Seven Impossible Interviews
Before Breakfast #69: Kadir Nelson
Monday, March 17th, 2008
Ever seen the art in an illustrated book and cried? Not because the book is particularly sad in any way, but simply because the art is beautiful, the emotions evoked so stirring, and the creator so artistically accomplished? As melodramatic as it may sound, we here at 7-Imp have had experiences similar to that when looking upon the beautiful oil paintings of illustrator Kadir Nelson. Actually, you can make that “author-illustrator” now, since Kadir penned as well as illustrated his latest book — We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, just published in January by Hyperion/Jump at the Sun. As if his blazing talent with paint brushes weren’t enough, leaving us speechless at every turn . . . now he proves he’s got the writing chops as well.
There is a reason you will hear a lot of kidlitosphere bloggers say that they wish Franki Sibberson (pictured right) and Mary Lee Hahn (left) of 
Here’s some food-for-thought: 
{Note: It’s February 14th, and the Cybils ’07 award winners are being announced today over at the 
eisha: Yes, she is a total puddin’!!! And I enjoyed this one a lot, Jules. Between this novel, and The Thing About Georgie, I’ve decided that one thing Lisa Graff can certainly deliver is an original concept. At heart, this is a story about friendship, trust, and finding one’s own identity and the limits of one’s own conscience. But told in the framework of a con job, complete with preteen con artists, magicians, and extortionists… It’s a great hook, and will certainly keep readers guessing along with Bernetta about who’s a friend, who’s an enemy.
7-Imp is particularly excited to be chatting today with author/illustrator Eric Rohmann, who — in the words of Publishers Weekly — “has perfected the art of letting the pictures tell the story.” In 
Eric — or, 
In 2007, School Library Journal described author/illustrator Steve Jenkins as a “master illustrator,” and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t agree with that. Steve — pictured here with his son on a summer road trip (“my mother said I look like a street person,” Steve told us. “My daughter granted, more kindly, that I could pass as a bohemian poet”) — has illustrated thirty nonfiction books for children, eighteen of them written by himself or co-authored with his wife, Robin Page. And the science teachers and librarians of the world are happy about this, because Steve’s books are titles that impart facts but do so in an enticing and entertaining way and with his signature eye-popping torn-and-cut paper collages. 
I have a confession to make: I read a lot of blogs but often get behind and have to seriously catch up in one sitting. But there is one blog whose posts I never miss. It’s the first cyber-stop I make every morning after first turning on my computer and getting coffee in hand. I mean to tell you that my house could be on fire or the Grim Reaper could come for me, all snarly-like, or an exceptionally large-‘n’-fiery meteorite could be heading straight toward the roof of my home, but I’d still holler, “Hold up! I haven’t read 
Eisha and I couldn’t be happier that school librarian Camille Powell (or, Miss BookMoot — “Jenny Holm called me that one time and I quite liked the sound of it,” she told us) is our first blogger interview of this new year. We already liked her blog 