Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

When author/illustrator William Bee released his second book, And the Train Goes… (Candlewick, 2007), Kirkus Reviews described it as “{a} fresh, visually arresting read-aloud with a lovely old-time feel.” You could say that about William’s other two books as well—Whatever, released by Candlewick in 2005, and this year’s Beware of the Frog (also Candlewick)—but you’d be simplifying his books and his style a bit much by calling them old-timey. There is a modernity to his style as well, what with his ultra-stylized design sense — not to mention the demented, deadpan humor and spirit of at least two of his books thus far (the very Pierre-esque Whatever and the warped almost-fairy-tale world of Beware of the Frog). Kirkus even wrote about Beware of the Frog that it joins “the rapidly swelling ranks of seemingly innocuous tales for younglings in which main characters are suddenly killed off.” (If you’re thinking what in the what the?, you need look no further than Tadpole’s Promise or Ugly Fish as but two examples.)

There are actually many things about William’s style as an illustrator that appeal to me — not just this ability he has to veer from quite demented to totally traditional (as Publishers Weekly pointed out, And the Train Goes… is filled with what they called “English archetypes,” and have you used this book as read-aloud yet? Wonderful, I say). There’s also his web site in which you learn…well, nothing about his books but an awful lot about a few of his favorite things (staying home, giraffes, 1978, tape measures, London buses, Michael Caine, supersonic planes). Dare I say it? Dare I employ the so-overused-it-barely-registers-meaning-anymore “quirky”? Okay, he’s quirky. There. I said it.

So, yeah, my interest was piqued, and I snagged an over-breakfast interview with him. (William tells me we’ll be very disappointed with his breakfast-of-choice: “I usually have half a litre of water and a banana. On Sundays, I sometimes go mad and have two slices of toast with butter and Tiptree Jam, and a cup of tea — ‘Yorkshire’ tea with milk and two sugars.”) Read the rest of this entry �

We’re not the only ones interviewing today (see my chat with author Gail Gauthier below): Don’t miss Jama Rattigan’s chat with picture book creator extraordinnaire Marla Frazee over at Jama’s Alphabet Soup, posted today. You know I love my illustrator interviews, and Jama does it up right, my friends. Lots of fabulous questions and wonderful images, and Marla talks about the story behind her latest, award-winning book, A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, reviewed here at 7-Imp. (She also mentions working on Liz’s text — boy howdy and howdy boy, I can’t wait to see that book!).

Scoot. Scat. Vamoose! Go read and enjoy.

P.S. This isn’t the first great illustrator interview Jama’s done. There’s also a great chat with Laura Vaccaro Seeger here, Grace Lin here, and much more over there at her yummy Alphabet Soup.

There are two reasons we’re pleased that author Gail Gauthier has stopped by 7-Imp for a cyber-chat today: First, she’s in the midst of a blog tour for her second early chapter book about Hannah, Brandon, and one monster cat named Buttercup. A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers—the sequel to 2007’s A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat—hits the bookshelves this month and continues the story of Brandon, reluctantly sent to neighbor Hannah’s house for after-school care. Hannah, to put it mildly, has quite the imagination, not to mention a ginormous, over-sized cat. In these new adventures of Hannah and Brandon, Hannah’s neighbors, the Sunderland triplets, try to steal the cat, Brandon and Hannah then setting out to save Buttercup. Just like the first book, A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers is high-energy, packed with adventure, and told with spot-on humor to the elementary students at which it’s aimed, those just becoming interested in chapter books. The books, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, are illustrated by Joe Cepeda; some of the interior art from the new book is included below in this interview.

The second reason we’re happy to host Gail today is that she is a formidable presence in the kidlitosphere corner of Blogistan and has been since 2002. We are chatting with her today as not only an author but also as a blogger — one I’ve wanted to interview for a long while now. (And, no, we haven’t forgotten our blogger interviews. It just so happens that the last three people we’ve asked to interview are terribly multi-faceted and in-demand and . . . well, busy. We’ve stalled on that interview series for a bit out of necessity. But we’re patient. And I digress.)

