Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Once upon a time (last December, to be precise), Eisha and I embarked on a co-review of M.T. Anderson’s The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party, and we were pleasantly surprised to receive an expression of gratitude from the author himself, thanking us for our detailed (or rambling, depending on your point of view) commentary. And, ever the gentleman, he never once commented upon the fact that we got a bit punchy in that review, too, what with Eisha sharing the savagely funny interrupting-cow knock-knock joke and my slaphappy suggestion that Anderson consider a contemporary soundtrack for the novel, with two characters named Bono and Prince. Brilliant. If I’d known Anderson himself would be reading that, I’d have not, oh I dunno, been such a moron.

And then, after corresponding a bit and valiantly asking for an interview (with fingers crossed behind our backs), he not only acquiesced but also — instead of sending a photo, as we requested — visited Eisha at the library branch where she works in Cambridge. Yes, they’re practically neighbors, it turns out. And so they briefly visited — along with Anderson’s charming (says Eisha) girlfriend — and snapped some friendly photos for the blog. Since I couldn’t be there, being down here in the South as I am, we conducted some digital editing and added my disembodied head into one photo, as you can see below. We have M.T. to thank for that delightfully macabre idea. Read the rest of this entry �

1. Susan can write. We mean, really write. Unlike some of us, she has actually made a living writing and editing for some pretty noteworthy publications.

2. She’s a great team leader. Eisha had the supreme pleasure of serving on the Cybils Nominating Panel for Poetry, of which Susan was Chair. She was a dream to work for — always available, always agreeable, always there for questions or guidance, but totally let us do our thing however we wanted to.

3. She’s got great taste. Her reviews are insightful and pithy, and it’s always interesting to get her perspective on how books go over with her son and the first graders she reads to.

4. She’s a generous and kind feedback-giver. She even emailed us once out of the blue, just to say something sweet about our blog. Aw.

5. She does things like this — “a meta-list of the Best Children’s Books of 2006” — and even updated it very recently. As Eisha commented at that link, “mercy, woman, when do you sleep?” Read the rest of this entry �

Robin Brande is so amazing to us. We may yammer on about being busy with Jules’s kids or Eisha’s jobs or whatever, but check out Robin’s blog bio: “…she is or has been various combinations of the following: a lawyer, yoga instructor, black belt, entrepreneur, community college instructor, Wilderness First Responder, insurance agent, outdoor adventurer, Girl Scout leader, and Sunday school teacher.” Add to that list “soon-to-be-published author” – her first YA novel Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature is set to be released by Knopf/Random House in August, and has already been nominated by ALA as one of the Best Books for Young Adults for this year!

She’s no slouch as a blogger, either. Her smart, funny commentary on “writing, reading, and other vital matters” has earned her a loyal following – or maybe it’s the fact that she gives away FREE CHOCOLATE to total strangers every month. Seriously. Free chocolate. Even though, in an incomprehensible display of willpower, she herself gave up chocolate eight months ago. You can also check in with her pretty much every Thursday for a discussion of the previous night’s Lost episode. Her blog also features a book club, of sorts. As she describes it, it is the… Read the rest of this entry �

As with many of the blogs we admire, there is much to dig about Anne and her site, Book Buds. First and foremost, we’re not sure if we’ve ever admitted this before, but we much prefer those sites that lean towards aesthetically-pleasing. (Images, please! O give us images!) . . . Anne’s got that goin’ on. Nice look at her site, particularly that header. Give us a well-designed header, and we’re happy. When accessing Book Buds, you are not overwhelmed with text text text (we still read those sites, but o they hurt the eyes!). She seems to have really put thought into the look of the site. Cyber-high five to Anne for that.

Anne is also one of your best picture book go-to gals. In fact, she focuses solely on picture book reviews at her blog and has a handy-dandy rating system: “I give from zero to four buds, which I draw like so *\ and it used to be much harder to get a lot of buds from me. But there are too many great books coming in and no time to waste on ones I hate, so it seems to me like I’m strewing buds all over the place.” We likey the book buds, especially when in a hurry (as most librarians are) and wanting to know the low-down on a book: Is it worth our time or not?

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Dear Readers, our “Pinch Me” moment has finally come full circle. Not only did the impossibly-gracious Haven Kimmel agree to an interview with two squealing, hysterical bloggers who can offer nothing in return (except to promise never to bother her again), but she actually composed and delivered the answers during a week-long-and-counting migraine, and moments before she left on a reading/signing tour to promote the paperback release of She Got Up Off the Couch. Even if she weren’t such an amazingly talented author, we’d love her just for that. But she is an amazingly talented author, and in case you still haven’t taken our advice and picked up one of her novels or memoirs, we’ll throw together a little Haven Kimmel 101 before the interview proper. And then if her fabulous responses still don’t convince you to read her books already… well, heaven help you.

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Team 7-Imp is pleased to present this week’s blogger interviewee:

Little Willow of Bildungsroman!

