Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

 
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)
(Click to enlarge image)

 
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.

* * *

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.

Read the rest of this entry �

(Click to enlarge)

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.)

Read the rest of this entry �

This morning over at Kirkus, I’ve got a joint Q&A. Author Janice N. Harrington and illustrator Brian Pinkney talk with me about Busy-Busy Little Chick, their new collaboration from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (released last month).

Harrington’s story is based on a fable told by the Nkundo people of Central Africa, and she talks to me about the research that went into the book, while Pinkney weighs in on his artistic choices for the book’s vibrant illustrations.

That link is here. Next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll follow up with some (more) illustrations from the book.

Until tomorrow …

* * * * * * *

BUSY-BUSY LITTLE CHICK. Text copyright © 2013 by Janice N. Harrington. Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Brian Pinkney. Illustration above reproduced by permission of the publisher, Farrar Straus Giroux, New York.

(Click to enlarge)

I love it. The above sketch, that is.

It’s one of author/illustrator Lauren Stringer’s early sketches from her newest picture book, which she both wrote and illustrated, When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky: Two Artists, Their Ballet and One Extraordinary Riot, released by Harcourt in early March.

Have you seen this book? I recommend it, particularly for those who love the arts. It tells the true story of two early-20th century artists—the composer Igor Stravinsky and the danseur and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky—who both yearn to make “something different and new” and who eventually collaborate on a ballet (The Rite of Spring), which revolutionizes music and dance. And causes a riot, no less, as the book’s delicious sub-title tells you. Stringer’s writing teems with reverence for the artists and tells a well-paced story with tension and exuberance. The brightly-colored illustrations swirl, swoop, and dip and, as Publishers Weekly writes, make music and dance “entertaining and joyous,” bringing this momentous meeting of minds to life for young readers. Read the rest of this entry �

“Stars, / Stars, / A necklace of stars …”
— Sean’s sample piece for the Estate of Langston Hughes,
before he began work on the book, followed by the book’s final spread
(Click each to enlarge)

Last week, I chatted briefly with Sean Qualls about his latest book, Lullaby (For a Black Mother), to be released by Harcourt next week. It’s a picture book adaptation of a Langston Hughes poem, originally published in 1932.

The Q&A was here. Today, I follow up with some art. Enjoy.

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Though he usually eats a fairly healthy breakfast, he tells me, today author/illustrator Randy Cecil, pictured here with Lucy, is joining me for waffles and coffee. I see that I have the ability to make people downright indulge at the breakfast table. Now, where is that syrup? Mwahahahaha … ha … ha … [Evil laugh … fading … out.]

I am pleased Randy is visiting, as I’ve enjoyed his picture books over the years—he’s illustrated over twenty thus far—especially 2008’s Duck. (Oh! Duck! “It snowed so much, Duck almost disappeared.” Oh, hell. Where are my tissues? What a beautiful story it is.) And just last year (when Randy and I originally started talking about this interview, but life has a habit of getting in the way of blogging), he illustrated Barbara Joosse’s Lovabye Dragon from Candlewick Press (all but one of his books have been via Candlewick), which I also enjoyed. And so did the professional reviewers. “What’s not to like?” wrote Pamela Paul last Fall in the New York Times, calling it “one of a welcome wave of books that let girls play with beasts that once kept company solely with boys.” Paul adds: Read the rest of this entry �