Where was I? Over at Gail’s blog, Original Content, Gail talks a little bit about Everything Kidlit — her writing, trends, other books, publishing, blogging, etc. And what I love in particular is that she tells it like it is and isn’t afraid to pose questions — whether she’s talking about her thoughts on award-winning books, authors blogging, celebrity authors, or why blog reviews are important.

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You’d think we’d be pretty blasé about this kind of thing by now. I mean, we’ve been lucky enough to have interviewed a lot of cool, brilliant, amazing people over the past two years. You’d think we’d be all: “Ho hum, here’s yet another person with more talent in his little pinky finger than we’ll ever hope to have in our entire bodies. *Yawn.* Whatever.”

But no. It’s always a thrill when someone we admire is willing to cyber-hang with us. And we’re pretty much gobsmacked over this one.

Today, we’re talking with David Small. Yes, the David Small. We are just a teensy bit in love with him. But then, who isn’t? Eisha can date her crush to the first time she read Imogene’s Antlers, wa-a-a-ay back in her early children’s librarian days. That spread where Imogene is wearing doughnuts on her antlers to feed the birds pretty much knocked her flat. And it only got better with each successive book: David’s ability to convey everything you need to know about a character and exactly what he/she is thinking and feeling at a given moment is uncanny. Take a look at the gentle social satire evoked by Miss McGillicuddy’s long-suffering expressions in The Money Tree; the surreal hilarity of those bovine troublemakers in George Washington’s Cows; the irresistible charm of The Gardener; the painfully familiar heroine of The Library; the quietly luminous The Journey; the… okay, can’t-even-think-about-this-one-without-crying perfection of The Mouse and His Child; and the sweet, subtle grace of The Friend. Just, you know, to name a few faves.

David has been making picture books since 1981. As the biography at his site states, David’s books have been translated into several languages, made into animated films and musicals, and have won many prestigious illustration awards, including the 1998 Caldecott Honor for The Gardener written by his wife, Sarah Stewart, and the 2001 Caldecott Medal for So, You Want To Be President? by Judith St. George. “To date he has illustrated over 40 picture books,” the biography closes. “At an average of 40 pages per book, that makes around 1,840 illustrations, though someone ought to check that math.”

David has also done extensive work for national magazines and newspapers; his drawings appeared regularly in The New Yorker and The New York Times. Some examples of his editorial illustrations can be viewed here at his site. Pictured here is our Commander-in-Chief.

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You know those illustrators whose distinctive style of work you can recognize in approximately a femtosecond? Giselle Potter’s art work is like that. Her folk-art style, rich in color and full of whimsy (yes, “whimsy” gets overused in describing children’s books, but if anyone’s got whimsy—the good kind, not the saccharine-sweet kind—goin’ on, it’s Giselle, pictured here in her studio). Her style is not only instantly recognizable. It’s also playful and sometimes unpredictable and always a little delightfully offbeat. We at 7-Imp think she’s a true original, and we’re so pleased that she has stopped by for a cyber-breakfast to chat a bit with us. And what is her breakfast of choice? “A soft-boiled egg, toast, and coffee.” Coffee? Do we have coffee? Why, yes, we always do. Excellent. Let’s get right to it.

