me — subject to change but mostly final:


Class #1, January 24

• Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2013)


• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (Delacorte, 2014)


• E. Lockhart interview from The Guardian, Aug. 19 2014

Class #2, January 31

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Little, 2007)


• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (Nancy Paulsen, 2014)


• Read Sherman Alexie's June 2011 Wall Street Journal article, “Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood”

Class #3, February 7

• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2010)


• Read one of these two books:
  
  
  
  • Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steven Sheinkin (Roaring Book Press, 2015)
  
  
  • No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson (Carolrhoda, 2012)
  
  
  
  


• Spend 1 hour browsing one of these two information books:
  
  
  
  • Claudette Colvin by Phillip Hoose (Farrar, 2009)
  
  
  • Marching For Freedom by Elizabeth Partridge (Viking, 2009)
  
  
  
  


• Read Rita Williams-Garcia’s profile and CSK acceptance speech, both from the Horn Book Magazne

Class #4, February 14

• Feed by M. T. Anderson (Candlewick, 2002)


• Far Far Away by Tom McNeal (Knopf, 2013; pb Ember 2014)


• Read article “Hot Dog, Katsa!” by Kristin Cashore from January 2010 Horn Book Magazine

Class #5, February 28

• The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Scholastic, 2007)


• The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís (Farrar, 2007)


• Read one of these graphic narratives:
  
  
  
  • Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang (First Second, 2013) [these are companion volumes]
  
  
  • This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki  (First Second, 2014)
  
  
  
  


• Read Gene Luen Yang’s 2014 National Book Festival speech (link not available)


• Robert C. Harvey’s “In Graphic Novels, The Pictures Are the Story”

Class #6, March 7

• When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb, 2009)


• A Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos (Farrar, 2002)


• “(Very Eventually) The Zena Sutherland Lecture” by Jack Gantos, The Horn Book Magazine