Best Horn Book Cover Ever?

My long-awaited copy of the January/February 2012 issue of The Horn Book arrived today and it is gorgeous.  The cover illustration is by Salley Mavor, who illustrated the 2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book picture book award winner, Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; link is to my review). You can see and read more about the process of making the cover illustration (I love the way she renders the Horn Book logo in particular. Also the little girl dressed as a lamb) and enter a poster giveaway on Salley's blog, or just order your poster directly from The Horn Book.

I've been a Horn Book subscriber for two years now (the inside of the magazine is just as good). Other favorite covers are Marla Frazee's hollow tree (May/June 2011), which also appears in her illustrations for the picture book Stars by Mary Lyn Ray (Beach Lane Books, 2011); and Anita Lobel's guardian angel (November/December 2010).

Which are your favorites? [There are lots more to choose from in the Horn Book Magazine's gallery of covers, too.]

National Hispanic Heritage Month Roundup

Let's celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month! From September 15 to October 15, the Library of Congress officially recognizes the "histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America." Here's a roundup of children's and YA book reviews, author interviews, and more to help get the fiesta started at your house.

Picture books

Jeff reviews The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred by Samantha Vamos (illustrated by Rafael Lopez; Charlesbridge, 2011) at NC Teacher Stuff (thanks, Jeff!).  Note: The Books Together Test Kitchen is making arroz con leche using the farm maiden's recipe. Review coming soon!

Author Monica Brown shares "the story behind the story" of Waiting for the Biblioburro (illustrated by John Parra; Tricycle Press, 2011) at Paper Tigers.

Tasha reviews Tia Isa Wants a Car by Meg Medina (illustrated by Claudio Munoz; Candlewick, 2011) at Waking Brain Cells.

Roberta reviews Ellen Ochoa: The First Hispanic Woman Astronaut (PowerKids Press, 2001) at Wrapped in Foil.  In honor of World Space Week and National Hispanic Heritage Month!

Chapter books and middle grade novels

Alma Flor Ada and her son and co-author Gabriel Zubizarreta (Dancing Home; Atheneum, 2011) talk about immigration and collaboration in an interview at Kirkus Reviews. See Alma's website for more reviews of Dancing Home, which is also available in a Spanish edition (Nacer bailando). The gorgeous cover art is by Edel Rodriguez.

Charlotte reviews The Cheshire Cheese Cat by Cuban-American author Carmen Agra Deedy (and Randall Wright; illustrated by Barry Moser; Peachtree, 2011) at Charlotte's Library.

And her favorite Hispanic-themed children's book of the year, Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes (Chronicle, 2010).

Young Adult

Charlotte also reviewed The Queen of Water by Laura Resau and Maria Virginia Farinango (Delacorte, 2011) at Charlotte's Library. See Laura's website for the story behind this important book, and her blog for the inside scoop on its gorgeous cover. [Extra thanks to Charlotte for helping me to populate this list!]

Deviant (Adrian McKinty, Abrams, 2011), a YA novel with a Latino main character, reviewed at Finding Wonderland (thanks, Sarah and Tanita!).

 
For your consideration

The Heartland Chapter of REFORMA has posted a list of titles under consideration for their 2011 Mock Pura Belpre Award Session. This list is a great place to look for children's books by Latin American authors and illustrators, very much in the spirit of National Hispanic Heritage Month.

Please leave a comment if you would like to contribute a post to the National Hispanic Heritage Month roundup, and I'll add it to the list. ¡Muchísimas gracias a todos!

Nonfiction Monday

Welcome to Nonfiction Monday at books together! My contribution is Me, Frida by Amy Novesky, illustrated by David Diaz (Abrams, 2010), which won a Pura Belpre Illustrator Honor this year. Please comment with a link to your Nonfiction Monday post (and a brief description if you'd like), and I'll round them up here throughout the day.  Thanks for participating in this edition of Nonfiction Monday!

Amy at Hope is the Word reviews Martin Jenkins's new book about endangered species. I've read Can We Save the Tiger? and agree that it is gorgeous.

The Coelocanth is in the news again! Robin of Bookmuse knows where to find more information about this mysterious fish.

Alex as The Children's War reviews a workbook for teaching World War II using primary sources. Be sure to check out Alex's other reviews of World War II-themed books for children and young adults, too.

Roberta at Wrapped in Foil has a glowing review of the newest book by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long, A Butterfly is Patient.

Jennifer at Jean Little Library reviews Puppet Play, a craft book that would be great for a teen puppet program.

Jeff at NC Teacher Stuff reviews an Augmented Reality book about dinosaurs from DK.

And Lori at Lori Calabrese Writes! reviews National Geographic's Dinosaurs for emerging readers.

Shirley at SimplyScience reviews Hummingbirds by Jeanette Larson and Adrienne Yorinks, which offers an interesting combination of facts and folklore about hummingbirds.

Roll up your sleeves for Nonfiction Book Blast's projects from Explorers of the New World by Carla Mooney.

Tammy at Apples with Many Seeds is looking at all kinds of animal eggs.

Brenda at Proseandkahn writes about forces of nature.

Carol at Rasco from RIF features an ABC book that tells a story.

Paula at Pink Me is in with a review of Flesh and Blood So Cheap by Albert Marrin, a middle grade book about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that took place one hundred years ago this year.

At Bookends today Cindy and Lynn review Meadowlands by Thomas F. Yezerski.

Heidi at Geo Librarian reviews Tom Thumb: The Remarkable True Story of a Man in Miniature by George Sullivan.

Jeanne at True Tales and a Cherry on Top reviewed a picture book biography of artist Josef Albers specifically for books together.  Thank you, Jeanne! N.b., Jeanne's next picture book, My Hands Sing the Blues: Romare Bearden's Childhood Journey (illustrated by Elizabeth Zinon, will be out in September.

And Anastasia Suen is in with Spiky, Splimy, Smooth: What is Texture at Picture Book of the Day and The Story of Oil: How it Changed the World at Chapter Book of the Day.

Thanks, everyone!

A Family of Readers

Many thanks to the folks at the Horn Book, who recently sent me a copy of A Family of Readers: The Book Lover's Guide to Children's and Young Adult Literature (Candlewick, 2010), signed by editors Roger Sutton and Martha V. Parravano. I've been dipping into A Family of Readers here and there since it arrived, concentrating on the chapters about genre, nonfiction, and Girl and Boy Books in Part Three: Reading on Their Own. Each section closes with a list of More Great books of that particular sort, and since I tend to like what the Horn Book likes (see: this year's Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winners), I'm usually either nodding my head in agreement or adding titles to my TBR list. [Roger and Martha were at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast when A Family of Readers first came out to note which new books they would have liked to include, too.]

On a related note, the Horn Book is starting a new blog, Calling Caldecott. A companion to SLJ's Newbery blog, Heavy Medal, Calling Caldecott will also run from early fall through the winter (basically award season for children's books). And now that I've taken KT Horning's Caldecott class, I hope to be able to contribute something to Calling Caldecott other than its name.

Why couldn't I have come up with something catchier when I named this blog, though?