Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

I’ve been chatting it up with people this week. Here’s the run-down:

I’ve always wanted to chat with picture book author Linda Ashman. Today, I get to. That link is here today.

Legend has it that Tom Jones—I’m sorry, but I just gotta post his picture now—passed out in the studio when hitting the final, dramatic note of “Thunderball” for the 1965 James Bond film of the same name. I sort of imagine author/illustrator Brian Floca similarly falling to the ground after having finished the artwork for Locomotive (coming from Atheneum this Fall), because it’s rather masterpiece’y. (That’s professional speak.) I won’t be at BEA this year, but I wrote about the book for Kirkus’ special BEA supplement (page 42!) in their current issue, and I chatted briefly with Brian about it. I’ll chat with him even longer in August and share some art then, too, from this beautiful piece of nonfiction.

Finally: Yesterday, I chatted with author Matthew Olshan and illustrator Sophie Blackall about The Mighty Lalouche, released by Schwartz & Wade this month. That Q&A is here, and next week I’ll have some of Sophie’s artwork, some sketches, and some of her research images.

Until later …

Last week at Kirkus, I wrote (here) about Cecil Castellucci’s and Sara Varon’s Odd Duck (First Second, May 2013) and wanted to be sure to invite them here to 7-Imp to talk a bit about this graphic novel for children, as well as showcase some art from it.

So, we three misfits sit here at the 7-Imp cyber-breakfast table. (Odd ducks RULE.)

I’m going to turn it over to them, while I pour the coffee and listen, and I thank them for visiting.

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“and wait . . .”
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Pictured directly above is the illustration, as I mentioned in my BookPage review, in Julie Fogliano’s if you want to see a whale (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook Press), illustrated by Erin E. Stead, that took my breath away when I turned the page and first saw it. You should do yourself a favor today, if you’ll allow me to make the suggestion, and click on that image to embiggen it. And just soak it in for a while. Boy howdy and howdy boy, do I love that spread.

Above that are some images that show how Erin Stead got from point A (or somewhere near it) to point B.

Last week, I linked here at 7-Imp to my BookPage review of this book, and I thought it’d be fun to follow up here at 7-Imp with some art from the book. Then Erin sent some sketches, too, and some images of what her process was like in creating these beautiful illustrations (linoleum blocks and pencil, as you’ll read below). I thank her for taking the time to share.

She sent these just yesterday, and I thought I’d post them soon; given a busier-than-normal schedule this week, I figured I’d be lucky to post them this week at all. But I just read that today is the book’s big release day, so I decided to drop what I was doing and post this now. (You might think, if I didn’t admit these things, I were actually organized.)

If you read my review, you know I love this book. It’s a whisper to a friend, a book you should step away from a busy schedule to read and savor, and a beautiful thing to share with a child.

Here’s Erin … Read the rest of this entry �

(Click image to enlarge and see full spread from which it comes)

 

This morning over at Kirkus, I write about three picture book sequels of sorts, and that link is here.

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Last week at Kirkus, I chatted briefly with London-based illustrator Paul Thurlby. As a follow-up today, I’ve got some illustrations (two spreads) from his new book, one pictured above and the rest below. Paul Thurlby’s Wildlife was released by Templar in March. (And if you missed the award-winning Paul Thurlby’s Alphabet in 2011, I featured it here at 7-Imp.)

Enjoy the art. Read the rest of this entry �

 

Here is Mark Pett, who is responsible for one of my favorite picture book spreads thus far this year, this one below, which you simply must click on to enlarge and see in its glory:

 

(No, really. Click to embiggen.)

 

That old man is from Pett’s The Boy and the Airplane (Simon & Schuster, April 2013), which I wrote about at Kirkus last week. If you’re wondering who he is and what he’s doing with that toy airplane, I explained it all last week in my column. This evening, I want to show some spreads from the book, and bonus! Mark is visiting to talk a bit about the book and share some more art, including a sneak-peek at a follow-up to The Boy and the Airplane. Let’s get to it, and I thank him for visiting … Read the rest of this entry �

Author/illustrator Selina Alko and I are cyber-meeting this morning for a delicious scone (”like, oh, chocolate cherry or lemon raspberry,” she recommends) and very large coffees, and since we can only cyber-meet (what with me being nearly a thousand miles away near Nashville and her in Brooklyn), we’ll do so in her setting of choice, a lovely light-filled café.

A “very large coffee.” Lots of light. Why, I can whole-heartedly get behind these things.

