Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

This week we continue our series of blogger interviews with The Blue Rose Girls by talking to illustrator Linda Wingerter. It’s been great fun to chat with the multi-faceted Linda, who seems to live and breathe the arts (and also roller derby and fire-spinning).

She is one of the seven Blue Rose Girls, but she also has her own individual blog, Antimonia. When we asked her if there were any regular features at Antimonia, Linda said that, nah, “it just flows along with the waves of life.” This seems like an apt description for Linda herself, who is, as her blog explains, “keenly interested in chance connections and found objects; currently conducting a life experiment in following synchronicity. I like anything that cultivates coincidence, and any place or event that is a crossroads of random people” (“antimonia” itself means “the mutual incompatibility, real or apparent, of two laws; equally rational but contradictory,” she explained). Linda added, “there are so many things I love — painting, fire spinning, roller derby, writing, puppeteering, etc that they are often in conflict with each other and my life seems to lack focus. But I’ve always had a feeling that they all are a pieces of a larger, more extraordinary whole. My blog is a way of looking at all these things, like a map, with the hope of finding the big picture.” Linda also broke her dominant hand while skating in November of last year and very candidly discusses her healing from that, both physically and otherwise, at Antimonia.

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This week we continue our series of blogger interviews with The Blue Rose Girls (on — surprise! — a day you might have least expected it) by talking to author/illustrator Meghan McCarthy. Just like it did when we chatted with bloggers Robin Brande, Anna Alter, and several other folks, it feels a bit awkward to ask the first blogger interview question — “What do you do for a living?” — when chatting with Meghan. If you keep up with picture books today, you’ve likely heard of Meghan and so you very well know what she does: she creates energetic, spirited, rather spastic (that’s a compliment) picture books — both fiction and nonfiction — with bold colors and animated characters and with much humor that is, as Publishers Weekly put it, “right on target for mischievous younger readers.”

We think it’s safe to say that Meghan is a large part of the spunk and feist (We just made up that word. She’s feisty is what we mean — the good kind of feisty; not the troublesome kind) and dynamic energy of The Blue Rose Girls. We think this — from Meghan’s Aliens Are Coming! site — says it all. This is under “About Me” on the “About the Author” page of the site: Read the rest of this entry �

7-Imp is pleased to be the inaugural stop on Barbara Kerley’s current blog tour.* This is Barbara, of course, pictured here from 2004 on a Paris stop — the Eiffel Tower’s carousel, to be exact — which was part of her trip to London to finally see Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins’ dinosaurs (see below for a photo from that visit), Hawkins being the subject of one of her picture book biographies. So, yes, she’s setting aside some time this month to chat with bloggers about her new novel (and writing/life in general). The novel is called Greetings From Planet Earth (Scholastic; April 2007), and we’re here to tell ya, folks, that it looks really interesting. You can read all about it below (as well as some other forthcoming titles), since Barbara has stopped by for a cyber-visit here at 7-Imp. Read the rest of this entry �

Welcome, Dear Readers.  This week we continue our series of interviews with the Blue Rose Girls by talking to the uber-talented, delightful author/illustrator Anna Alter. (Yup, in case you’re wondering, that does indeed seem to be a knitting, flying monkey that she’s drawing there.)

Let’s face it: we’re all fascinated by artists. Especially those of us who have a huge appreciation for art without any actual artistic talent of our own. What’s cool about Anna, besides her lovely illustrations and stories, is the way she shares her process and techniques with the rest of us through her blog posts and outstanding website. It gives us left-brainers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of all the hard, tedious work and meticulous research that goes into creating all those gorgeous picture books we love. For example, check out these two posts that show us the step-by-step creation of an illustration for an upcoming book, from sketch to finished painting. And here, where she experiments with various apparel choices for a character.  Read the rest of this entry �

We know it’s Poetry Friday, but we thought we’d shake things up with Something Unexpected for the end of this week (forgive us, National Poetry Month). It’s probably pretty obvious that we here at 7-Imp think that random author and/or illustrator interviews (as in, the interviewee may not necessarily have a new title to promote) are always interesting and fun. If you’re a fan of the person being interviewed, it’s a nice, little surprise to suddenly see them pop up when you least expect them. Like we did with M.T. Anderson — who is holding Jules’ head, you may remember (dude, I need to remember to ask for my head back) — and Jarrett J. Krosoczka. They had no new books to plug. We just like them a whole, whole lot. The fact that they’re both on Fuse #8’s list of Hot Men of Children’s Literature (#19 and #25, respectively)… coincidence.  Yup.  Sheer coincidence.

Same goes for John Green (HMOCL #6… What? What? It’s coincidence, I tell you!). We are fans of his writing, which tends toward an irresistible mash-up of buddy novel, bildungsroman and love story told through evocative imagery and dead-on dialogue. We are also fans (as is the rest of the world, it seems) of Brotherhood 2.0, the daily video blog he and his brother, Hank, have undertaken, which has graced the world with such gifts as …In Your Pants, Nerd Fighters, and the Foundation to Decrease WorldSuck.  Oh, and this riveting edge-of-your-seat adventure as John Green and M.T. Anderson bravely (and illegally) explore the legendary forbidden ruins of downtown Detroit. Ooh . . . Perhaps the most classic Brotherhood 2.0 moment of all was when John was caught on film when receiving the phone call in January of this year about the Printz Honor for 2006’s An Abundance of Katherines.

