Candace Fleming
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Articles by Candace Fleming
Profile of 2026 Children's Literature Legacy Award Winner Candace Fleming
At the end of one of my favorite picture books by the inimitable Candy Fleming, Gabriella’s Song, she describes an audience transported by a composer’s new music in Venice’s Piazza San Marco: “In the familiar tune, they heard laundry and pigeons, lire and church bells. They heard happiness and sadness and love.” In other words, they heard everything they knew, from the day-to-day to the profound. For me, this is a metaphor for how we experience Candy’s best writing.
2026 Children's Literature Legacy Award Acceptance by Candace Fleming
Let me start with a confession. After the Children’s Literature Legacy Award Committee’s call in January, after I stopped laughing and then stopped crying, I started worrying. Was this some sort of retirement award? Was ALSC handing me the gold watch? I had visions of Claudette McLinn waving me away, saying, “Thirty years and fifty-three books is more than enough.” And me, pleading, “But wait! I’m still writing!” Let me start with a confession.
The Forgotten War: A World War II Battle on American Soil
Gr 4-7–A visceral, meticulously researched passion project that uncovers a “forgotten” chapter of World War II—the battle on American soil in the Aleutian Islands. Most history books gloss over Alaska, but Fleming brings the conflict to life through an intimate, soldier-level view from both sides. The narrative primarily follows her father, Charlie Groth, a calm litter-bearer, and Paul Tatsuguchi, a Japanese surgeon whose loyalty was torn between his native land and his American medical training.
Reviews of the 2026 Boston Globe–Horn Book Nonfiction Award Winner and Honor Books
Nonfiction Winner A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, a Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out by Nicholas Day; illus. by Yas Imamura Intermediate, Middle School Random House Studio/Random 304 pp. 9/25 9780593643877 $19.99 On April 10, 1815, on the small Indonesian island of Sumbawa, the volcano Tambora erupted with such explosive force that it changed Earth’s climate and thus the course of human history.
Reviews of the 2026 Boston Globe–Horn Book Fiction Award Winner and Honor Books
Fiction Winner A Scar like a River by Lisa Graff Middle School Ottaviano/Little, Brown 400 pp. 2/26 9780316570800 $17.99 Thirteen-year-old Fallon has been keeping secrets for as long as she can remember, such as how she got the scar on her face and why she can’t stand to be near her aunt Lune. She’s content with these secrets remaining a part of her past until the news of her uncle Geebie’s death sends deeply buried traumatic memories shooting to the surface.
Reviews of the 2026 Boston Globe–Horn Book Picture Book Award Winner and Honor Books
Picture Book Winner Navigating Night by Julie Leung; illus. by Angie Kang Primary Schwartz/Random 48 pp. 3/26 9780593897690 $18.99 In a nuanced story highlighting the role children of immigrants often assume in their families, a Chinese American girl helps her father deliver food from their restaurant on a rainy night.
Presenting the 2026 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winners
On Monday, June 15, 2026 at 12 pm EDT, Horn Book Editor in Chief Elissa Gershowitz announced the 2026 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winners. If you want to relive the excitement, you can watch the archived video here: 2026 BOSTON GLOBE–HORN BOOK AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED Prestigious Program Honors Excellence in Literature for Children and Young Adults Boston, MA — June 15, 2026 — The Horn Book, Inc., established in 1924, has announced the 2026 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winners.
What We've Learned: Capturing the Bee's Essence
When I began the images for Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera(Porter/Holiday), I wondered and worried over how to make pictures that would give the reader some sense of the bee’s essence, its energy, its vigor and life-force. Photographs or photorealistic images of the bee offered technical accuracy and precise detail, but I was concerned that a purely naturalistic depiction of honeybees would freeze the images into artificial moments, diminishing any sense of movement and energy.
What We've Learned: Moments I Hold Close
I first shared Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera (Porter/Holiday) with a group of third graders at a Christian school in Houston. At book’s end, some of the students grew teary. One of them raised his hand and in a quavering voice asked, “When you say, ‘she stilled,’ do you mean she died?” I hadn’t anticipated tears, which, looking back, surprises me. I’d intentionally written an emotional narrative that follows a single honeybee from birth to first flight to her eventual death.
