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I want to thank the Horn Book, Simmons College, and Boston Globe staff who worked so hard to make this year’s Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards and Horn Book at Simmons Colloquium: “Transformations” a big success. You can see a photo album of the events on our website, and look forward to the January/February 2016 issue of the Horn Book Magazine for coverage of the weekend (including, for the many who have asked, Susan Cooper’s inspiring keynote speech). Next year marks the fiftieth anniversary of BGHB and we are planning for a big celebration!

Roger Sutton
Editor in Chief

The post From the Editor — October 2015 appeared first on The Horn Book.

Five questions for Duncan Tonatiuh
Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh, Abrams, 6–9 years.
Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh, Abrams, 6–9 years.

Tricks and treats
I Used to Be Afraid by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, Roaring Brook/Porter, 3–6 years.
The Fun Book of Scary Stuff written by Emily Jenkins, illus. by Hyewon Yum, Farrar/Foster, 5–8 years.
Mummy Cat written by Marcus Ewert , illus. by Lisa Brown, Clarion, 5–8 years.
Written and Drawn by Henrietta by Liniers, TOON, 6–9 years.

Not-scary magic
Sadie’s Story [Backyard Witch] written by Christine Heppermann and Ron Koertge, illus. by Deborah Marcero, Greenwillow, 7–10 years.
Pip Bartlett’s Guide to Magical Creatures Jackson Pearce and Maggie Stiefvater, illus. by Maggie Stiefvater, Scholastic, 7–10 years.
Upside-Down Magic by Sarah Mlynowski, Emily Jenkins, and Lauren Myracle, Scholastic, 7–10 years.
Switch by Ingrid Law, Dial, 9–12 years.

Really scary middle grade
The Nest written by Kenneth Oppel, illus. by Jon Klassen, Simon, 10–12 years.
Took by Mary Downing Hahn, Clarion, 10–12 years.
Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith, Houghton, 10–12 years.
The Accidental Afterlife of Thomas Marsden by Emma Trevayne, Simon, 10–12 years.

Pick your poison
Slasher Girls & Monster Boys, stories selected by April Genevieve Tucholke, Dial, 14 years and up.
Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton, Scholastic, 13–16 years.
13 Days of Midnight by Leo Hunt, Candlewick, 13–16 years.
This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee, HarperCollins/Tegen, 11–14 years.

These titles were featured in the October 2015 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.

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Horrifying Hymenoptera, frightening faeries, malicious magick, and creepy corpses come out to play in these chilling middle-grade novels.

Steve’s baby brother comes back from the hospital sick (“there was something wrong with his heart and his eyes and his brain”) and needing lots of care, so his parents don’t pay much attention when Steve develops a fear of the wasps in the backyard. The boy finds comfort in a recurring dream in which a compassionate voice offers to make everything better: all Steve must do is say yes, and his dream confidante will turn her promise of a healthy baby into reality. In his (terrifying!) book The Nest, Kenneth Oppel’s language is straightforward, but the emotional resonance is deep. Jon Klassen‘s full-page black-and-white drawings — simple, but with maximum impact, in shades of light, dark, and darker — astutely capture the magnitude of a child’s imagination when he can rely only upon himself. (Simon, 10–12 years)

In Mary Downing Hahn‘s Took, Daniel’s family abruptly leaves Connecticut for a simpler lifestyle in West Virginia after Daniel’s father loses his job. Daniel and his little sister, Erica, find their new dilapidated home and the woods that surround it frightening, and the kids at school tease them with scary tales of a strange old woman, a man-eating razorback hog, and a little girl who disappeared from their house fifty years before. Daniel does not believe these stories, but Erica becomes progressively stranger, withdrawing from her family and obsessing over her look-alike doll, Little Erica. Told alternatingly through Daniel’s first-person narration and a third-person omniscient narrator, the story spookily — and effectively — weaves in the oral tradition of folklore, legends, and ghost stories. (Clarion, 10–12 years)

Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith is a creepy Southern Gothic ghost story focused on the insular 1930s black community of Sardis, Alabama. Folks there believe in equal measure in their God and in folk magick (or “hoodoo”). Twelve-year-old Hoodoo Hatcher doesn’t have a speck of magick in him—or so he thinks. When a Stranger, a nasty, foul-smelling incarnation of evil, comes to town Hoodoo discovers the magick deep within himself and the strength and heart to summon it. Filled with folk and religious symbols, the story is steeped in time and place. Hoodoo’s earnest first-person narrative reveals a believable innocent who can “cause deeds great and powerful.” (Clarion, 10–12 years)

While out grave-robbing one night, Thomas Marsden — star of The Accidental Afterlife of Thomas Marsden — digs up a corpse that looks exactly like him. In his hand the dead boy is holding tickets to a performance by the famous spiritualist Mordecai, along with a note bearing the instruction Speak to no one. As it turns out, Thomas is of faerie descent, and his people have been enslaved by Mordecai. As the last surviving member of the royal line, it’s up to Thomas to break Mordecai’s enchantment. Author Emma Trevayne plays her cards close to the vest, slowly doling out clues; the central drama — Thomas’s decision whether to help the faeries despite having been rejected by them at birth — makes it worth the wait. By the end, the boy’s humanity holds the key to the faeries’ salvation, leading to a satisfying resolution. (Simon, 10–12 years)

From the October 2015 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.

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Not everyone wants the pants scared off of them on Halloween. Some people like their witches sweet and their HobGrackles cuddly.

