Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

First of all, y’all, I’m on blog break this week, so I’ll see you on Sunday for your kicks. (That’s the first line of a poem, I think, that someone needs to complete.)

Secondly, I’m happy to announce:

Yes, Nashville! A Vanderbilt professor of Education (whose research focus is children’s lit and who, incidentally, will be part of the panel this Saturday for Steven Withrow’s documentary, so go see and hear!) contacted me with this wonderful idea, and that would be the moment in which I smacked my forehead and proclaimed, “Yes! Why didn’t I think of that earlier?” Brilliant, I say. Brilliant notion.

Many of us not in New York City read with a happy kind of envy about Betsy Bird’s Kidlit Drink Nights up in the Big Apple (you know, like this); well, now middle Tennessee has one. Though I have absolutely no idea how many Tennesseans read my blog, here are the details. Be there, or be square. Or be there and be square. I have a soft spot in my heart for nerds, you know.

Here’s the announcement we’re emailing folks. If you’re a kidlit person in middle Tennessee, this is for you, too: Read the rest of this entry �

When I first chatted online with blogger Cristiana Clerici, who lives in Parma, Italy, and writes at the wonderful Tea Box, she told me that her blog was an ambitious idea and that she hoped she’d be good enough for it. Well, I think she’s proven that she is.

Over at The Tea Box, Cristiana shares her love of books, particularly international picture books. She maintains three pages in three languages (Italian, English, and French), so most of her time goes into translating her own posts. Wow, huh? I mean, wow just wow. I don’t think I’ll further complain about being busy; here at 7-Imp, I’m writing in only one tongue. Not three. And not maintaining three separate pages. Wow again.

Her goal over at The Tea Box? To aid libraries who are willing to implement or improve upon their collection of international titles; to assist editors who are looking for new, interesting titles; and to simply entertain and enlighten curious readers. She is following books from all over — with special attention to Italy, the United States, the UK, France, Spain, and South American countries. Read the rest of this entry �

FYI for you fellow Southerners:

The official time and place for the Nashville screening of The Library of the Early Mind at the Southern Festival of Books:

I posted this yesterday at the blog, but it was at the very bottom of the post, so here again, in the name of shouting about a wonderful thing, is an early flyer for Nashville’s upcoming Southern Festival of Books, an annual three-day literary festival hosted every October by Humanities Tennessee. Check out the line-up, and that’s not even all the children’s and YA authors that will be in attendance. Whether you live in the South or not, consider a visit to Nashville in October. (I’m on a committee this year to help out with the children’s and YA author visits and events, yet I’ll be out of town for the actual festival. HORREURS! I’ll miss Mo and Jon and Kerry and Sara and Tom and everyone else, but it’s still fun to help prep.)

MID-MORNING ADDENDUM: Please note! Woot! (It’s particularly painful that I’m going to miss the screening of this film, but I can wait patiently.)

LATE-MORNING ADDENDUM, BUT I’M PROBABLY JUST TALKING TO MYSELF: I do get to see this documentary on that Sunday. Woo and hoo! Who’s gonna join me?

Hi there, dear readers. Just a quick note to say I’m taking a short blog break this week, as I’ll be going out of town here very soon for the latter part of the week to volunteer at my beautiful alma mater. This week, I also am cramming last-minute, as I’m wont to do, for a story time I’ll be doing today at my local public library. I decided to tell, amongst other things, Henkes’ Kitten’s First Full Moon on the felt board. What do you think?

My mother helped with those drawings. I’m afraid I might be the reason, though, that the version of the kitten on the left, sitting on the steps, looks a bit like a forest creature or chihuahua.

See you all Sunday for kickin’. Have a good week, one and all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULES!!!

BWAH-HA-HA-HAH!!!! You didn’t think I’d do it this year, did you? Seeing as I’m all retired from 7-Imp. Well, you thought wrong, birthday girl. Check it:

BOOYAH!

Anyone want to tell me what you consider a) the best celebrity children’s book and b) the worst celebrity children’s book? It’s all in the name of research.

If you weigh in, I swear if we ever meet, I’ll buy you this cup of coffee here.

Thanks in advance.

Yours Truly,
Jules

P.S. Betsy Bird should be asking the same question tomorrow morning over at A Fuse #8 Production, if you’d rather leave a response there.

…Go read this from Kristen McLean over at pixie stix kids pix.

And then have a good day.

See you tomorrow.

I pulled this Kevin-Hawkes illustration, one of my favorites from 2008, from the 7-Imp archives in order to not get cyber-pinched today. You may remember that this comes from The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps, and Triumphs in the Life of L. Frank Baum (Knopf Books for Young Readers, September ’08), written by the very talented author of a whole slew, to be precise, of award-winning biographies for children, Kathleen Krull.

I simply never tire of looking at that illustration.

My kindergartener told me yesterday that her class set out some leprechaun traps. I find this a disturbing and dramatic turn-of-events for the poor little guys, but let’s hope they survived this morning.

And a happy St. Patrick’s Day to you. I’ll be back tomorrow with an interview. Until then…

After I shared this news in mid-December, a dear friend sent me, as a thoughtful congratulatory gift, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Now, I know this was published in 1994 and lots of writers have probably long leaned on Lamott’s wise advice. In other words, I’m sixteen years late to the party here. But, yeah. I’m reading it for the first time ever. And I love the below excerpt so much on so many levels that I’m going to share it today. And then—while we’re on the subject of glorious imperfections, which we will be—I’m going to follow it with a novel excerpt Eisha once shared with me years ago in a card she gave me, which I also love so much that it’s been hanging in my kitchen all these years.

(And, since Lamott mentions addictiveness, I’m picturing my addiction-of-choice above.)

This post is sort of like a cheap Dollar-Store copy of the kind of goodness you get at John E. Simpson’s blog on Poetry Fridays — interrelated poems, excerpts from novels, song lyrics, even videos/music, etc., though I’ve just got some book excerpts here and though this post doesn’t deliver half as well as John’s do. (Here is but one example.) His cyber-bungalow can be one of your best Poetry Friday visits.

I hope you enjoy the below excerpts as much as I do… Read the rest of this entry �