Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

There’s been a significant amount of Kimberly Willis Holt love goin’ on at 7-Imp in our relatively short existence (here she is to the left as a child with her sailor dad). You may have noticed last year that Eisha and I were quite fond of Kimberly’s picture book, Waiting for Gregory (Henry Holt), with the beautiful and eye-popping illustrations of Gabi Swiatkowska. We raved about it here last year in early November. It was one of our top-five favorite picture books of ’06. And then there was Part of Me: Stories of a Louisiana Family (Henry Holt) — another of Kimberly’s titles from ’06, a series of short stories tracing the roots of a Lousiana family over four generations — which I reviewed here. Most recently, I reviewed Kimberly’s latest title, a chapter book entitled Piper Reed: Navy Brat (Henry Holt), the story of a sassy, young girl whose father, a Navy aircraft mechanic, is transferred yet again and her family must move to a new home in Pensacola, Florida. With help from her sisters, whom most days she can do without, and a surprise from their parents, Piper manages to find happiness in her new home.

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Eisha and I are pleased as punch to say that we’ll be interviewing Kimberly Willis Holt next week. I believe she’s on one of those so-called, new-fangled blog tours, meaning you’ll see her stop at a few other places, too, but we’re just happy she’ll be stopping here at all. We will take any reason to chat with her, as we’re both quite fond of her writing.

So, that interview will be next Wednesday, December 19th, and in anticipation and celebration of it, we (well, really Henry Holt and Kimberly Willis Holt) are giving away a copy of Piper Reed: Navy Brat, her newest title, which also happens to be a chapter book and which I also happened to review here, should you want more information on it. Best of all, Kimberly will be autographing this free copy of Piper Reed. Wahoo! If you’re interested in winning a copy, just leave a comment here. I suppose I can put all the names in a hat and convince my three-year-old daughter to draw a name from said hat when the day’s done. How does that sound?

Don’t forget today’s interview — just below this post — with the one and only Tasha Saecker of Kids Lit.

It truly is some kind of small crime that we have not yet interviewed Tasha Saecker in our ongoing blogger interview series. We have no hard-and-fast rhyme or reason to whom we interview when, but Tasha’s blog about children’s lit, Kids Lit, is practically a dinosaur in the kidlitosphere, considering the very young age of many blogs. Kids Lit is approximately five years old, which doesn’t sound like much, but that’s considered ancient in the kidlitosphere; you’ll see in the interview below that Tasha states that there were very few blogs about children’s lit when she began hers: “I think there were about five of them when I started,” she told us. It’s for this reason that Tasha was the perfect blogger to present on the basics of kidlit blogging at the recent 1st Annual Kidlitosphere Conference in Chicago. She started us all off with a talk on how to get started blogging, how to do reviews, what blog formats seem to work best, etc.

It’s also for this reason — as well as her consistent, smart book reviews, of course — that she has influenced many other bloggers. Many of the kidlitosphere bloggers we’ve featured in our interview series have cited Tasha’s Kids Lit blog as being an inspiration of one sort or another: Kelly Herold of Big A little a; Sheila Ruth of Wands and Worlds; Jen Robinson; and Betsy Bird of A Fuse #8 Production, to name a few. In fact, at the risk of sounding very This Is Your Life (which means, you know, that you’ll just have to shed a tear — and dramatically — at some point, Tasha), we thought we’d ask some of them to include some thoughts on Tasha and her blog. Here’s what they had to add to our interview today: Read the rest of this entry �

Here’s a kidlit-blogger who probably needs no introduction, but we’re going to do it anyway. It’s Tricia Stohr-Hunt of The Miss Rumphius Effect, and we’re pleased as can be to feature an interview with her this week. We’re both pretty big fans of Tricia’s, particularly since we got to hang out with her and many other fabulous bloggers over coffee at the Kidlitosphere Conference in Chicago a couple of months ago (somehow we were in the group that didn’t get wine at Target). Eisha also has the pleasure of overseeing Tricia’s esteemed and insightful participation as a panelist on the Nonfiction Picture Book Nominating Panel for this year’s Cybils. Tricia is an enthusiastic and knowledgable kidlit lover, which is exactly what you want in a Cybils panelist.

Here’s another reason we love her: she sent us a baby pic. Prepare for cute-baby freakout…

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Today we’re happy to be featuring an interview with podcaster Mark Blevis of Just One More Book!! If you missed the interview with Andrea — his JOMB co-podcaster and his wife — last week, then here’s the link if you want to read all the reasons we here at 7-Imp enjoy the book reviews and author and illustrator interviews over there and if you want to know everything that great site has to offer.