Preview July/August 2026 Horn Book Magazine: Special Issue: ALA Awards
Special issue: ALA Awards. Original cover art by 2026 Caldecott Medal winner Cátia Chien. “The Year in Words and Pictures.” The Horn Book editors discuss the children’s book landscape. Candace Fleming’s Children's Literature Legacy Award acceptance speech. A profile of Candace Fleming by editor Anne Schwartz. Renée Watson’s Newbery Medal acceptance speech. A profile of Renée Watson by author Jason Reynolds. Cátia Chien’s Caldecott Medal acceptance speech.
A Quarter Century of the Sibert
“It looks as if nonfiction will be accorded more recognition in the twenty-first century than in the one just ended,” author and future Sibert Medalist (in 2003) James Cross Giblin wrote in the July/August 2000 Horn Book Magazine in an article adapted from a 1999 talk. “Starting in 2001, a major new award, the ALSC/Robert F.
The Horn Book | On the Cover
Pedestrians seem to walk on air nearly three hundred feet above a river canyon. The footpath defies gravity by using cable stays anchored to a granite wall. The Capilano Suspension Bridge Park’s Cliffwalk in British Columbia, Canada, is one of more than a hundred bridges in my book Reaching Across the Sky: A Celebration of Bridges (Ottaviano/Little, Brown) [see review, p. 100]. Bridges exemplify human ingenuity in dialogue with nature.
What to Read to Your Kids
2024 Summer Reading Guide: Tweens & Young Teens (Ages 10-16) I may have made you wait for the final installment of this year’s Summer Reading Guide far longer than I had planned (apologies!), but at least I made sure it delivered.
Preview May/June 2026 Horn Book Magazine: Special Issue: The Sibert Award at 25
Special Issue: The Sibert Award at 25 Cover art from Reaching Across the Sky by Christy Hale, with artist’s statement. Massachusetts high school sophomore Camila Guerrero’s speech in support of H.3594, “An Act Regarding Free Expression." Welcome letter from Judy Ehrenstein, chair of the Sibert Award 25th Anniversary Task Force.
The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Picture-Book Biographies
I’ve lost count of how many picture books there are about Coco Chanel. Years ago, I advised publishers who were planning catalogs that included yet another illustrated bio of the Nazi-nuzzling, self-aggrandizing, plagiarizing, credit-hogging antisemite to look in the mirror and take one thing off. I stand by this advice.
Table of Contents: March/April 2026 Horn Book Magazine
Front and back cover from The Lions’ Run. Illustration © 2026 by Jon Klassen. Features The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Picture-Book Biographies by Marjorie Ingall “Does a children’s book have the responsibility to tell the truth? (And what’s truth, anyway?)” Columns Editorial Wild Horses by Elissa Gershowitz Galloping through the issue.
Death in the Jungle: Candace Fleming’s 2025 BGHB Nonfiction Award Speech
Peoples Temple? Some people were surprised to learn this was the topic of my next YA nonfiction project. Jim Jones for kids…how? A few even questioned the need for such a book. They wondered why I would expose teenagers to such seemingly ugly history. Peoples Temple? Some people were surprised to learn this was the topic of my next YA nonfiction project. Jim Jones for kids…how? A few even questioned the need for such a book. They wondered why I would expose teenagers to such seemingly ugly history.
The Best Young Adult Literature of 2025
Before we get to your teen and young adult book recommendations, can you talk a bit about what the publishing landscape looks like these days? I’m a children’s literature and literacy professor, and I’m also active in the children’s book world, working with publishers, authors and agents. It is really interesting to look at the current youth publishing world. Young Adult (YA) is a huge market here in the United States, with over 7500 books published every year for kids and young adults.