But, wait . . . If you’re new to Giselle’s work and want to know more about her titles-thus-far, don’t fret. She sent us a comprehensive list of her published titles, and I linked each one. Feel free to explore. If you’re not familiar with her books, we highly recommend them, and you’ll see that several of them have been reviewed here at 7-Imp. Her most recent illustrated title—Eugene Field’s Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, published by Schwartz & Wade this May—is a thing of beauty. Instead of trying to describe the deep, bold colors and Giselle’s beguiling interpretation of this old poem (Kirkus Reviews wrote, “{t}he hand-lettered text and mixed-media illustrations rendered in nighttime blues and greens lend an imaginative, dream-like quality to the ethereal text”), let me show you a few spreads from it. See for yourself:

Ah. Lovely, yes? I reviewed the book here in April if you’d like to read more about it. And, again, thanks to Giselle for stopping by. Without further ado . . . Let’s set the table for breakfast while asking Giselle about some of the basics: Read the rest of this entry �

It’s that time again, time to sit down with one impossibly talented illustrator before breakfast. Rather, over breakfast. Tricia Tusa’s here, joining 7-Imp for a cyber-feast. And what is Tricia’s breakfast of choice? “Two eggs over easy, three pieces of bacon, two pancakes, hot Red Mate tea with milk and honey, a handful of vitamins. If there is time, I will juice kale, parsley, carrots, cucumber, beets, apple and lemon together. I feel more secure starting my day with a large amount in my belly.” That, my friends, is a real breakfast. As long as I can add my coffee, I’m more than happy with that meal. And especially the company.

Tricia’s been wow’ing me lately with her illustrations, and in 7-Imp’s world, I’ve recently run my mouth about In a Blue Room, written by Jim Averbeck (Jim is interviewed here), published this year by Harcourt, and last year’s Fred Stays With Me!, written by Nancy Coffelt and published by Little, Brown Young Readers.

But here’s the thing. As you will see below, Tricia has illustrated about FIFTY books. (Note her response to the can-you-list-your-books-to-date question: She’s illustrated so many that even she’s not sure how many total she’s graced with her paintbrush.) And I can’t find a Tricia Tusa bibliography online anywhere. It PAINS me to not include a comprehensive list of her books to-date, but . . . well, you read the same thing I did: There are FIFTY, folks. Not to mention, I’m sure you, our devoted readers, know how to do title searches. So, I’ll leave that rewarding search up to you.

That said, I feel rather like a poseur gushing about her illustrations when I’ve seen exactly two of her books. Ahem. Shameful, I know. But, hey, a girl’s gotta start somewhere. I really like what I have seen, not to mention you can bet I’m off to do a library search for her previous titles. I predict that one day really soon I’ll be walking in the door with a hugely huge stack of Tusa-illustrated titles to explore. That’s my plan anyway.

While we’re setting the table for our breakfast chat, let’s get the basics from Tricia. But first I want to thank her for stopping by. And how much do I love that she shares her quirky brainstorming techniques (see her various ways of cocooning below)? A whole, whole lot. What a fun interview this was, and many thanks to her. Read the rest of this entry �

There are two reasons I’m hosting a rather random interview with author Kerry Madden today: First, her Maggie Valley trilogy of books, whose third installment I finished a few months ago, are so positively good—so full of love and laughter and warmth and fairies-in-the-holler and mountain music and family and honeysuckles and bookmobiles and Ghost Town in the Sky and wildflowers and Daddy’s banjo—that I wanted to ask her a bit more about writing them and try to convince any of our loyal readers who perhaps haven’t already read them to COME ON and DO SO already, ’cause reading them is like giving yourself a gift. Whew.

Second, there is a large part of my heart still nestled in East Tennessee — in the foothills of the Smokies, where both Eisha and I went to college and where I decided to stay and study some more and work, volunteer, get married, give birth, etcetera etcetera and all that. And Kerry herself, my friends, is also a Knoxville Girl (though, to be sure, she’s also lived and travelled all over the world). WOOT! (I refuse to yell GO BIG ORANGE!, with respect to my football-fan friends. You’re all gonna have to settle for WOOT!) Best of all, she writes about the Smoky Mountains in her Maggie Valley trilogy with such vividness that she so clearly takes me back there — and without me having to jump in my car for the 200-mile drive.

