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3 weeks ago | 
hbook.com | Cathryn M. Mercier |Nancy Upper |Emma Otheguy |Betsy Groban
Metafiction calls attention to how narrative works within the narrative work. Crockett Johnson provides an early example. In Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955), the title characters collaborate to show off the elements of story and of picture book creation. Harold takes center stage as the primary character whose journey to walk in the moonlight begins once he takes the crayon in hand.
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1 month ago | 
hbook.com | Nancy Upper |Emma Otheguy |Betsy Groban |Karida Brown
Special Issue: Perception and RealityOriginal cover art by Edel Rodriguez. Cathryn M. Mercier on the “playground” of metafiction in picture books. A Publisher’s Perspective: Charlesbridge editor Karen Boss reflects on the “two-brained intersection” between creativity and commerce.
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2 months ago | 
hbook.com | Shifa Safadi |Emma Otheguy |Betsy Groban |Karida Brown
My name is Shifa,spelled S-h-i-f-a,for most of my life pronounced shee-fa,sometimes said Shiff-a,but really in Arabic it’s she-faa’ with an emphasisat the endlike a silent t...
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2 months ago | 
hbook.com | Emma Otheguy |Betsy Groban |Karida Brown |Charly Palmer
I first met Cuban-born translator Emily Carrero Mustelier through poet and translator Alexis Romay. I was working on my middle-grade novel Sofía Acosta Makes a Scene, a book about a girl whose family danced with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. Alexis read a draft of the book and immediately put me in touch with Emily, who had studied at the Escuela Nacional de Ballet in Cuba as a child.
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2 months ago | 
hbook.com | Betsy Groban |Karida Brown |Charly Palmer |Carole Weatherford
I recently picked up Philip Nel’s 2012 dual biography of children’s literature luminaries, Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children’s Literature, and was immediately riveted. Nel did amazing due diligence: eighty interviews! Nearly six hundred (unobtrusive) footnotes! Research at three dozen archives! All his work paid off handsomely.
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Sep 17, 2024 | 
publishersweekly.com | Betsy Groban
In March, I welcomed my fourth grandreader, a beautiful girl named Bhoomi, into the world and into our family. Her older brother, Ira, has already introduced her to many things, including books. So far she seems to prefer cloth books, preferably with mirrors (no surprise there), but we also get a kick out of reading and singing her namesake book, the rhythmic Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert.
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Aug 22, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Michelle Campbell |Heather Barrett |Betsy Groban |Jack Gantos
In honor of our centennial, we asked interns from over the years to share their reminiscences. After graduating with an English degree, I moved to Boston to take a publishing course. During my publishing program, I was able to intern at the Horn Book in the editorial department. Way back then in 2009, I knew I wanted to work with books and share important stories with young people. Interning at the Horn Book introduced me to what an incredible community the world of children's books can be.
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Aug 22, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Michelle Campbell |Heather Barrett |Betsy Groban |Marisa Finkelstein
In honor of our centennial, we asked interns from over the years to share their reminiscences. I was both an editorial and design intern at the Horn Book in the fall of 2012. It was my last internship before graduating from Emerson College as well as before I started a full-time job in book publishing. The editorial internship taught me a lot about metadata and data input, along with just how many books all children’s publishers put out over the span of several months (so many boxes to open!).
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Aug 21, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Heather Barrett |Betsy Groban |Jack Gantos |Tanya Lee Stone
In honor of our centennial, we asked interns from over the years to share their reminiscences. I was an intern during the summer of 2007, the year before I graduated from Wellesley College. At the time, I was trying to decide what I was going to do with my English major, and I felt a lot of discouragement and uncertainty.
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Aug 8, 2024 | 
hbook.com | Betsy Groban |Jack Gantos |Tanya Lee Stone |Steve Sheinkin
My connection with the Horn Book dates back to the regime of Ethel and Paul Heins. Perhaps because I was so young at the time, it seemed like the Red Sea parted whenever they arrived — always together, inseparable — at any children’s book gathering. Though they were small, tweedy, and rather unprepossessing, their encyclopedic knowledge of children’s books and their power (yes, power!) preceded them wherever they went. Now that I think of it, were they the first power couple in children’s books?