We think Little Willow is just about the sweetest presence in the kidlitosphere. If you moved next door to her cyber-house, she’d totally be there ringing your doorbell to welcome you to the neighborhood with a big plate of freshly-baked cyber-cookies. However, she’s shy about using her real name or her actual photo on the web. So we improvised with the book cover on the left. (Okay, neither of us have read the book, but the cover seems to fit – playful, sunny, sweet… and it even has a cat!) By the way, in case you’ve wondered, none of the pics on her blog are actually of her, either. {Jules would like to add — with a bit of red in her cheeks — that she was once convinced that Little Willow and Anna Nalick were one and the same. Well, they’re not. She just outright asked Little Willow, and — even though it was a dumb-ass question — Little Willow was gracious about it}.
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Knock. Knock . . . Who’s there?

Interrupting Cow.

Interru-

MOO!

Oh wait, that’s Eisha’s favorite childhood joke (as mentioned previously in our co-review of M.T. Anderson’s Octavian, of all places). We got carried away there, but we hope we at least made your milk-snortin’ inner child laugh.

Let’s try again: Knock. Knock. Who’s there?

First-time author Lisa Graff, knocking on our cyber-door. Perhaps she heard we like to have fantasy author wine/coffee soirees. Oh wait! She’s not a mirage. She’s real! She’s really come to say hi, to chat with us on her seven-day blog tour. Lucky us! We’ll even offer her some peach raspberry pie (see below) with the coffee (and then we’ll have wine).

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You know how with each of our blogger interviews we have explained to you, dear reader, why we love our chosen blogs so much? Well, with Kelly Herold at Big A little a, we just don’t know where to begin, honestly. There are many things to love about her and her blog.

First of all, just how professional is she? (Rhetorical question; you’re supposed to just nod and say “amen”) . . . Truly, she always writes with the utmost courtesy and respect and professionalism, yet she’s far from a stick-in-the-mud, too. She is witty, smart as hell, has a refreshing sense of mischief when needed, and can really appreciate a good joke. But you’ll never see her spewing forth negative energy or getting downright silly on her blog or saying “dude,” which we — unfortunately — slip into entirely too much here at 7-Imp (the new abbreviation for our blog’s title that has just stuck — isn’t it wonderfully naughty?). Essentially, we feel like the cheap, dollar-store knock-off of Big A little a and strive to one day be just like her. To continue with the junior high school analogy, she’s the President of the 7th grade Student Council, but she’s seriously hip and terrifically nice, too. And we all admire her and want to a> be as cool a leader as she is and b> sit next to her at the pep rally (those of us who attend pep rallies and don’t go sit in the library, as Jules did in high school. Seriously. No kidding. Nerd alert. They were just too peppy, dude . . .) and be her friend. (Um, Eisha feels compelled to admit that during pep rallies she could usually be found making out with her boyfriend in the band’s storage room. But she would have shared her fries with Kelly and Jules at lunch.) Read the rest of this entry �

This author interview with the talented Emily Jenkins might seem a bit random. It’s our first one on our own blog (and, really, if you want to see some kickin’ author interviews that occur on a regular basis, you best head over to Little Willow’s author chats at Bildungsroman and the interviews by the nice folks over at Just One More Book!! . . . They have it goin’ on. And there are probably a slew of others we’re forgetting). Honestly, though, what happened is simply that we read one of Emily’s latest creations, last year’s Toys Go Out (published by Schwartz & Wade Books), illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky, and we marvelled at the fact that she seems to be guided by quite the clever muse and that she keeps continually wow’ing us with the skillful writing in her children’s titles. She, in short, quickly became one of our favorite children’s book authors in the crowded landscape of children’s literature. So, we asked for an interview and were kindly granted one (and we appreciate it “very extremely hugely much” and feel like quite the “lucky ducks,” to quote her playful and colorful ’04 picture book title, Daffodil).

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Hey, we’ve been scooped! The Cybils decided to interview MotherReader at the very same time that we did! And somehow we didn’t notice until this moment that the Cybil interviews and our 7ITBB ones start off with the same two questions. Oh well, since we’re fellow Cybilians, I hope Anne and Kelly & Co. aren’t too miffed at us. And really, with the double-interview thing going on, do you need any more proof that Pamela Coughlan truly is the Mother Of All Readers? Can we officially declare this MotherReader Week? Get your Mo Willems tealights out…

What we love about MotherReader: She’s funny. Really, really funny. Her Tulane Readers Theatre post was one of the funniest things seen on any blog so far this year. And she’s passionate about great books, especially of the funny variety. She’s even got a MotherReader Suggests… sidebar on her blog, listing funny choices for every stage of reading, from newborns all the way to adults. She’s also unflinchingly honest about the not-so-great books, and has recently spearheaded a movement to prevent celebrities from misusing their fame to monopolize the children’s lit market: BACA, Bloggers Against Celebrity Authors. Can I get a “Hell Yeah!”? Read the rest of this entry �