Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Because Kirkus deadlines don’t stop for Thanksgiving, I decided to write about a book I thought might be a fitting Thanksgiving read. And that would be Isobel Harris’ Little Boy Brown, illustrated by French graphic designer and illustrator André François and originally published in 1949. My thoughts on that book are here, and next week I’ll follow up with some art from it (though one illustration, which is also the cover illustration, is pictured right).

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Today, I’m giving some attention to board books, since those poor guys don’t really get enough attention (at least compared to picture books and novels). I’m chatting with the publishing director of Abram’s Appleseed Books, Cecily Kaiser, about board books and what makes a good one. That link is here.

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Lastly, this week for Picture Book Month (which is coming to a close), I chat with podcaster Katie Davis about picture books. I might just ramble a bit about Uri Shulevitz, Maurice Sendak, Barbara Bader, Katherine Paterson, Harry Allard’s and James Marshall’s Grandfather Stupid, picture books as “acts of mischief” (as Patricia Lee Gauch describes it), favorite picture books of 2013, and more.

That is here.

Thanks to Katie Davis for dealing with my low-tech old-skool phone skillz.

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LITTLE BOY BROWN. First American edition published in 2013 by Enchanted Lion Books. Copyright © 2013 by Enchanted Lion Books for this reprint edition. Illustration reproduced by permission of the publisher.

Those of you who follow the wonderful blog Calling Caldecott over at the Horn Book site will recognize today’s book, since they recently posted about it. In fact, I first read about it over there and felt inspired to feature it here.

Written by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore and illustrated by Roth, Parrots Over Puerto Rico (LEE & LOW, September 2013) is an unusual book in that it serves as both a history of the island of Puerto Rico, as well as a history of the Puerto Rican parrot. This vertically-oriented book—and that’s the cover above, text-less and all—tells how they “lived on this island for millions of years, and then they nearly vanished from the earth forever.” The authors go back as far as 5000 BCE to document the first people on the island and those people, the Taínos in 800 CE, who named the parrrots iguaca after the cries the creatures make. As the authors continue to lay out with great clarity the history of the island and those who came to settle there, they highlight the threats the birds have faced over the years, including red-tailed hawks, black rats from settlers’ ships, honeybees, deforestation, hunters and trappers, birds called pearly-eyed thrashers, and more. By 1967, well after the island became a territory of the United States, only twenty-four parrots lived in El Yunque, a national forest in northeastern Puerto Rico:

Puerto Ricans looked up and saw that their iguacas were almost gone. People had nearly caused the parrots to become extinct. Now people started to help the parrots stay alive.

Read the rest of this entry �

“To me, the perfect picture book is a spontaneous creation, inspired by an invisible and mysterious muse not to be found in the marketplace.”

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It was a pleasure to chat with author Kate Banks, pictured here. My brief Q&A with her is posted over at Kirkus this morning.

Kate’s newest picture book is City Cat, illustrated by Lauren Castillo, so I asked her about that book. But since Kate’s first books were published in the 1980s, I thought I’d also ask her how she thinks the picture book fares today. Part of her response is above.

And all the rest is here.

Next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll have some of Lauren’s art from City Cat.

Until tomorrow …

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Photo of Kate Banks used with permission.

(Click to enlarge photo)

 
See that? Author/illustrator Aaron Becker and Those Clever and Brave Children from Aaron’s Journey are waiting for me to join them for breakfast out in the garden. I think this has become, hands down, my favorite interview picture from this year. (Aaron says he dines on Peanut Butter Captain Crunch when he’s feeling particularly brave, and I see he has some cereal bowls waiting for us.)

Aaron is having a good year. If you follow picture books closely, you’ve probably already noticed this. Journey, his debut picture book, was very recently named one of the New York Times’ Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2013. In fact, he just illustrated a special cover for yesterday’s children’s issue of the New York Times Book Review. Journey has also been met with glowing reviews all around (mostly starred reviews), has been awarded the 2013 platinum “Best Book Award” by the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, was nominated for Best Picture Book in the Goodreads Choice Awards, has been garnering Caldecott buzz, and was called nothing short of a “masterwork” by Sarah Harrison Smith in the New York Times.

Back in August, when I chatted briefly with Aaron about this book over at Kirkus, I shared that I found myself with a very early copy of Journey after this post from last year when I sort of stumbled upon Aaron’s artwork and website. I loved it so much that one morning I, no kidding, called an emergency picture book coffee-shop meeting with two friends who love picture books as much as I do, ’cause I just had to show them this book. We sat over our cups of strong coffee and ooh’ed and aah’ed a lot.

And I still think it’s special.

Even though we’ve had that short Kirkus chat this year, I still wanted Aaron to come over for a 7-Imp breakfast, ’cause 7-Imp breakfasts mean we see way more art.

I thank him for visiting. Let’s get to it. Read the rest of this entry �

“The various bad odors, smells, and aromas that occasionally befoul your home
are almost always the work of the Stinkers.”
(Click image to enlarge and see spread in its entirety)

 
Hmm … Can’t find my mug. Could be a little household thief.

Last week at Kirkus, I chatted with William Joyce about his newest picture book, The Mischievians (Atheneum, October 2013). That is here, and today I’ve got a bit of art from the book.