Selina—who has visited 7-Imp before, but not for a full-fledged interview—is sharing so very much art today that I want to get right to it, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t introduce you to her if, by some chance, you aren’t familiar with her books. As you’ll read below, Selina’s been illustrating picture books for almost ten years now with her brightly-colored, textured gouache and collage artwork — “funky [and] fun” is how Booklist once described her work. About B is for Brooklyn (Henry Holt, 2012), one of her most recent picture book titles, Kirkus wrote that her “[k]aleidoscopic mixed-media pages…are chockablock with vibrant images that fairly burst from the pages.” That could be said for a lot of Selina’s illustrated titles.

If that very large coffee doesn’t wake me up this morning, I know her vivid illustration work will. What are we waiting for? Let’s get to it. Read the rest of this entry �

Today over at Kirkus, I chat with London-based illustrator Paul Thurlby about why he’s having a good year, as well as about mid-century design and illustration.

That link is here.

Until tomorrow …

Here’s something I’ve failed to say but have intended to say for nine days now: It’s National Poetry Month.

Know one way you can celebrate? You can grab a copy of J. Patrick Lewis’ World Rat Day (Candlewick, March 2013) and read it to your favorite child. Sub-titled Poems About Real Holidays You’ve Never Heard Of, it’s an entertaining collection of weird holidays you won’t exactly see on your favorite kitty cat or Dilbert calendar.

The book was illustrated by Anna Raff, children’s book and editorial illustrator who was once, as you’ll read below, a children’s book designer. Anna’s joining me for breakfast today, giving me and my Imp readers a look at lots of her art, rats and beyond. And what a treat it is. At turns playful, mischievous, and sweet (but never cloyingly), her dry-humored art entertains. (Case-in-point, for one: The Wild Turkey you’ll see below.) Read the rest of this entry �

“And everyone remembered Shiraz, too — the girl with a brave heart,
who had listened and had understood that when people are sad,
they do not always know how to ask for what they need.”
– One of Vali Mintzi’s illustrations from
Rita Jahanforuz’s The Girl With a Brave Heart: A Tale from Tehran
(Barefoot Books, March 2013)

“Mama Nsoso spread her wings around her children. ‘Don’t worry, my babies,’
she said. ‘When morning comes, we will build an ilombe, a new house. It will have a
grass roof, mud walls, and a cozy nest inside. The wind will not blow in.
The rain will not drip in, and the dark night will not bother us.’”
– One of Brian Pinkney’s illustrations from
Janice N. Harrington’s Busy-Busy Little Chick
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, February 2013)
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If you follow picture books closely, you know there’s been a lot of talk lately about this book, pictured left, by Lemony Snicket and illustrated by Jon Klassen. The Dark will be released by Little, Brown next week, and I read an early copy a while ago.

And I really like it.

I wanted to write about it for Kirkus this week, yet I wanted to do something different. There have been already a handful of reviews of the book, and I wasn’t in the mood to hear myself yap about it.

I started thinking about what it must have been like to work as the editor on this story, so I contacted Susan Rich, the Little, Brown editor who worked on this one. My column this week is a Q&A with her, and it is here today.

I thank Susan for taking the time to chat with me about it, and next week I’ll have a bit more art from the book here at 7-Imp.

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Last Thursday at Kirkus, I chatted with illustrator Brian Pinkney and author Janice N. Harrington, pictured below, about Busy-Busy Little Chick, their new collaboration from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, released in February. If you missed that Q&A, it’s here. Below are some illustrations from the book.

And last Friday, I wrote here about Rita Jahanforuz’s The Girl With a Brave Heart: A Tale from Tehran (Barefoot Books, March 2013), illustrated by Vali Mintzi. Below is one more illustration from the book. (And for those who want to see even more, I noticed that, if you click on the book’s cover here at the Barefoot site, you’ll see a slideshow of a few more spreads.)

Enjoy.

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Yes, creative blitzes are even possible before breakfast. Maybe even before coffee, but then that might be stretching it.

Author/illustrator Lita Judge is visiting me for some cyber-coffee this morning to talk about what happens when she gets such creative inspirations — for one, her latest picture book. Just out from Atheneum earlier this month was Red Hat, what Lita calls her “companion piece” to 2011’s exuberant and adventurous Red Sled (also from Atheneum). (If you didn’t see Red Sled in 2011, I’m clutching my heart dramatically and hoping you’ll go read about it here, ’cause it’s a picture-book joy is what it is, and Kirkus named it one of their Best Picture Books of 2011. Ah, 2011 was a pretty good picture-book year, wasn’t it? Oh, and remember when Lita visited me for breakfast in 2011 and her JAW-DROPPINGLY gorgeous studio? I enjoyed that interview. But I digress.)

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