Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

I’m going to stray a bit this week from the usual share-a-random-poem moments on Fridays, which are always lovely, and tell you about two new picture books: The second is written in rhyme (rhyme that won’t make you want to gag)—and it just so happens that it’s an exemplary book for the wee, wee, wee’est in your life—and the first is by a picture book author who has been reading and writing poetry with children for many years (and who is also a visiting poet in schools), Susan Marie Swanson. And a beautemous book it is, indeed. I also snagged a spread from each book so that I can show you some of the art work inside.

To Be Like the Sun by Susan Marie Swanson and illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine (Harcourt, April 2008) is written, it’s safe to say, in a free verse style (I see that School Library Journal refers to it as free verse, too—”lyrical free verse,” at that). In this luminescent book, which celebrates both the sensual and abstract joys of summer, a young girl ponders a little sunflower seed in her hand:

“Hello, little seed,
striped gray seed.
Do you really know everything
about sunflowers?”

The girl then proceeds to break up the earth to plant her seed, considering the “real work down in the dark” the seed does:

“Not radish work or pumpkin,
not thistle work—
sunflower work.
All the instructions
are written in your heart.”

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What, no one told you? You left your glow-in-the-dark fangs at home? Not to worry, you’ve got the whole rest of the month of May to catch up. At least, according to First Second Books, who has declared this event in the interests of promoting Vampire Awareness and Understanding, so we can work towards a future when Humans and Vampires can coexist in Harmony and Happiness. Or maybe they just want to promote some books. Whatever, vampires are fun.

If you’d like to celebrate with a book, particularly a graphic novel, might I suggest:

Life Sucks, a graphic novel by Jessica Abel (of La Perdida fame), Gabe Soria, and Warren Pleece (Can that really be his name? Really?). It just officially debuted from First Second, and I really enjoyed it.

Meet Dave. He’s a vampire, but he’s not happy about it. His boss Radu at the Last Stop convenience store forcibly “converted” him to create the ultimate employee: loyal to his master, and willing to work nights. But Dave used to be a vegetarian, and his heart really isn’t in this new un-life. It gets weird when he starts crushing on Rosa, a goth girl who thinks vampires are sexy and glamorous - the exact opposite of his reality. But should he tell her? Or should he just give in and make his first kill? And how can he keep his rival Wes - an asshole-surfer vampire - from taking her just to piss Dave off?

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This is author/illustrator Jim Averbeck. He’s showing us the real life of a Regional Advisor, as he used to serve as the Regional Advisor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for the San Francisco Bay Area. “What do you mean they turned the room we planned on using for critiques into an ADA bathroom!” he’s screaming here. “What do you mean the speaker’s plane is late! What do you mean they didn’t deliver the coffee? ARARR-
RRRghhh!!” (That’s his own, original ARARRRRRghhh there, verbatim. Nice argh, huh?)

Below that picture is a less-stressed-out picture of Jim (”My critique groups friends call this my ‘dappled boycake’ picture,” he told me. “Harassment! It’s tough being a man in a woman’s world. It was taken at a writing retreat I did with them at the house in Sonoma County”). I’d say waaaay less-stressed-out, since he’s all reclining in the sun there, looking like he’s just had a very filling breakfast.

Breakfast? you say? Oh yeah, Jim stopped by for breakfast here at 7-Imp for our illustrator interview series. And here’s the thing: Jim’s an illustrator but not a published one — yet. But, after reading Jim’s debut picture book, In a Blue Room (Harcourt, April 2008)—which was illustrated by Tricia Tusa and is seven kinds of fabulous (reviewed here by Yours Truly)—I visited his site, saw some of his art work, and lined him up for an interview in our illustrator series. (I even tacked on a few extra questions specifically about his career thus far). Seriously, people, have you read In a Blue Room yet? I’ve been runnin’ my mouth about how it’s one of the best picture books I’ve seen this year. Let’s take a moment here and soak in some of its picture-book-goodness: Read the rest of this entry »

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULES!!!

