Reviews+

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. Random House. 1974. (over the years, many reprints and imprints!) Library copy. The Plot: Trinity is a school ruled by an elite clique, The Vigils, and the person who runs that clique is Archie Costello. Archie creates  “assignments” for his fellow students: various stunts and pranks. Jerry is a [...]

If you like to wait for trade paperbacks, this week’s list is a treasure trove of titles! The fifth trade for Mega Man comes out this week from Archie Comics. BOOM! Studios has two for the adventurer and cat lover with the collection of Adventure Time: Marceline and the Scream Queens and Garfield, and IDW [...]

  Katie Bircher and Elissa Gershowitz bring you our annual list of summer reading recommendations for kids. Strictly recreational, of course, and librarians are welcome to place a “COMMON-CORE FREE!” sticker on the PDF. What about your own reading? I’m juggling audio editions of The Woman Upstairs and Inferno on my phone; The Oracle Glass and [...]

The post What’s on YOUR list? appeared first on The Horn Book.

They may be young, but teacher Arturo Avina’s talented kindergarteners are already celebrities in their own right. Students at the Los Angeles Unified School District Olympic Primary Center are the stars of a short-film adaptation of Harry G. Allard Jr.’s beloved children’s classic Miss Nelson Is Missing. Over the course of two months, Avina directed the youngsters, filmed the scenes, and, with the help of the budding actors, edited the movie with technology available in most classrooms.

This week's column takes a look at productions that incorporate music: an iPad app featuring a new setting for a classic counting tune, and iBooks that take children around the world as they drift off to asleep.

Teach your students how to use the MyPlate concept to develop healthy eating habits with Learning ZoneXpress’s What’s on MyPlate, an excellent DVD for middle and high school students.

Now, the next part of my readalong of The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. Previously: Chapters One to Ten. Chapters Eleven to Twenty. Chapters Twenty One to Thirty. Chapter Thirty One Jerry recognizes the bullies and is confronted by Janza. And, wait, really? “You live in the closet.” This is the big insult? “He wanted [...]

Dave Roman discusses his new release, Astronaut Academy: Re-Entry, the sequel to his first Astronaut Academy book. Here’s a sample to get you started: I pitched “Astronaut Academy” to First Second as two books, because a futuristic space station school is filled with endless possibilities. Book 1 establishes a world where people (like characters in [...]

I had a great time at the Children’s Literature Council of Southern California Spring Workshop last Saturday in South Pasadena. Kristin Fontichiaro and I each spoke about the Common Core State Standards, she offering a great perspective on the ways school and public librarians can support CCSS curriculums while I pondered what effects and implications [...]

The post California Core appeared first on The Horn Book.