Since this book is a catalog of everyday “things that make mischief, make mayhem, [and] make noise” (think: lost homework, missing keys, that kind of thing), Joyce has been inviting children on his recent book tour to create their own dastardly creatures of mayhem. He shared a few of those with me today (from Hunter’s Creek Elementary in Houston, Texas), and they are posted here as well. Here’s one, The Eye-Stealer. He—you guessed it—steals eyeballs (AIEE!), and he was discovered by a young scientist, named Blake. Keep your eyes peeled for The Eye-Stealer, I say.

 
Enjoy the rest. (There’s a bit more art from the book below, as well as three more child-created Mischievians.) Read the rest of this entry �

“Mahalia and the crowd of thousands cheered. The people who had come to hear Martin on that day were moved to more than a single amen. It was AMEN TIMES TEN!”

 
I love this spread so much. It floors me. It’s one of my favorite picture book illustrations from this year. The color! The energy! The life and joy in it …

This is from Andrea Davis Pinkney’s Martin & Mahalia: His Words, Her Song, illustrated by Brian Pinkney (Little, Brown, July 2013).

Last week, I chatted at Kirkus with Andrea about this collaboration, as well as a couple of other topics. That is here. Below is some more art from the book.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry �

Pictured above is Matt Phelan’s rendition of author/illustrator Greg Pizzoli, who’s visiting me for breakfast today (and whose human version is pictured left). “I turned 30 in January,” Greg told me, “and my wife had some friends and family draw portraits of me for a book she made. It was called ’30 Portraits of Greg.’” So, Greg didn’t send all of those portraits for our chat this morning, but he did send some. Since they’re too fun to pass up, I’m including a few more below, scattered hither and thither.

Greg saw his picture book debut this year (more below on how he took that road to publication). The Watermelon Seed was released by Disney-Hyperion in May, and it tells the story of one very worrisome crocodile dealing with what the Publishers Weekly review called a “[c]lassic kid fear.” (This is an “expert debut,” they also noted.) He’s swallowed a seed, and anxiety-ridden children the world over will find humor in the crocodile’s fraught facial expressions. (Vines could grow out of his ears after all.) Using bright colors, screenprints, and hand lettering, Pizzoli lays out a smartly-designed book (co-designed with Joann Hill), which was met with positive reviews all-around.

When I asked Greg about breakfast, he told me that coffee is always first. Ah. An illustrator after my own heart. “The tofu scramble with a side of potatoes and a biscuit from Sam’s Morning Glory is my favorite breakfast in Philly,” he added. “They make their own ketchup.” I’ll get the coffee brewing, and then maybe we can think about tofu scrambles for later.

I thank him for visiting today, sharing lots of artwork, and letting us know what is next for him.

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“…Our publishing community needs more people of color working in publishing houses at all levels and in all departments to 1) hire people of color; 2) mentor and retain those people; 3) acquire books; 4) get behind books and nurture the talent that creates them so they’re encouraged to keep writing and illustrating. It’s that simple. But it’s not easy.”

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This morning over at Kirkus, I chat with Andrea Davis Pinkney about her research for Martin & Mahalia, collaborating with Brian, the state of so-called multicultural books, and more. That link is here.

For those who want to see some art from this, her newest picture book, there’s a beautiful spread from Brian over at the column this morning, and next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll have some more of his spreads from this book.

Until tomorrow …

From “Sleep Charm”: “This bed is the perfect bed. / Sink into its healing /
cloud-softness, / cheek against cool pillow-white. /
Forget anything you ever wanted, / hoped, or feared. …”

 
Last week, I chatted here at Kirkus with author and poet Joyce Sidman about her newest poetry collection, What the Heart Knows: Chants, Charms & Blessings (Houghton Mifflin), to be released in early October. The book is illustrated by two-time Caldecott Honor recipient Pamela Zagarenski.

Today here at 7-Imp, I’ve got two spreads from the book (including the poems), as well as some details from some of Pamela’s paintings. I thank Pamela for sharing them.

Also below is one question for Joyce I didn’t have room for in last week’s column, as well as a trailer for the book, which features even more of Pamela’s artwork.

*[This post's title comes from "Song of Bravery," one of my favorite poems in the collection: "...But here I go--- / bones clicking quietly together, / blood flowing dutifully / from heart to hands and back again--- / here I go, stepping out / through the door / of my own shadow: / into the glare of the arena / to face the lions."]

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry �

It’s a pleasure to welcome illustrator John Parra to 7-Imp this morning. Parra’s bright folk-art-esque illustrations, rendered via acrylics on wood and often reflecting Mexican heritage and culture, have appeared in a handful of picture books since 2005, all listed below. This year readers saw his artwork in Roseanne Greenfield Thong’s Round is a Tortilla, released by Chronicle Books in March.

“At home,” John tells me, “my breakfast-of-choice is Honey Bunches of Oats cereal with Bustelo coffee in the morning. On the weekends my wife, Maria, makes great eggs and pancakes. When I’m visiting family in San Diego, a good bowl of pesole soup in the morning will do wonders, but the best breakfast I ever had was three or four years ago at a diner in Pomona, California. A good friend, Mark, took my wife and me to it. We all ordered the recommended egg and shrimp omelet that was filled with delicious cheese, avocado and salsa. It sounds simple but was truly sublime to taste.”

Do I get to pick? I would love to try the pesole soup, so we’ll have the cyber-soup for this cyber-breakfast. (But also the Bustelo coffee! Must have the coffee.)

Let’s get right to it, ’cause John shares lots of art this morning.

I thank him for visiting.

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