Apple-solutely Amazing Books
It’s fall! Time to think about apple picking and visiting the farm. It’s exciting to go to new places and try new things. These books will prepare young ones for autumn adventures. Board Books “Our Favorite Apples” by Grace Lin Manny, Olivia and Mei go apple picking and sort their red, green and yellow apples by color. But then they find an apple that’s all three colors. What should they do?
The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia Book Review
age 12+ Vivid, sometimes violent tale of Russia's last royal family. Parents need to know that The Family Romanov, byCandace Fleming, is a thorough and detailed history of Russia's last imperial family from the author of The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary. This book, with its more straightforward narration, is targeted at a slightly older audience.
Presenting Buffalo Bill: The Man Who Invented the Wild West Book Review
age 10+ Lively, thought-provoking look at showman and his era. Parents need to know that Presenting Buffalo Bill: The Man Who Invented the Wild West, by popular biographer Candace Fleming (The Family Romanov), traces the rise and self-created legend of showman William Cody, known as Buffalo Bill. The book also examines one of the most exciting, adventurous, and viciously bloodthirsty periods of American history.
Death in the Jungle
Review posted September 12, 2025. Listening Library, 2025. 9 hours, 47 minutes. Review written September 8, 2025, from a library eaudiobook. Starred Review I checked out this eaudiobook, not because I was interested in Jim Jones, but because everything Candace Fleming writes is fascinating. This book was no exception. It was not pleasant listening, but once I got started, I couldn't look away. This book tells the whole story of Jim Jones and Jonestown - and the murders and suicides of over 900 people.
Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown Book Review
age 14+ Timely, gripping, and violent true story of a mass suicide. Parents need to know that Candace Fleming's Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown is the true story of Jim Jones, the charismatic, violent, drug- and power-addicted founder of the People's Temple, who ordered some 900 people to take their own lives in the town he created in the jungle of Guyana.
Summary and Reviews of Death in the Jungle by Candace Fleming
Chapter One One Weird Kid The first time Jim Jones asked followers to play dead was on an autumn night in 1941. The ten-¬year-¬old urged the other boys to come on. They hesitated. Jimmy Jones wasn't a friend. Not really. Sure, they hung around with him, but they didn't like him. He was bossy and controlling. And he always got his way. But there was something magnetic about him, too. Somehow, he coaxed them into doing things they knew they shouldn't. Take the previous week, for example.
Sonderbooks Review of Polar Bear
by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann Review posted April 16, 2025. Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2022. 40 pages. Review written February 13, 2023, from a library book. A 2022 Capitol Choices Selection Starred Review Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann do amazing work together. As in the Sibert Medal-winning Honeybee, large and beautiful paintings accompany accessible text and help us understand better the lives of wild creatures. Polar Bear follows a mother and two cubs in their day-to-day lives.
Is It Real? The Loch Ness Monster
. Mar. 2025. 160p. Tr $26.99. ISBN 9781546110286. COPY ISBN Gr 3-7–The always versatile Fleming guides kids on a quest to uncover the truth of the Loch Ness monster. Presenting the facts in an engaging format where readers are invited to examine the evidence as members of the fictitious Black Swan Scientific Investigation (BSSI) team, the Sibert-winning author details the many accounts of sightings and testimonials of people who have encountered the cryptid from Scotland’s famous loch since the 1930s.
Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown
. Apr. 2025. 368p. Tr $19.95. ISBN 9780593480069. COPY ISBN Gr 8 Up–Fleming tackles the harrowing story of the Jonestown massacre, at which over 900 people, one-third of whom were children, died in a mass murder-suicide at the direction of Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones in Guyana in 1978. She covers how by preaching racial equality and faith healing, Jones, a white, charismatic Pentecostal preacher, founded his church in a poor, segregated section of 1950s Indianapolis.
Death in the Jungle
How did Jim Jones, the leader of Peoples Temple, convince more than 900 of his followers to commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced punch? From a master of narrative nonfiction comes a chilling chronicle of one of the most notorious cults in American history.
