Hello friends:

One big thing this week has been the announcement of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards, which took place on Wednesday before the start of SLJ’s virtual Day of Dialog, which was a big success. And our job now is to figure out what October’s BGHB award ceremony is going to look like. Congratulations to all the awardees and thank you to the judges and Horn Book staff for excellent work.

The other big thing is finishing up the editorial and design work on the July/August issue of the Magazine. This issue is always tricky in one way or another, because most of the people contributing to it — the Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, and Legacy Award winners — are, since the January announcement of their winning, very busy. And, truth be told, I wasn’t at all sure we would even get the speeches, as the time, place, and manner for the delivery of those speeches was, until very recently, up in the air. BUT WE’VE GOT ʼEM ALL, with the considerable bonus of a glorious cover by Caldecott Medalist Kadir Nelson. You’ll see.

My recreational reading this week is bouncing between a new biography of Dorothy Day (by John Loughery) with another of Jessica Mitford (by Leslie Brody), two Great Ladies who shared some of the same causes as well as some of the same friends. It can get a bit like watching a BBC mystery and you see That Guy From the Other BBC Mystery and the stories get mixed up in your head. My head, anyway, and it’s a pleasant kind of muddle. I hope your reading is providing similar pleasure/shelter/inspiration. (See another round of recommendations, this time from my brother-in-law Cris).

Love,

Roger