Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Tracy Mack
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.
Profile of 2025 Children's Literature Legacy Award winner Carole Boston Weatherford
I fell in love with Black history at a very young age. I come from a family with roots in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Detroit. A family of Black cowboys, storytellers, landowners, entrepreneurs, gin makers, community leaders, and doctors. Unfortunately, I didn’t grow up seeing these stories told in the books in my school and local library, and Black history, outside of celebrations of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was absent from the curriculum in the elementary schools I attended.
2025 Children's Literature Legacy Award Acceptance by Carole Boston Weatherford
I am filled with gratitude because I know that none of this had to be: not the eighty-plus books, not the nineteen American Library Association Youth Media Awards, not the NAACP Image Awards, not the nomination as Young People’s Poet Laureate, not the opportunities to travel across the country and around the world sharing my books, and certainly not the joy of collaborating with my son, Jeffery. I began this journey as a young mother. Now, I am a grandmother.
2024 Mind the Gap Awards: The books that didn't win at ALA
Not all deserving books bring home ALA awards. The books that didn’t win. Not all deserving books bring home ALA awards. The books that didn’t win. Stopped Let’s Go! by Michael Emberley Elena Rides by Juana Medina Eclipsed Sunshine by Jarrett J. Krosoczka When the Stars Came Home by Brittany Luby; illus. by Natasha Donovan Wilted My Baba’s Garden by Jordan Scott; illus. by Sydney Smith Big Tree by Brian Selznick All wet When You Can Swim by Jack Wong Maybe a Whale by Kirsten Pendreigh; illus.
Reviews of 2024 Mind the Gap Award winners
Not all deserving books bring home ALA awards. Our annual Mind the Gap Awards pay tribute to our favorite books that didn’t win. Here’s how we reviewed our 2023 winners. Let’s Go! [I Like to Read: Comics] by Michael Emberley; illus. by the author Preschool, Primary Holiday 40 pp. 1/23 9780823446520 $14.99 e-book ed. 9780823455096 $8.99 Emberley’s crew of critters (I Did It!, rev. 9/22) returns for another exciting early-reader comic.
Preview September/October 2024 Horn Book Magazine
Cover art by Garth Williams from Charlotte’s Web, written by E. B. White. Cover art © renewed 1980 by Estate of Garth Williams. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Fifth issue of our centennial year! HB100: Much Ado About Middle Grade: Continuing our centennial coverage with discussion of this issue’s mini-theme. The Writers’ Page: Kekla Magoon and Cynthia Leitich Smith on heroism. Field Notes: Amanda Lawrence on her library’s wintertime reading program.
The Robin Smith Picture Book Prize
Photo courtesy of Dean Schneider. I bet I’m the only grown person (near-elderly, actually) to have burst into tears in a Mac Barnett signing line. The book was The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse written by Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen, and it was the inaugural winner of the Robin Smith Picture Book Prize, an award bestowed by the Horn Book’s Calling Caldecott blog.
Big Life: A Profile of Pam Muñoz Ryan
“When there’s room in the heart, there’s room in the house,” Rosa Maria proclaims in Pam Muñoz Ryan’s picture book Mice and Beans, illustrated by Joe Cepeda. Much like this lovable character, Pam makes space for all the people and passions she holds most dear, and they all influence her work as a writer. She lives a big life, and it’s one of the things I have always admired most about her.
USBS Panel Lineup Announced: Alan Moore, Amber Ruffin, Constance Wu, and More
Constance Wu, best known for her roles in the TV series Fresh Off the Boat and feature film Crazy Rich Asians, and Amber Ruffin, host of the Amber Ruffin Show and writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers, will appear at the U.S. Book Show on the adult Book and Author panel. Wu will discuss her memoir Making a Scene (Scribner) and Ruffin will discuss her book The World Record Book of Racist Stories (Grand Central), along with co-writer and sister Lacey Lamar. Thomas E.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Tracy
Contact Tracy, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack