An Early Valentine for The Horn Book
I got my first issue of the new and improved Horn Book the other day.
Now, I’ll admit: when I heard that the Horn Book was going to freshen up its look, I felt like a certain mercurial little girl in the preschool class I used to teach. When we replaced the classroom marimba with a new model, she came stomping up to me, flung the mallets on the floor, and screamed, “I DON’T LIKE CHANGE!”
New Horn Book looks good, though. The design is elegant, and I have to admit that the addition of color really adds a lot to the review section (kind of difficult to judge color illustrations in black and white). And I suppose it makes the rest of the magazine snazzier*, though I liked the stately black and white of the old days too. Grumble grumble.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter though, because the good stuff is still there. One thing that sets the Horn Book apart from similar publications is the way it straddles the boundary between professional magazine, critical journal, and leisure reading for children’s lit geeks (big boundary!). It’s like a pretty, witty little literary salon, hosted by the inimitable Roger Sutton.
I do like the new content. Leonard Marcus is a welcome addition to the regular contributors, and the “Books in the Home” feature further expands the scope of the magazine. “What Makes a Good ___” has been around for a while now, looking at old formats from fresh perspectives.
In the end, though, it all comes down to the reviews. Well-written, honest, occasionally snarky, and almost always spot-on. For a librarian, ignoring a Horn Book review is like going against Tim’s advice on Project Runway: just not a good idea.
So yes. Horn Book, you can rouge yourself up all you like. I still love the horn-tootin’ grand dame underneath.
*Caveat: I am really not visually oriented, especially when I’m reading. I have been known to forget to look at the pictures in a graphic novel.
Your Fairy Bookmother 