Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Above: An illustration from Jorge Bucay’s The King and the Magician,
illustrated by Gusti; Elisa Gutiérrez’s Letter Lunch;
and Eric Kimmel’s Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins,
illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

Today’s featured picture books really have nothing in common but for two things: 1) I’ve been meaning to feature them for a while now, and 2) they all come from smaller publishers.

Let’s just get right to it. …

First up is Elisa Gutiérrez’s Letter Lunch, which was released by Owlkids in March. Gutiérrez is a graphic designer and illustrator, now living in Canada but originally from Mexico City. Letter Lunch, an inventive wordless tale, is the story of two friends collecting letters for alphabet soup after they realize on the very first spread that only the letter “C” is on their kitchen shelves. They head out into a lush, green garden; they head to the bustling market; and eventually they find themselves on top of a mountain. When they get back to their kitchen, they find their vowels in the form of spices and finally chow down. Gutiérrez lays the story out as if a comic, using panels and pacing everything just right. The letters boldly stand out in these textured cut-paper collage and mixed media illustrations. Kirkus calls this one “pleasingly fresh.”

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Yesterday at Kirkus, I wrote here about two beautiful new picture book poetry collections, one by David Elliott and illustrated by newcomer Becca Stadtlander and another coming soon from Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Rick Allen. (Sidman’s is pictured above.) Next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll have art from each book.

Today, I write about two new nonfiction books for the budding photographers in your life — Susan Goldman Rubin’s Stand There! She Shouted: The Invincible Photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, and Ruth Thomson’s Photos Framed: A Fresh Look at the World’s Most Memorable Photographs. That link is here.

Until Sunday …

(Click to enlarge)

Pictured here is Aaron Becker’s sketch of the rhino that is embossed on the cover of Quest (Candlewick, August 2014), the second picture book in what Aaron calls the Journey trilogy. The trilogy began with last year’s Journey, which was awarded a Caldecott Honor.

I’ve told this story before, but my own journey with Journey began back in 2012 when Aaron left a comment here at 7-Imp, I clicked on his hyperlinked name, and I visited his website. I believe I muttered “whoa” a lot here at my desk at 7-Imp Central. (It was, most likely, more like “whoa, DUDE,” but that makes me sound way less professional, doesn’t it?) I asked him if he’d like to visit the blog, which resulted in this post a year before Journey came out (oh, and then this fun breakfast interview in 2013). Then, when it finally was released, I ended up blurbing it, which is something I don’t do on a regular basis, but I loved the book. When the book got a Caldecott Honor, I cheered loudly down here in Tennessee. And now … well, to see Quest finally on shelves is a bit thrilling if you’re a Journey fan.

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That’s right. Despite photographic evidence from last week, Peter Brown is not actually a monster.

Since I chatted (here) last week with Peter about his newest book, My Teacher Is a Monster! (No, I am Not.), published by Little, Brown, I’m following up today with some images he sent — some final art from the book but also early sketches, an outtake, etc. The early sketch above cracks. me. up.

Enjoy …

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Take a moment, if you’re so inclined, to head over to the Wild Things! site today and hear about precisely which wines you can read while reading our book! All that is here.

Until tomorrow …

This week over at the Wild Things! site, my co-author and I are doing the following:

• Taking a look at the phenomenon that is the author school visit — the good, the bad, and the ugly. (You’ll see, if you read this post over at Wild Things!, that the title of this post today here at 7-Imp tips its hat to that.)
• Asking whether or not Beatrix Potter really yelled at young children. (The Horn Book’s Lolly Robinson gives us the low-down.)
• Udder Indecencies of one sort or another; or, The Saga of the Unobtrusive Monster Penis (pictured above).

Tomorrow, we’ll have a post Leonard Baskin fans, in particular, will appreciate.

On Saturday, we’ll look at two of children’s literature’s most cryptic picture books.

On Sunday, we’ll look at some true tales behind famous awards speeches.

That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.

* * * * * * *

The above image is used with permission of Sergio Ruzzier.

(Click to enlarge)

Last week in my Kirkus column, I mentioned Jen Bryant’s The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, coming from Eerdmans in September. It’s such a superb picture book, and today Melissa visits to share a bit about what went into creating the art for it.

Enjoy.

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Just a quick note to say two things:

First up, Betsy Bird and I have launched a website for our upcoming book, Wild Things! Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature, coming from Candlewick Press in early August. It will have handy info, like appearances, book order info, etc., but together, for every day until our release date, Betsy and I will reveal a story that didn’t make it into our book. It’s, as Betsy describes it, the Director’s Cut.

Saturday’s post (when the site went live) was an introductory/hello post. Yesterday, we shared what has to be, hands down, the best ALA Conference photo ever. And today’s story is a tribute to the generosity Maurice Sendak had for up-and-coming illustrators and includes a story from author-illustrator Barbara McClintock about calling him up out of the blue in 1975:

“I thought…well, he’d know how I should get involved in children’s books. He could give me advice, which is a little like thinking you could call Meryl Streep and ask for advice about becoming an actress. But I decided that I would call him. And I thought that I didn’t really have much to worry about, because he would do only one of two things: He would either tell me what I wanted to know or he’d hang up.“

All those posts are at the new site, and again, we will post daily for a while.

Secondly, I’ll have a book launch for the book at Parnassus Books on August 7, 2014, at 6:30 p.m. The public is invited. Here’s the info.

Until tomorrow …

Pictured above: The final illustration from The Troublemaker
and images from Nana in the City
(Click last two images to enlarge)

 
Since I chatted here at Kirkus last week with Lauren Castillo, I gotta follow up with some art. Thanks to Lauren for sending some images along for today’s post. We have here things like early sketches and character studies from The Troublemaker (Clarion, June 2014), and she’s also giving us a sneak-peek at Nana in the City, coming this September (also from Clarion).

If you want more of Lauren’s work, she also recently visited Mr. Schu, as well as Joanna Marple.

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You may remember that a while back here at 7-Imp, I mentioned Philip and Erin Stead’s brand-new site, Number Five Bus Presents …. They’re chatting it up with book people over there and have posted several conversations. Earlier this week, I chatted with them.

That chat is here. It was fun, and I thank them for having me.

Until tomorrow …