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Welcome to Episode 2 of our series of interviews with the Blue Rose Girls.  Today we’re getting to know Alvina Ling:  children’s book editor, blogger, adventurer, and yet another person to add to our list of Bloggers We Wish We Could Hang Out With In Person, ‘Cause She Seems So Freakin’ Cool.

Why is she cool?  Let us count the ways…

First:  She has TWO blogs.  There’s her own personal one at Bloomabilities, as well as being a member of the BRGs.  Talk about multitasking… 

Second:  She’s been immortalized as a children’s book character!  Lately she’s been contributing a series of “How I Met…” posts on the BRGs tracing her individual connections with each of the other members.  The first describes how her childhood friendship with Grace Lin eventually became the basis for Grace’s novel, The Year of the Dog, which Alvina edited.  How beautiful is that?

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How’s this for coincidence?

Last week we emailed the Blue Rose Girls, asking if they’d be interested in being interviewed.  We had no idea at the time that Elaine Magliaro was already planning to launch her very own blog, the Wild Rose Reader, this very week.  What perfect timing!  We’re so thrilled for Elaine, and honored to be able to allow our readers to get to know this charming, classy, brilliant blogger a little better.

In case you’re not familiar with the Blue Rose Girls (for the record, our goal is to interview each and every one of them), it’s a blog about children’s literature — the writing, editing, illustrating, teaching, and pondering of it — that is shared by seven women (Alvina, Anna, Elaine, Grace, Libby, Linda, and Meghan). And here’s how their story goes: Three of them (all illustrators — Grace Lin, Anna Alter, and Linda Wingerter) forged a bond online through the Internet, and after their children’s book careers began to take off, they named themselves “The Blue Rose Girls” (in a tribute to the Red Rose Girls who came before them). Eventually, the others — including Elaine — joined the online presence, and, as their site states, “{w}hile we don’t all live together in a shared studio space, we do, like the Red Rose Girls, depend and feed off each other for inspiration and support.” (We feel like we’re glossing too quickly over these talented women, and we’re obviously not linking to the blog and/or site of each individual Blue Rose Girl; however, you can read all about them at their site, not to mention wait for our future thrilling interviews, as we’d eventually like to chat with each one of them anyway) . . . Here’s Elaine’s inaugural post as the Blue Rose Girls’ “first guest blogger,” back in October of ’06. Read the rest of this entry �

We here at Team 7-Impossible can be pretty effusive about our love for Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Like here, when Jules wrote a glowing review of Giddy Up, Cowgirl. Or here, where Eisha was equally thrilled about My Buddy, Slug. Or here and here, where Jules gets excited over JJK’s blog and his great picture book recommendations, and raves about one of our all-time favorite books EVER, Punk Farm. And, oh yeah, who could forget this fab little moment, when Eisha got disturbingly effusive all up in his grill at the Boston Globe-Hornbook Awards ceremony. Woo.

So you can imagine our happiness when Mr. Krosoczka — sorry, we mean Jarrett — graciously agreed to an interview. Good thing for Eisha, his memory must be very short.

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There’s been a lot of talk lately in the kidlitosphere about the joy of a renowned blogger giving a rookie blogger some attention, even if it’s just visiting a new site and leaving a comment. When you first step foot into the cyber world of blogs, it’s exciting and a bit of a relief when someone you’ve never even met pops up and says that she or he is paying attention. Well, for us here at 7-Imp — back in August of last year when we first started this venture — Mindy at Propernoun was our very first visitor (who wasn’t one of our parents or good friends or who wasn’t either one of us responding to the other’s post — in other words, our first kidlitosphere blogger to drop by). She knocked on our cyber-door (on August 18th, to be exact — we looked it up), and said in response to Jules’ review of Jimmy Liao’s The Sound of Colors: “I read this one recently too and liked it. It really is a beautiful ode to bravery and imagination. Great review!” Squealing ensued. (And to give credit where credit is due, I remember Kelly at Big A, little a mentioning our blog at her site at some early point, but I do know that Mindy was our First Blogger to Leave a Comment). We had been noticed in the vast space that is cyber!

And noticed, at that, by someone as respected and smart and classy as Mindy. Mind you, this is not the sole reason we love her site (how vain would that make us?). Yet, because of it, we have a special place in our collective blog-heart for her. We admit it. Read the rest of this entry �

I say we tell you why Jen Robinson’s Book Page is well worth your time in the same manner in which we told you about Susan at Chicken Spaghetti last week: Let’s ennumerate in true 7-Imp style. For the record, Eisha is unable to contribute to this blogger interview (she’s still out of town), but I know she enjoys Jen’s blog and would pretty much agree with the following tribute (in seven parts, of course):

1>. Jen is a big ‘ol advocate of children’s literacy issues. At her site (and in addition to book reviews, of course), she features weekly Children’s Literacy Round-Up posts, where she links to “news stories about children’s literacy and/or programs that promote the love of books in children,” as she put it (here is her most recent one). Jen, as you’ll read below, is not a librarian, not a teacher, and in no way works on a daily basis with children. She is the co-founder of a software firm and has a doctorate in Industrial Engineering. Who knew? This is what we love about the blogger interviews (which, I swear, could go on forever, what with all the interesting bloggers out there) — finding out that someone like Jen, who passionately champions something like children’s literacy efforts, is a software expert by day and children’s lit lover by night (so to speak — we are sure she spends some sunlight time blogging, since her blog is always up-to-date, informative, interactive, and interesting). Here’s what she has to say about it at her blog’s Mission Statement: Read the rest of this entry �