Mistaco
Kinkz (Papá’s Magical Water-Jug Clock), making her solo debut with magnificently scrawled artwork, offers a story that blends deep empathy, raucous candor, and a useful ritual for dealing with shame.
Rebellion 1776
This well-crafted novel by Anderson (Shout) opens in March 1776, on the eve of the Loyalists’ forced evacuation of Boston. Thirteen-year-old Patriot supporter Elsbeth Culpepper is new to Boston following relocating with her father from Philadelphia after her mother and siblings’ deaths from smallpox.
A Day at the Beach
Gary D. Schmidt and Ron Koertge, illus. by Yaoyao Ma Van As. Clarion, $18.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-06-338092-9 Collaborators Schmidt (Jupiter Rising) and Koertge (Maya’s Story) team up with illustrator Ma Van As (the Kudo Kids series) to explore a single day at Rockcastle Beach, N.J., through the perspectives of more two dozen kids in this winsome work.
The Mystery of the Thinking Rabbit
Clarice Lispector, trans. from the Portuguese by Benjamin Moser, illus. by Kammal João. New York Review Books, $19.95 (48p) ISBN 978-1-68137-898-5 This surrealist picture book in translation describes the enigma posed by white rabbit Joãozinho, who escapes from a close-barred, heavy- lidded hutch again and again without others discovering how.
Is It Real? The Loch Ness Monster
Is It Real? The Loch Ness Monster “You are an investigator for the Black Swan Scientific Investigation (BSSI) team,” Fleming (The Enigma Girls) declares in the opening chapter of this interactive foray into unraveling “the natural world’s greatest mysteries”—in this instance, the legend of the Loch Ness Monster.
Is It Real? The Loch Ness Monster
Mar. 2025. 160p. illus. Scholastic/Focus, paper, $8.99 (9781339037936). Grades 3-7. 001.944. REVIEW. First published January 1, 2025 (). Fleming approaches the Loch Ness monster question with a well-organized collection of evidence for readers to evaluate, practical ways of doing so, and an attitude of skepticism.
UMM KULTHUM | Kirkus Reviews
A well-crafted biography of a lesser-known singer who deserves many more tributes. In spite of sexism, the singer also known as “Egypt’s Fourth Pyramid” built a storied career with her voice and integrity. Growing up in a village where few families believed in educating their daughters, Umm Kulthum (1898-1975), who was named after a daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, defied expectations early by memorizing the Qur’an.
Narwhal: Unicorn of the Arctic
Illus. by Deena So’Oteh. Oct. 2024. 48p. Random/Anne Schwartz, $18.99 (9780593377789). K-Grade 3. 599.543. REVIEW. First published September 1, 2024 (). Fleming adds to her oeuvre of picture books introducing distinctive animals with this lyrical paean to the world’s smallest whale. Using a second person present tense perspective, she encourages readers to imagine that they are narwhals: jousting with their tusk (“thick as a lamppost, / taller than a man, / . . .
Houston Grand Opera to present free summer programming for children
Company teaching artists will share music, stories, and enriching activities with young people in community spaces throughout the city Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is proud to announce plans to present a variety of arts programming for students in grades Pre-K-2 throughout Houston this summer. Families are invited to join company teaching artists in spaces including Levy Park, Children’s Museum Houston, and branches of both the Harris County Public Library System and Houston Public Libraries.
The Enigma Girls
The Enigma Girls How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II Review posted May 3, 2024. Scholastic Focus, 2024. 371 pages. Review written April 29, 2024, from a library book. Starred Review 2024 Sonderbooks Standout: #9 Children's Nonfiction We've all heard stories about Alan Turing breaking the Enigma code in World War II, right?
The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II
Gr 6 Up–Fleming and Quirk bring to life a narrative nonfiction for listeners interested in World War II. Ten teenage girls move to Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, to help contribute to World War II efforts. The girls enlist without knowing what they are going to be doing. Sworn to secrecy, the teens’ efforts at codebreaking influence the war’s outcomes monumentally—while pranking each other, dressing up for local dances, and getting homesick.
