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From the November/December 2023 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

The Horn Book Magazine and The Horn Book Guide are the most distinguished journals in the field of children’s and young adult literature and the core of our company. Founded in 1924 by Bertha Mahony to herald the best in children’s literature, more than eighty-five years later, we are still following her lead.

Writer and librarian Vaunda Micheaux Nelson has made something of a specialty of bringing hitherto under-recognized African American heroes into prominence. In Small Shoes, Great Strides: How Three Brave Girls Opened Doors to School Equality, Nelson and illustrator Alex Bostic celebrate three very young heroes — first graders — in the fight to desegregate a New Orleans public school in 1960.

With The Labors of Hercules Beal, Gary Schmidt brings back an old character, Danny Hupfer (first seen as a youth in The Wednesday Wars) to teach a few things to new character Hercules Beal, who lives on the far end of Cape Cod with his older brother, Achilles, after the death of their parents. Just twenty-six days after his retirement from college teaching, I talked to Gary about the labors of both Hercules and himself. 

With Say My Name, illustrated by Khoa Le, Joanna Ho adds to a body of picture-book work that respects and celebrates the cultural identities of young children—and older ones, and even our grown-up selves.