(Note how I make wild, flagrant use of colorful fonts and the marquee tag in your honor.)

Jules, last year for my birthday you wrote me an original poem. I have no such skill, so instead I’m throwing you a virtual party. I’m including all your favorite things. Here’s your mug of coffee:

And I’ve got cupcakes - from MagPies, of course:

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If there were any doubt to the reader that this was a biography of Lady Liberty, illustrator Matt Tavares makes it clear on the title page spread with an impressive view of Manhattan from the Statue’s eyes—a very nice touch, I must say. Yes, Doreen Rappaport brings us Lady Liberty: A Biography (Candlewick; May 13, 2008), as told from the perspective of everyone from the engineers to the sculptor to those who wrote poetry in her honor to those who gathered nickels and pennies—and farm fowl—to help fund her.

In the opening spread—the author’s own musings on her grandfather’s journey one hundred and twenty years ago from Latvia to the United States and what it must have felt like for him to see Lady Liberty in the harbor—Tavares brings to life the boat of Rappaport’s grandfather, “a ship packed with people from many different countries . . . and there was Lady Liberty greeting them all . . . People lifted babies so they could see her. Tears ran down my grandfather’s face. People around him were crying, too. And then a wave of cheering and hugging swept over the ship.” And, in another nice touch, Tavares paints the present-day Rappaport in the picture as well, standing above the immigrants and also looking reverently at the statue. Such a lovely, affecting spread, knowing she is standing above her own grandfather, perhaps even the one lifting his arms out toward the statue. Read the rest of this entry »

Jules: Bonjour, indeed! It’s that time of the month again. We’re featuring a student of illustration today, this time the one and only Kali Ciesemier, whose classes at the Maryland Institute College of Art end THIS FRIDAY — and she graduates on May 19th! We happen to think that featuring her art work now is great timing, though we certainly thank her for taking the time to do so during a crazybusy time in her life. Graduation and all that. Yeesh. She’s probably scurrying around right now, doing a million things. Wait, I know she is. She told me so. So, thanks to Kali for taking the time to visit us this morning and show us some of her art work.

Pictured below is one savagely cool, terrifically tough rollerblader, “Betty Beatdown of the Charm City Roller Girls,” and below that is a hello from Kali and a bit more about her and her plans.

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Remember last weekend, when I went on the Wine and Herb Fest tour? It turns out a lot of the wineries here in the Fingerlakes do specialty fruit wines. Rhubarb, strawberry, pear, apple, peach, blackberry, cherry… Anything you can think of. Some of it is so sweet it drifts over into cordial territory, but a few of them were really quite lovely.

For some reason, the first time someone said the words “rhubarb wine,” the Jeff Buckley version of the James Shelton song “Lilac Wine” popped into my head. And, as the lovely spring weather has continued and actual lilacs are starting to bloom around here, the song has stayed in my head all week. I happen to love it, so I’m not complaining. In fact, I think I’ll share it with you for poetry friday. Here’s the first couple of verses:

I lost myself on a cool damp night
Gave myself in that misty light
Was hypnotized by a strange delight
Under a lilac tree

I made wine from the lilac tree
Put my heart in its recipe
Makes me see what I want to see
And be what I want to be

You can read the rest of the lyrics here. But really, this is a song that needs to be heard, not read. I know a lot of artists have covered it, but the only one I’m really familiar with is Jeff Buckley. *sigh* Man, I did love to hear that man sing.

Here’s an oddly hypnotic video someone made for the song. I like it in a way - it suits the mood, and lets the song take the focus. But don’t watch too closely, or you’ll realize you’re passing same tree over and over.

The always-poetic Kelly is handling the Poetry Friday roundup over at Big A little a. Poetry goes very well with wine, you know. Works with white or red… even champagne. Especially with that little strawberry in the bottom of the glass? I love that. Right, anyway… go on over to Kelly’s and see what everyone else is sharing today.