And, honestly, there’s another reason: Kerry is just a neat person. Interesting. Smart. Funny. A style all her own, in just about every way. I only briefly met her last summer at The Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, and I found myself wanting to talk to her for much longer than I had time. And, yes, it’s true that an author’s personality should have no bearing on whether or not I like her book; I can separate Kerry from her books, and I can evaluate her books based on her talents as an author (and I happen to think the books are great and her talent is immense). But, well, like I said, she just seems endlessly interesting: She’s a “journalist, mom, explorer, biographer, essayist, poet, author, writing instructor,” as her site’s header will tell you — and you can add playwright to that, too. And so I wanted to chat with her some more.

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Welcome to the fifth and final day of the Summer Blog Blast Tour. We hope you’ve enjoyed all the interviews as much as we have.

For our final SBBT interview, we’re thrilled to be talking with the hardest-working man in picture books: author/illustrator Javaka Steptoe. The talented Mr. Steptoe sprang onto the picture book scene in 1997 as the illustrator of the poetry anthology In Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers (Lee & Low). His mixed-media collages — created from “paper with pastel; applique; and a multitude of found objects, including fabric, coins, seashells, buttons, sand, seeds, and leaves” (School Library Journal) won him instant acclaim – and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for 1998. As SLJ went on to say: “The artwork vibrates with emotion; even the simplest pieces, showing torn-paper figures on a solid background, capture the powerful bond between parent and child.”

Next up was the daunting task of re-illustrating a classic: Charlotte Zolotow’s sweet ode to siblinghood Do You Know What I’ll Do? (HarperCollins, 2000), originally illustrated by Garth Williams. The updated classic won Steptoe further accolades: Publisher’s Weekly raved “…His stunning illustrations… create layered, almost three-dimensional portraits of the striking African-American siblings. Their love for each other is tangible, yet he injects the same playfulness and humor inherent in the text.”

Steptoe followed this up by collaborating with Nikki Grimes on the poetry collection A Pocketful of Poems (Clarion, 2001). School Library Journal praised the “playful and thoroughly successful pairing of words and pictures,” stating that his illustrations “give the book an urban, upbeat, and contemporary look.”

For his next project, Steptoe made the leap from illustrator to author/illustrator, in his original picture book The Jones Family Express (Lee & Low, 2003). The story of Steven, a boy who creates the perfect gift for his world-traveling aunt using a discarded model train and a lot of imagination, is the perfect vehicle for Steptoe’s collage art. Says SLJ: “Young readers will identify with Steven’s struggle to choose a perfect present and his excitement over Aunt Carolyn’s invitation for him to join her travels — but it is the illustrations that will cause them to linger over this book and delight in the colorful details.”

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• Jennifer Bradbury at Bildungsroman
• Elisha Cooper at Chasing Ray
• Mary Hooper at Miss Erin
• E. Lockhart at The YA YA YAs
• Mary Pearson at A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy
• Charles R. Smith at Writing and Ruminating
• Dar Williams at A Fuse #8 Production

{Note: The rest of today’s Summer Blog Blast Tour interview schedule is posted at the bottom of this interview.}

See Flyaway Katie on the book cover below, brought to life by illustrator Polly Dunbar? I’m about as excited as she looks, because Polly, pictured here, has stopped by 7-Imp today to chat with us. Polly—who lives and works in Brighton, England, and happens to have one of the most entertaining web sites of children’s lit— has a style all her own. Her books, both ones she’s illustrated and author/illustrated, are testaments to the power of a child’s imagination, and her energetic mixed-media illustrations, whose palettes are saturated with the loveliest of all colors, manage to be both spirited and cheerful and convey great depth all at the same time. And, in what seems to be a running theme this week, Polly has also talked in previous interviews about the freedom she feels in writing and illustrating for child readers:

I think the younger [readers] are, the more freedom you have with being experimental. Very young kids will accept anything. Their eyes are still so wide open. That’s why picture books for me are the most exciting area to work in.

I’ll show my work to a grown up, who will just sort of flick through it and say, “I like that colour.” A child will be absorbed in a different way, and that’s lovely and really rewarding.

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