Special issue: Breaking the Rules

Original cover art by Jarrett J. Krosoczka.

“Rule Breakers”: essays and comics from Nina Crews, Kacen Callender, Remy Lai, Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, Jasmine Warga, Lisa Brown, Kevin Noble Maillard, Martha Brockenbrough, Amy Sarig King, Lesléa Newman, Gene Luen Yang, Lynne Rae Perkins, Steve Sheinkin, and Naomi Shihab Nye about a time they broke the rules.

Roger Sutton and fellow longtime reviewer Betsy Hearne chat about books that broke the rules.

“How Do You Solve a Problem like Nonfiction?” The Horn Book editors examine which books belong in the Magazine’s Nonfiction section — and which don’t.

“Give Me a Decent Bottle of Poison”: author Marthe Jocelyn on concocting a middle-grade murder mystery — with an Agatha Christie twist.

“Our Modern Minstrelsy”: author Kekla Magoon reflects on Black stories written within a white publishing paradigm.

Straightlaced kid Celia C. Pérez on growing into an author who creates boundary-pushing protagonists.

Happy Anniversary: Cathryn M. Mercier wishes David Macaulay’s Black and White a happy thirtieth birthday.

Cadenza: Shoshana Flax gives a makeover to “The House That Jack Built” — which needs a break.