Sadie’s Story, the first in the Backyard Witch series by Christine Heppermann and Ron Koertge, introduces readers to nine-year-old Sadie, her cat — and the small witch who takes up residence in the plastic playhouse by Sadie’s family’s garage. Morgan, a.k.a. Ms. M., may be somewhat unreliable with spells and hexes, but she’s great company and quick with a gag. Best of all, she’s a birdwatcher witch, or ornithomancer, and Sadie herself soon gets bitten by the birding bug. Sprightly prose will pull in chapter book readers, and spot illustrations by Deborah Marcero keep the page design lively. (Greenwillow, 7–10 years)

Though her father is headmaster of the prestigious Sage Academy of Magic and Performance, Nory’s own magic is wonky. After a disastrous showing at her Sage Academy entrance exam, Dad sends Nory to live with eccentric Aunt Margo to attend a school that offers a special program for “the worst of the wonky.” Upside-Down Magic is a collaboration among three authors — Sarah Mlynowski, Emily Jenkins, and Lauren Myracle — and there’s no telling who did what, in a good way: the writing is seamless. The book is light but not inconsequential, and its multicultural and differently-abled cast will be welcomed by a broad audience. (Scholastic, 7–10 years)

After a unicorn mishap at school, the nine-year-old (human) protagonist of Pip Bartlett’s Guide to Magical Creatures is sent to her aunt’s for the summer, where she helps run the family’s veterinary clinic. Then the town is infested with Fuzzles (combustible dustlike creatures that live in underwear drawers), and Pip and her pals — plus a scaredy-cat unicorn — investigate. Jackson Pearce and Maggie Stiefvater’s fast-paced prose is lively, witty, and gripping. Stiefvater’s black-and-white textured illustrations show the griffins, HobGrackles, and other magical creatures that inhabit Pip’s world. An accessible fantasy for independent readers not yet ready for Rowling. (Scholastic, 7–10 years)

Gypsy Beaumont, star of Ingrid Law’s Switch (and little sister of Savvy protagonist Mibs), has just turned thirteen and is starting to get the hang of her particular magical ability, or savvy — seeing people’s pasts and futures — when things go “wackadoo.” Soon after envisioning her own death (or so she thinks), Gypsy loses her original savvy and gains a surprising new one: stopping time. This comes in handy as her mother, big-brother Samson, and little-brother Tucker reluctantly travel to Colorado, through a blizzard, to retrieve prickly Grandma Pat, suffering from “Old-timer’s disease,” as Tucker calls it. In typical Law fashion, whimsy abounds, with vibrant supporting characters and helter-skelter pacing. (Dial, 9–12 years)

From the October 2015 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.

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Spiders, trolls, mummified cats, and monsters with three heads. Oh, my! Perfect for Halloween story hours, here are four new picture books that will give young audiences something to be (not too) frightened about. For more new recommended Halloween picture books, see 2015 Horn Boo!

I Used to Be Afraid by Laura Vaccaro Seeger is a great courage booster for kids with pre-Halloween jitters. “I used to be afraid of SPIDERS,” a young girl begins. Turn the page — which features a die-cut arachnid — and the spider shows up against a large, beautiful web. “But not anymore,” the girl declares. She also used to be afraid of the dark, being alone, etc., and with each page-turn we see how she overcame that fear. The book’s thick, glossy pages offer enticing colors and simple images with open spaces. Change, shadows, a brother in a monster mask — each die-cut works effectively to turn something-to-fear into something-not-so-scary. (Roaring Brook/Porter, 3–6 years)

In Emily Jenkins’s The Fun Book of Scary Stuff, a boy shares with his two dogs the many things that scare him (e.g., monsters, witches, trolls, the school crossing guard). While the pug seems sympathetic, the self-proclaimed “bravest dog ever” bull terrier is unimpressed by the child’s fears. When it comes to the dark, though, the bull terrier freaks out, and his terror pushes the boy to take charge. Hyewon Yum’s expressive pictures show scary things that aren’t that scary — and illustrate the reassuring fact that everyone gets the willies. (Farrar/Foster, 5–8 years)

“Deep within this maze of stone, / a creature wakes up, all alone.” This creature is the feline star of Mummy Cat by Marcus Ewert, set in ancient Egypt among the sphinx and the pyramids. As he does every one hundred years, the mummy cat emerges from a small coffin to search for his mistress-in-life, “the girl-queen, Hat-shup-set.” He prowls the pyramid, looking wistfully at paintings on the wall that depict their happy life together. Lisa Brown’s cleverly composed illustrations enhance the eerie ancient atmosphere. Information on Egyptian burial customs and a key to hieroglyphic messages in the pictures are appended. (Clarion, 5–8 years)

In Written and Drawn by Henrietta (really written and drawn by cartoonist Liniers), young Henrietta uses her brand-new colored pencils to create a nail-bitingly thrilling story about a girl named Emily and the three-headed monster that emerges from her wardrobe one night. The adventure — in which Emily joins the scary-looking but actually friendly monster in the Narnia-like wardrobe and braves another, truly terrifying monster—is depicted in brightly colored, messy, dramatic scrawls. Neat panels, meanwhile, show Henrietta drawing the story — and cleverly commenting on its progress. A Spanish version, Escrito y dibujado por Enriqueta, is also available. (TOON, 6–9 years)

From the October 2015 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.

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