Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“‘Maybe it’s weird for you, but not for me. …'”

 
Over at Kirkus today, it’s moths and natural selection and adaptation and gorgeous art.

That is here.

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Last week, I wrote here about K-Fai Steele’s first book as both author and illustrator — A Normal Pig (Balzer + Bray, June 2019). Today, K-Fai talks a bit about the book, shares some early sketches (and a couple of deleted scenes), and shares some final art from the book. I thank her for visiting.

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Over at Tennessee’s Chapter 16, I have a chat with author Kerry Madden-Lunsford, whose new picture book is called Ernestine’s Milky Way (Schwartz & Wade, March 2019) and is illustrated by Emily Sutton. You can give me a picture book set in the Great Smoky Mountains any day.

The interview is over here at the wonderful Chapter 16 site, and here at 7-Imp today I have some of Emily’s spreads from the book.

Enjoy!

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Over at Tennessee’s own Chapter 16 today, I’ve got a Q&A with author Shauna LaVoy Reynolds about her debut picture book, Poetree (Dial, March 2019), illustrated by Shahrzad Maydani.

That Q&A is here, and here today at 7-Imp are some spreads from the book.

Enjoy!

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Over at BookPage, I’ve a review of Christian Robinson’s Another (Simon & Schuster, March 2019), which is such a superb picture book. That review is here.

Here at 7-Imp today, Christian shares some preliminary images (sketches, character exploration, images of studio work, book design, etc.), as well as some final art from the book. I thank him for sharing.

Enjoy!

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(Click to enlarge)

 
Over at Tennessee’s Chapter 16, I’ve got a Q&A with author Mac Barnett, who returns to Nashville next week (Parnassus Books) to talk about Circle, the latest book in the Shape trilogy. The Q&A — and more details on his bookstore visit — is here.

If you’d like to circle back here (see what I did there?) after you read the Q&A, I have below some of Jon Klassen’s illustrations from the book. [Pictured above is the title page illustration.]

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“And Crab bakes cakes.”(Click to enlarge spread)

 
Over here at BookPage, I have a review of Andrea Tsurumi’s Crab Cake: Turning the Tide Together (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, February 2019). And here today at 7-Imp, Andrea shares a peek into the making of this book — some early doodles, thumbnails, an unused dummy spread (“I lost track of how many drafts this book went though,” Andrea says), the various research and texture layers she made for the art, some final art, and more. She also shares a comic all about why she made the book (which I find quite comforting and want to immediately share with all children I know).

I thank her for sharing. It’s a pleasure to have her visit today. Let’s get right to it!

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A final spread from the book: “… and grow.”
(Click to enlarge)

 
Over at BookPage, I’ve a review of Corinna Luyken’s newest picture book, My Heart (Dial, January 2019), which she both wrote and illustrated. The review is here, if you want to read about the things I like about this book.

Corinna visits today with lots and lots of art (which makes me happy) to talk about illustrating this one and balancing the book’s emotions — its darkness and lightness, as she puts it. Let’s get right to it, and I thank her for visiting.

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It’s a pleasure to have a visit here today at 7-Imp from author Jacob Kramer and illustrator K-Fai Steele. They are here to chat about their upcoming picture book, Noodlephant (on shelves in January from Enchanted Lion). In fact, this is the debut book for each of them, though 7-Imp readers may remember that K-Fai visited here back in 2017.

This is the story of an elephant, who loves noodles so much that she is famous for her pasta parties and her friends call her Noodlephant. In Noodlephant’s busy town live the kangaroos, always making and enforcing the laws. Unfortunately, the laws are such that they favor the ones in charge. One day, while shopping for a party, a kangaroo notifies Noodlephant that the laws say that noodles are for kangaroos and that “elephants shall only eat sticks and branches.” Read the rest of this entry �

 

Top: Early sketch of Tiger; bottom: final art from the book

 
This morning over at Kirkus, I’ve an interview with author Jonathan Auxier about his newest novel, Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster.

That is here.

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Last week, I wrote here about Emily Tetri’s Tiger vs. Nightmare (First Second, November 2018). Today, I’ve some art from the book, and Emily also shares some preliminary images — some art from the book pitch and a couple images showing early Tiger and Monster art.

Enjoy!

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Early sketch and final spread: “Some tended to the towering forests of kelp
rising from the ocean floor.”
(Click each to enlarge)

 
Author-illustrator Molly Idle visits 7-Imp today to talk about her newest picture book, Pearl (Little, Brown, October 2018). It’s the story of a small mermaid, eager for a big job. When her mother tells her that Pearl’s job is to care for and keep safe a single grain of sand, Pearl is disappointed. She doesn’t truly hear her mother’s words: “The smallest of things can make a great difference, Pearl.” (And that’s all I’ll tell you about the plot so that I don’t ruin the read for you.)

Molly is here to talk today about creating the book, and she shares work-in-progress images and final art from this glimmering beauty of a thing, filled as it is with flowing lines, expert compositions, and a drop-dead gorgeous palette. Let’s get to it, and I thank her for sharing.

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