What's new on the shelves at Jacksonville Public Library
Angela Bauer, Lifestyles editor June 3, 2023 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate What's new at Jacksonville Public Library: Adult Fiction "Close to Home" by Lisa Jackson: Vowing to make a fresh start, Sarah McAdams has come home to renovate the old Victorian mansion where she grew up. Her daughters, Jade and Gracie, aren’t impressed by the rundown property on the shores of Oregon’s wild Columbia River.
MINE! | Kirkus Reviews
Prepare to savor this title’s original yet familiar feel. This rhythmic read features a slew of greedy animals, all with their eyes on a prize. A single red apple hangs at the “tip-tippy top” of a tree, poised to fall at any moment. Its precarious position isn’t missed by the hungry animals below, each determined to make the fruit their own. One by one, a different animal expresses their covetous desires in rhyme (“Mmm-mmm, how divine. / When it tumbles to the ground, / it’ll be all mine”).
Mine! by Candace Fleming
Candace Fleming, illus. by Eric Rohmann. Random House/Schwartz, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-593-18166-9 This rhyming fable by married team Fleming and Rohmann (Oh, No!) begins with a single, shiny red apple hanging from a tree, ready to fall.
MYSTERY AT THE AQUARIUM
A budding journalist takes a dip into marine science while investigating a series of mysterious power failures at a local aquarium.
DANGER IN THE DEEP SEA
From the OceanX Adventures series , Vol. 2 by Kate Jerome ‧ A young stowaway takes an unexpected trip on a marine research ship and gets a chance to search for sunken treasure in this second outing. Marena Montoya doesn’t mean to stow away aboard the OceanXplorer—she just gets locked in a refrigerator storage room during a tour and isn’t found until the ship departs Miami. Her older brother Lucas, onboard as an intern, is not happy.
Penny & Pip by Candace Fleming
In this sanguine work from longtime collaborators Fleming and Rohmann (Honeybee), young Penny is the lone witness to a dinosaur egg’s hatching during a class trip to the Museum of National History.
BLACK | Kirkus Reviews
From the My Alter Ego Is a Superhero series , Vol. 2 by Håkon Øvreås ; illustrated by Øyvind Torseter ; translated by Kari Dickson ‧ Øvreås follows up his Batchelder Award–winning Brown (2019), originally published in Norway, with a similarly poker-faced middle volume.
Book Review: “Mr. Lincoln Sits for His Portrait: The Story of a Photograph That Became an American Icon,” by Leonard S. Marcus
Book Review|Was Abraham Lincoln a Social Media Influencer? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/books/review/mr-lincoln-sits-for-his-portrait-the-story-of-a-photograph-that-became-an-american-icon-leonard-marcus.html Children’s Books Our 16th president, an early adopter of his era’s newest technology, has a lot in common with today’s Instagram and TikTok stars. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Jan.
The Tide Pool Waits
by Candace Fleming pictures by Amy Hevron Review posted June 8, 2022. Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2022. 40 pages. Review written May 27, 2022, from a library book Starred Review The Tide Pool Waits is a beautifully simple picture book about a complex scientific topic. I learned things I didn't know about tide pools, and it was presented in a way that even small children can understand. The main text is simple. We meet many different kind of creatures in the tide pool.
Murder Among Friends: How Leopold and Loeb Tried to Commit the Perfect Crime
Gr 8 Up–A true crime story from 1924 Chicago in which two college students plan and carry out a kidnapping and murder as a way of demonstrating their superior intelligence. Both from wealthy families, best friends Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb excelled at academics, skipped grades in school, and saw themselves as above the rest of society yet lacked interpersonal skills and compassion.
RAR #48: Give Your Child the World, Raising Globally Minded Kids One Book at a Time-- Jamie Martin
We’re a whole week early! We couldn’t hold onto this podcast episode for another day without sharing it with you. Jamie Martin’s brand new book, Give Your Child the World: Raising Globally Minded Kids One Book at a Time releases today, and she came onto the show to talk about what it looks like to give our kids a heart for the world right from our cozy living rooms.
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