The sixth annual Horn Book at Simmons one-day colloquium was held on Saturday, October 1, at Simmons College in Boston, to celebrate the winners who were recognized the previous evening at the 2016 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards. This year the Awards were celebrating 50 years of excellence in literature for children and young adults, and as is tradition, books were selected in three categories: picture book, fiction and poetry, and nonfiction. Over the course of both days, the 13 award-winning authors and illustrators left the audience of mainly librarians, teachers, author-illustrators, publishing professionals, and booksellers moved and inspired by their work and their words.

Horn Book editor-in-chief Roger Sutton pointed out in his opening remarks Saturday morning that he, BGHB event coordinator, Katrina Hedeen, and Cathryn Mercier, director and professor at the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons College, figure out the theme for the daylong Saturday event after the Awards are announced in late May by looking for connections they can draw among the winners. This year that led them to the theme “Out of the Box,” a nod to the Horn Book’s blog of the same name, but mostly in recognition of how many of this year’s books defy easy categorization.

Fiction award winner Frances Hardinge (The Lie Tree, Abrams) and picture book honorees Sherman Alexie and Yuyi Morales (Thunder Boy Jr., Little, Brown) were unable to make it to the weekend’s festivities, but accepted their awards via heartfelt video messages on Friday evening. The rest of the authors and illustrators participated in both days’ events, and spent Saturday focusing on the ways in which their work was outside, inside, helped to expand, or used multiple, new, or different “boxes” and also how important it is to read within and outside “the box” of what’s comfortable for us.

First up was keynote speaker M.T. Anderson, and nonfiction honor winner for Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad (Candlewick). The focus of his speech was on authors wearing down the walls between the genres, particularly within the last two decades, and he mentioned a few colleagues who have successfully done that, including Mo Willems, Matt de la Peña, Kelly Link, and Maggie Stiefvater. This was particularly important to him, as Symphony, which took him five years to write, is his first work of nonfiction and he had had to go through several genres (including graphic novels and fiction) until he had found the correct avenue. (He even remarked on the unusual way he’d pitched this nonfiction book to his editor, Liz Bicknell: as a “dystopian novel that happens to be true.”) He learned that the material determines the genre and that authors should listen to their material to tell them what it wants to be.

Anderson also pointed out the ways in which writing Symphony had made him take risks and that he had ultimately come out changed from writing it, for, as he posited: “How can we expect books to change others, if they don’t change us first?” He spoke of how it takes bravery, but can be exhilarating and rewarding, to step outside the box of what is familiar to us, and he encouraged everyone to attempt something unknown, dangerous, and/or impossible, because whether or not you succeed or fail, “the world is a better place because of it.”

Illustrating nonfiction honor book Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement (Candlewick) certainly changed fine artist Ekua Holmes’s life and was an “out of the box” experience for her, since it was her first book, and she has already received numerous other accolades for it. While being interviewed by BGHB judge Roxanne Hsu Feldman along with the book’s author, Carole Boston Weatherford, Holmes pointed out that every piece of the book was like a work of art to her (particularly noting how the sunflower motif and the Delta Blues piece were favorites of hers), though unlike the fine art work she was used to, this project required momentum and deadlines and new ways of creating.

For 21-year veteran Weatherford, working outside the box is very familiar to her. She doesn’t shy away from tough topics and said she chooses not to talk down to children in her books, because she doesn’t want to censor the truth. This self-proclaimed “truth teller,” who is passionate about writing African-American history so readers can have meaningful discussions about it, spoke about not candycoating Hamer’s rough life, as well as the need to see more biographies of African-American women who haven’t been written about before rather than publishing books about the same African-American stories and people. She particularly noted a lack of science fiction/fantasy picture books containing children of color and the need for more diverse sales forces in publishing (along with more diversity in editorial and marketing) as ways to continue improving the We Need Diverse Books movement.

For a man who by his own admission “didn’t even like history as a student really,” Steve Sheinkin certainly excels at writing nonfiction books about history for kids. The three time Boston Globe–Horn Book nonfiction award winner, this year recognized for Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War (Roaring Brook), gave his presentation on rethinking nonfiction. First noting how his past experience as a textbook writer led him to step outside the box to a career as a narrative nonfiction writer for children and teens, Sheinkin reemphasized Weatherford’s point about not talking down to or simplifying history for kids, saying that complex characters like Benedict Arnold and Daniel Ellsberg, who themselves lived in and outside the box (first labeled as patriots and then as traitors), deserve more than just a line or two in a school textbook. Thinking outside the box when it comes to writing, teaching, and learning about history is important, and finding ways to make it more accessible to kids, such as by having them create a Lego movie about a historical topic (Sheinkin showed the audience his humorous example from the book trailer for Most Dangerous), will hopefully lead adults away from thinking of nonfiction as something that needs help getting to readers.

After a morning reflecting on the nonfiction winners and then a period for book signing and partaking in one of four breakout sessions on various topics during lunch, the afternoon panels focused on the picture book and fiction honorees. Sutton started off his conversation with picture book award-winning author and illustrator, Roxane Orgill and Francis Vallejo, creators of of Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph (Candlewick), by pointing out how this was an “out of the box” experience for both of them because this was Orgill’s first poetry book and Vallejo’s first book. Orgill echoed Anderson in that she let her material, the famous photograph of 57 jazz musicians, help her decide to tell this story through poems, so she could highlight multiple points of view. The importance of that photo put (good) pressure on them to get this book right and do the photo justice. Unlike fellow first-time illustrator Holmes, Vallejo (who spent about three years working on the book’s art) said he relished the slower pace of working on picture book art. Through slides he shared his illustrating process, his influences (Norman Rockwell was a major one for him and there’s even an homage to Rockwell’s work in the book), the extent of his research (constructing a 3D model of the Harlem block to examine perspective), and his work style (listening to different kinds of jazz music to capture the right mood/style in his paintings).

BGHB judge Betsy Bird next interviewed One Day, the End: Short, Very Short, Shorter-than-Ever Stories (Boyds Mills) author and illustrator, Rebecca Kai Dotlich and Fred Koehler. The genesis of this book actually came from Dotlich’s grandson’s persistent request to tell him a story even though she was busy. So she told him a very short story (“One day I lost my dog. I found it. The End) and he loved it, which fascinated her. The minimalist text left illustrator Koehler lots of choice when creating his illustrations, and his art for the book was highly influenced by wordless books like Flora and the Flamingo (which even has a cameo in one scene) and also Charles Schulz’s Peanuts.

BGHB judge chair Joanna Rudge Long spent the final panel of the day talking with fiction honor authors Rebecca Stead (Goodbye Stranger, Random/Lamb) and Laura Amy Schlitz (The Hired Girl, Candlewick), who was also presented afterward with the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction by Sutton. But before attendees celebrated her with champagne and cupcakes, Stead and Schlitz discussed where the voices of their characters came from, the similar pivotal age for their heroines even as the books took place in very different time periods, and the importance of finding opportunities to deepen their stories and writing from memories and emotions.

It was a day that “opened the box of curiosity” as Mercier explained in her wrap-up of the day’s events. She encouraged attendees to explore the margins of children’s books without marginalizing them, and to shift their vantage point when it comes to books that don’t always fit the mold. For as Sutton pointed out in his discussion with Orgill and Vallejo, often “what is first a break in tradition, then becomes tradition itself.” Such is certainly the case with Horn Book at Simmons, as the organizers are already looking ahead to plans for next year’s steadily growing and must-attend event for children’s literature enthusiasts.