What you might not know about Mark is that he produces a whole slew of other podcasts: Electric Sky (interviews and documentaries) and Canadian Podcast Buffet (which supports the Canadian Podcast community) are just two of them. If you visit his web site, you can read some of the others he produces (in the left sidebar under “Produces”). In fact, the “About” page at Mark’s site includes text that we think sums him up pretty well; rather, you can tell from his podcasts at JOMB that he most certainly fits the following profile he wrote about himself: Read the rest of this entry �

We’re so pleased to be shining a spotlight today on one half of the dynamic duo over at Just One More Book!!, Andrea Ross. Andrea and her husband, Mark, are — hands down — the hardest working duo in the kidlitosphere, and their podcast over there, which is all about picture books, is terrifically informative and fun. And what we love the most about them is how professional and consistent they are with their podcasts, the look of their site, and . . . well, everything. Best of all, their BIG ‘OL, HUMONGOUS passion for picture books is evident in each and every podcast they do.

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I just love the fact that we’re finishing up our participation in the Winter Blog Blast Tour with our 55th interview!!! Five happens to be my favorite number, and to see two of them right there together like that makes me go a little tingly.

It’s especially appropriate, because Jules and I are really really pleased to be able to interview Gabrielle Zevin for the WBBT. A couple of months ago, we had the extreme pleasure of “tri-reviewing” her latest YA novel, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, with Jen Robinson of Jen Robinson’s Book Page. The multi-layered plot and well-developed characters gave us a lot to talk about, so we were grateful for the chance to ask Gabrielle a little more about Memoirs, as well as her other novels and screenplays.

In case you’ve missed any of this talented author’s offerings, here’s a little Gabrielle Zevin 101:

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One More Note: This is our third entry in this week’s Winter Blog Blast Tour. To see the master schedule of all interviews this week, go here at Chasing Ray, and for today’s schedule of interviews, scroll to the bottom of this post. We will also be interviewing YA author Gabrielle Zevin tomorrow.

It is a real honor for me to feature today an interview with the one. the. only. Jack Gantos (pictured above at Franz Kafka’s house in Prague). I’m a big fan of his books and have had the great pleasure of hearing him speak several times (including taking a short course on picture books, which he taught one summer at The University of Tennessee). What can I say? If you’ve ever heard Jack speak, you know how quick-witted and honest and entertaining he is. To boot, he has a refreshingly irreverent sense of humor, which makes his books and his speaking engagements quite unforgettable. Above all, there’s his talent with the pen and the quality of his writing — his ability to bring such vivid stories and characters to life, stories that target every age range, from picture books to novels for adults.

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No 7-Imp interviews today in the Winter Blog Blast Tour, but below are the other interviews lined up for today. We’ll be back tomorrow with our interview with the. one. the. only. Jack Gantos.

Before that, though, we want to quickly say (and hope she doesn’t hate us for announcing it loudly here):

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, COLLEEN, BLOG-BLAST-TOUR-ORGANIZER-EXTRAORDINAIRE!

• Lisa Ann Sandell at Interactive Reader
• Christopher Barzak at Chasing Ray
• Julie Halpern at The Ya Ya Yas
• Micol Ostow at Shaken & Stirred
• Rick Yancey at Hip Writer Mama
• Jane Yolen at A Fuse #8 Production
• Shannon Hale at Bookshelves of Doom
• Maureen Johnson at Bildungsroman
• David Lubar at Writing & Ruminating
• Sherman Alexie at Finding Wonderland

One More Note: This is our second entry in this week’s Winter Blog Blast Tour. To see the master schedule of all interviews this week, go here at Chasing Ray, and for today’s schedule of interviews, scroll to the bottom of this post. We will also be interviewing Jack Gantos on Thursday and YA author Gabrielle Zevin on Friday of this week.

It’s difficult to do an interview with the one and only Jon Scieszka (drawn in caricature here by Adam Rex and used with Adam’s permission) when it’s coming on the heels of the informative interview in the most recent special issue of the Horn Book (the September/October issue), “Boys and Girls.” There was also Roger Sutton’s August podcast interview with Jon, which can still be accessed here, in which Jon discusses teaching, reading, and the singular wit of second graders.

But we interviewed him anyway, ’cause we could not pass up the chance. If you’re a children’s lit aficionado who has been living under a rock, we suppose you might need a Scieszka 101, but arguably he’s an author who needs no introduction. But here’s a brief rundown:

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