Want to see something neat? Ekphrasis. Ekphrasis, I tell ya. That means, essentially, poetry inspired by art, and it’s my new favorite word. Little did I know there was a word for this. Ekphrasis. I like saying it. Here’s some ekphrasis in action, and it comes from Side by Side: New Poems Inspired by Art From Around the World (Abrams Books for Young Readers, May 2008), which I’ll tell you about in a moment. This is an anthology edited by Jan Greenberg, who brought us—amongst a handful of great titles—the Printz Honor Book, Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art (Abrams, 2001).

For the record, I’m re-printing these two poems with permission from the publisher, and this Edward Hopper painting falls under Fair Use and all that fun stuff. Also, I know these poems are HUGE, but WordPress won’t cooperate when I need to type poems with unusual formatting / spacing / indentation, so I have to basically type them into Word and make them images. Anyway, moving on…

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You know what’s great? Waking up and finding Frank Dormer in your kitchen. He’s tiptoe-ing around, so as not to disturb you in your pre-caffeinated state. He’s already put the Pop Tarts in the toaster, and has the kettle just about ready to whistle. So thoughtful. So generous. So… GAH!!! DUDE!!! Is that… Is that a frog under my napkin?!?

Very funny, Frank. What are you, like, nine?

But okay, now that we’ve peeled ourselves off the ceiling, we can admit that that’s what we like about him. There’s a sly, youthful quality to his illustrations. There’s a pronounced wit in the way he wields his pen and paintbrush. He’s a little offbeat, a little funky… and he’s swimming in talent.

He is also very generous. Last year, completely out of the blue, he created for us this fabulous beloved original illustration of the tea party scene from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland after our Sunday-kicks illustrator feature. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello, all. We’ve decided to do a little bit of a reshuffle here at 7-Imp. Here’s why.

When we started this blog almost two years ago, we mentioned that we both like to read all kinds of books, from picture books on up to adult novels, and that we intended to talk about all of them, regardless of age level.

Well. A couple of things have changed since then. 1.) We now accept review copies from publishers, something we were hesitant about at first because we didn’t want to be burdened with any actual or perceived obligations to review particular books. And 2.) we’ve expanded our focus to include interviews, illustrator profiles, and a bunch of other features that aren’t necessarily book reviews. So, what difference does that make? It makes us very busy, a lot busier than we ever imagined we’d be, and we’re getting kind of overwhelmed by the stacks and stacks of books that generous review-seekers have sent us. In order to deal with this more efficiently, we’ve decided to amend our blog’s mission statement a little bit.

From now on, when it comes to reviewing books, GENERALLY SPEAKING, Jules will be focusing on picture books and middle grade lit, and Eisha will be concentrating on young adult and adult lit. We still reserve the right to read and review whatever we please, and OF COURSE we’ll still collaborate on the occasional co-review, ’cause that’s really why we started this blog in the first place — to talk with each other about books, and bring other interested parties in on the conversation. But in general, if you’re someone who wants to offer us a review copy, that’s the way we’ll break it down.

To recap, here are the responsibilities and major areas of focus:

Jules — Reviewing picture books and middle grade lit; finding illustrators to profile; creative use of multi-colored and multi-sized fonts; organizing giant philanthropic multi-blog movements; and doing all the actual work that makes this blog readable.

Eisha — Reviewing young adult and adult books; contributing the occasional Poetry Friday post; and slacking off.

Hopefully narrowing our focus this way will help us get organized, and cut down on the volume of unsolicited review copies we get that fall outside our scope of interest, and therefore cut down on the guilt factor too.

Thank you for your attention. We now resume our regularly scheduled programming, already in progress.

* * * Jules edits to add:

Eisha wrote this and doesn’t give herself enough credit. And playing with font sizes and colors? Who? Me? Nah.