All steamed up

As my friend and fellow blogger observed not long ago, “steam is so hot right now.”  This year has seen a mind-boggling number of steampunk-themed events in the northeast alone: International Steampunk City, which took over the town of Waltham for a weekend; a book tour for The Steam­punk Bible; an exhibit on steampunk aesthetic , form, and function at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation; The Steampunk World’s Fair three-day festival in New Jersey…  Whew! And the events just keep on coming, with next week’s performance of Valve: Antique Vaudeville Circus and the Museum of Industry’s ongoing Steampunk Calendar. Entranced by the wide, imaginative (or should I say “re-imaginative”?) world of steampunk, I recently read two short story collections that explore the ever-expanding boundaries of the genre.

In editor Trisha Telep's collection Corsets & Clockwork: 13 Steampunk Romances (Running Press, May), authors such as Caitlin Kittredge, Dia Reeves, Kiersten White, and Adrienne Kress write the steamier side of steampunk, where “technomagical and natural desires collide.” This naturally means lots of flirting and first kisses (with gorgeous automatons or gentlemen criminals, aboard airships, or after narrowly escaping mad inventors); it also entails deeper ethical concerns about technology, progress, and humanity’s impact on nature. Don’t miss contributor Dru Pagliassotti’s excellent essay “How Do I Write a Steampunk Story?” at Steamed!.

Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories edited by Kelly Link and Gavin Grant (Candlewick, October) goes even further in expanding the steampunk oeuvre—but you’ll have to wait for the September/October issue of The Horn Book Magazine to read my review. In the meantime, pilot your airship over to the website for our list of recommended steampunk-inspired reads.

—Katie Bircher

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!

July/August 2011 special issue: Awards

The July/August Horn Book Magazine is out, and selected articles are on our website, including profiles of the Newbery, Caldecott, and Wilder medalists and the CSK author and illustrator award recipients. And don't miss K.T. Horning's eye-opening "Secrecy and the Newbery Medal"...in which much history is related and several secrets revealed.

July/August starred reviews

The following titles will receive starred reviews in the July/August issue of The Horn Book Magazine:

- Naamah and the Ark at Night written by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, illustrated by Holly Meade (Candlewick)

- Bone Dog written and illustrated by Eric Rohmann (Roaring Brook)

- Press Here written and illustrated by Herve Tullet (Handprint/Chronicle)

- Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator! written and illustrated by Mo Willems (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)

- Queen of Hearts by Martha Brooks (Farrar)

- Anya’s Ghost written and illustrated by Vera Brosgol (First Second/Roaring Brook)

- Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard (Delacorte)

- This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel (Simon)

- I’ll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan (Little, Brown)

- When Apples Grew Noses and White Horses Flew: Tales of Ti-Jean written by Jan Andrews; illustrated by Dusan Petricic (Groundwood)