05.25.09
The Horn Book LXXXV/3: Thoughts
This was a fun issue of The Horn Book! It focused on books and food. There was a great article about wonderful food in children’s books and a bunch of short, personal pieces from authors and illustrators about eating and reading. There was also an interesting “What Makes a Good…?” article about science books. It gave many great examples of good science books, although it had some serious shortcomings. The article kept comparing science books to novels, which really doesn’t work, and seemed generally of the view that not only are novels more enjoyable, but it’s a struggle to get most kids to read science books. I think that there’s some problems with that. There were a bunch of great reviews in the issue as well. I did notice a rather disturbing anti-science fiction and fantasy trend, though. Twice in two pages I came across reviews stating that a book was good despite being part of one of those genres (that it was a rarity for the genre to find such a good book). It was stated that action and deep characterization are rare in science fiction. More than anything, this statement served to make me wonder how much science fiction that reviewer could have read to have said it! So, I complained a lot here, but in general I really did enjoy this issue! The food stuff in particular was awesome!