From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books

This book was very helpful in my web class assignment, and I will keep it in my collection forever.

First let me say that this is a good book, I am glad that I purchased it. It codifies many of the characteristics of a quality children's book, and helps writers and reviewers exercise better critical judgment. However, the author sometimes "puts a bit too fine a point on it," as a Brit might say. There is a section on the layout of early readers and transitional books which describes a specific target number of words per line, lines per page, text size, etc. I found this section quite helpful overall, and I specified changes to our style guide after reading it. But as useful as this material is, I felt the author's attempt to distinguish numbers of words per line between level 1, level 2 and level 3 early reader books was taking the process a bit too far. Overall, this is a minor issue. As other reviewers have mentioned, writers will find value in the detailed descriptions of how children learn to read, how they react to themes, styles and plots (and how to recognize weakness in each), and how to target different age groups. Indeed, this is the only book I have found with detailed and usable information on these points. Summary: Buy it if you are a creator or reviewer of children's books.

This book is should be an essential for anyone writing for children. Horning covers all the genres, offering insight into pacing, character and plot. She better defines what makes a picture book, an early reader, a chapter book, a mid-grade and a young adult -- definitions that are often murky in writing books. Although this book may have been intended for librarians and others in the book industry, I recommend it highly for anyone contemplating writing for children.