August Notes from the Horn Book

August's Notes from the Horn Book is available now. Here's what to expect this issue:
- five questions for historian and scholar Marc Aronson
- More new nonfiction
- Concept books with a twist
- YA sequels
- Books of interest to adults
- updates on the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards ceremony and Horn Book at Simmons

Sign up here!

Save the date—BGHB Awards and Horn Book at Simmons

The office is starting to buzz about the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards taking place Friday, September 30, and the Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium, happening Saturday, October 1. On Friday night, BGHB judges Jennifer Brabander, Robin Brenner, and Dean Schneider will present the awards to this year's winners and honorees:

Fiction
Winner: Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones
Honor book: Chime by Franny Billingsley
Honor book: Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke, illustrated by Lauren Tobia

Nonfiction
Winner: The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin
Honor book: Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air by Stewart Ross, illustrated by Stephen Biesty
Honor book: Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins, illustrated by Vicky White

Picture book
Winner: Pocketful of Posies by Salley Mavor
Honor book: Pecan Pie Baby by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Sophie Blackall
Honor book: Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen

The ceremony will be followed by a reception with the winners. Mosey over to our website to see video and pictures of last year's (and previous years') awards festivities.

Join us the next day for the Horn Book at Simmons colloquium, led by Horn Book editor in chief Roger Sutton and Cathie Mercier, director of the Simmons Center for the Study of Children's Literature. Entitled "Engaging Worlds, Real and Imagined," the colloquium will feature all three of this year's winners (and many more speakers) in presentations, panels, and workshops. Registration for the colloquium includes an invite to Friday's awards ceremony. Sign up here!

Upcoming stars

Starred reviews appearing in the September/October Horn Book Magazine:

- The Haunted Hamburger and Other Ghostly Stories by David LaRochelle; illus. by Paul Meisel (Dutton) - A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka (Schwartz & Wade)
- Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (Farrar)
- Secrets at Sea by Richard Peck; illus. by Kelly Murphy (Dial)
- The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic by Allan Wolf (Candlewick)
- Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin (Holt)
- A Little Bitty Man and Other Poems for the Very Young by Halfdan Rasmussen; trans. from the Danish by Marilyn Nelson and Pamela Espeland; illus. by Kevin Hawkes (Candlewick)
- Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet Below the Chilean Desert by Marc Aronson (Atheneum)
- Orani: My Father’s Village by Claire A. Nivola (Foster/Farrar)
- Feynman by Jim Ottaviani; illus. by Leland Myrick; color by Hilary Sycamore (First Second)
- Drawing from Memory by Allen Say (Scholastic)
- Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman; illus. by Beth Krommes (Houghton)

Congratulations!

Newest Notes out today

July's Notes from the Horn Book will be hitting inboxes in about an hour. Here's what to expect this issue:
- five questions for illustrator Sophie Blackall
- Sophie's recent picture books
- picture book bios
- brand-new middle-grade fiction
- fresh perspectives on tough topics in YA
- updates on the Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards ceremony and Horn Book at Simmons

Sign up here!

Drumroll, please!

The 2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award recipients are:

Fiction
Winner: Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones (Candlewick)
Honor: Chime by Franny Billingsley (Dial)
Honor: Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke (Kane Miller)

Nonfiction
Winner: The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin (Flash Point/Roaring Brook)
Honor: Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air by Stewart Ross, illustrated by Stephen Biesty (Candlewick)
Honor: Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins, illustrated by Vicky White (Candlewick)

Picture Book
Winner: Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes by Salley Mavor (Houghton)
Honor: Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by
Rick Allen (Houghton)
Honor: Pecan Pie Baby by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Sophie Blackall (Putnam)

This year's winners were selected by chair Jennifer Brabander, Robin Brenner, and Dean Schneider. The BGHB Awards ceremony will be held on September 30th at Simmons College. Join us the next day for The Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium, featuring this year's winners in presentations, conversations, and workshops. Register now!

What do the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation and the Horn Book have in common?

We both gave Laurel Croza and I Know Here an award.

In response to winning the Boston Globe–Horn Book Picture Book Award, Laurel said,

That’s me, flash-frozen in disbelief—“whaaaaat!?!”—since I heard I Know Here won a 2010 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. Way, way, way beyond my daydreaming orbit, the news too surreal, too out-of-this-world abstract to hold in my mind for longer than a few seconds." (Read more...)

Congratulations on winning the 2011 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award, Laurel! We hope this time the news feels a little more real.

Laurel and I Know Here illustrator Matt James at the 2010 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards reception

(And congrats to Tao Nyeu and Bunny Days for the New Illustrator Award win!)