Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

A week ago today at Kirkus, I conducted a short Q & A with Jennifer Dasal, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the North Carolina Museum of Art, about their current exhibit of Ashley Bryan’s artwork, Rhythms of the Heart: The Illustration of Ashley Bryan, which runs until August 19 of this year.

As I wrote over there, Bryan (pictured right) has led a long and distinguished career in children’s literature and his work draws, in particular, upon African-American spirituals, poetry, and folklore.

That link is here. You can read more over there from Ms. Dasal about the pieces in the exhibit, and I thank her for taking the time to talk to me.

Today here at 7-Imp, I’ve got images from the exhibit, and I thank the museum for sharing.

Released in conjunction with this exhibit will be two volumes of spirituals from Ashley, Walk Together Children: Black American Spirituals, Volume One and I’m Going to Sing: Black American Spirituals, Volume Two, published by Alazar Press. Over at the Q & A, I also spoke briefly with Rosemarie Gulla of Alazar, and here is what she told me in her entirety, for those interested in Ashley’s work and, in particular, these new volumes: Read the rest of this entry �

I have a presence over in the hypo-hyper world of Facebook, primarily so that I can share children’s literature links — and keep up with children’s lit news and links from colleagues in the field. I already posted the above image over there at my profile page, but I post it again here this morning all in the name of a really wonderful children’s reading festival that I’d like to yawp about. (And it’s about time, since every year I come back from the festival intending to blog more about it.) You can imagine me doing both jazz hands and cheerleader spirit fingers on this one, ’cause it’s that great. (Even if you were standing in front of me right now, you’d still have to just imagine me doing this, since I can only manage to grunt monosyllabically before breakfast/coffee, much less engage in such enthusiastic hand gestures. Post-coffee, I’m good to go, though.)

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How do you like my new friend here?

That was created by author/illustrator Aaron Zenz, and he appears in this post Aaron wrote on Monday about some of his favorite blogs.

I can’t possibly thank Aaron enough for the kind words about 7-Imp. Oh my. Best part is the company I’m in.

Naturally, I begged for a copy of the Zenz-inspired Mad Hatter to feature here at 7-Imp. It’s now on this page of the blog, left to posterity. (Um, I sound like I’m retiring, but you reader-Imps know what I mean.)

Thanks again to Mr. Zenz!

I’m doing something a bit different for 7-Imp today.

This March, I had the pleasure of being a faculty member (well, sorta — I was a Special Guest instructor) at a Highlights Foundation writers’ workshop up in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. The Foundation is changing the way they’re doing things, given the construction of a new facility at their Honesdale site, and wanted folks to help get the word out, and I said I’d be happy to contribute with a short Q & A with Kent Brown, Executive Director of the Highlights Foundation.

(If you’ve ever wondered about the Foundation faculty—for their writers’ workshops, that is—go no further than here and prepare to be impressed.)

So, here’s the deal, dear Imps: The Highlights Foundation has led in the past a week-long writers’ workshop at the Chautauqua Institution in New York state. However, at the Honesdale campus in Pennsylvania, they are happy to have completed work on a brand-new facility. As a result, they decided to focus on what they can provide writers and illustrators using the Honesdale space alone. Read the rest of this entry �

A quick post to note that the International Board on Books for Young People today announced the short list for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. That list is here. The winning author and illustrator will be announced next week at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. (Oh, how I wish I were going back!) There are many good folks shortlisted here, so I shouldn’t single out anyone, but to say I’m a ginormous John Burningham fan doesn’t even quite cut it, so I’m particularly excited about that.

That’s it for now. Until tomorrow …

I’m visiting this week (as a “special guest”) at a Highlights Foundation workshop in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Last night at dinner, my former career as a sign language interpreter came up, and before I knew it, the ever-effusive Katie Davis—who could probably talk a cat into a long, leisurely bath—had convinced me to interpret her latest picture book, Little Chicken’s Big Day, into American Sign Language, while she read it — all in the name of World Read-Aloud Day 2012, which is being celebrated today, in fact.

I haven’t interpreted in—gulp—nearly eight years (with the wonderful exception of having the opportunity to interpret for Walter Dean Myers’ 2009 Arbuthnot Honor Lecture at the Alex Haley Farm in East Tennessee). This is far from a perfect interpretation. There are even mistakes. I feel like I should point this out to any Deaf folks or interpreters watching. Did I mention it was very impromptu?

 

I hope to be back tomorrow with actual picture book art. Until then …

I’m away this week, speaking at this workshop in Pennsylvania, but here’s a quick post to mention two quick things…

Pictured above is illustrator R. Gregory Christie. That image comes from my 2009 breakfast interview with him. Greg has a wonderful and worthwhile new idea for which he needs financial backing from those so inclined to provide some support. Here’s all the information you need to know (don’t miss the video linked there at the top), but bottom line is that Greg has a children’s and young teens’ bookstore (in a mall) in Decatur, Georgia, that “needs a new look.” He writes at that link: Read the rest of this entry �

I had the great pleasure of jurying the 2012 BolognaRagazzi Award for the 2012 Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy. I’m now back from my visit to Bologna—needless to say, I slept like a log last night—after having looked at nearly a thousand illustrated books from all over the world with fellow jury member and French book designer Raymond Stoffel, as well as Professor Antonio Faeti, chair of the jury and all-around brilliant human being.

To say that I am grateful and thrilled to have seen so much beautiful international children’s book art would be a serious understatement.

Here I am pictured in front of Giannino Stoppani, the world’s most perfect children’s bookshop. One day I am going to go back to Italy with my pillow and sleeping bag to just MOVE IN to this shop and sleep there amongst the books.

Later, I will share more pictures from the inside, and I’ll tell you more about it then, too. I am waving now to Grazia Gotti, who owns the shop and reads 7-Imp daily. (And I say “ciao!” in my best Italian accent, though it will probably sound a bit twangy, no matter how hard I try.) I was flattered to learn she and her colleagues read 7-Imp on the other side of the world, and it was great to meet them and to spend the day in their shop.

I also finally got to meet in person the dear, sweet Cristiana Clerici. More on that soon, too.

The 2012 BolognaRagazzi Award winners will be announced soon. Exciting! Until then, I set off to get caught up on everything else.

Back soon …

I don’t tend to cover news items here at 7-Imp. I leave that to other bloggers, who are particularly good at rounding up the newsy-type notes, but here are two quick ones for today, ones I feel are important for various reasons:

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Would you like to hear one very possible story of smart and ballsy self-promotion before breakfast (though I’m hardly the first children’s-lit blogger to post about it)? Once upon a time, there was a talented author who believed in his manuscript, and he decided to take advantage of his robust online presence to drum up some interest in it.

Marc Tyler Nobleman is the author of more than seventy books for children—in fact, those 7-Imp readers with superb memories may recall that he chatted with me in 2008 about his picture book biography, Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman—and he’s super psyched about the subject of his latest manuscript, which has yet to be picked up by a publisher. This nonfiction book he’s written, Thirty Minutes Over Oregon, tells the story of Nobuo Fujita, who … well, let me just share here the flap copy Marc created for the book:

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