Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“It’s sometimes hard to come out from behind my stories and articulate reasons for things, as the stories are not written that way. I don’t go into them with a reason or issue — only that the characters will treat each other with respect and tolerance. And that their dogs can do anything they like around the house. The rest will hopefully follow.”

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Over at Kirkus today, I talk to author-illustrator Bob Graham, pictured here, whose books I consistently like. He chats with me about his newest book, Vanilla Ice Cream, coming from Candlewick in August, as well as what’s next for him.

That Q&A will be here here soon.

Next week, I’ll have some art from some of Bob’s books.

Until tomorrow …

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Photo of Bob Graham used with permission of Candlewick Press.

Author-illustrator Barbara McClintock is here today to talk about creating the artwork for Beverly Donofrio’s Where’s Mommy?, released in March by Schwartz & Wade, which Kirkus calls “irresistible.” This is a companion book to Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, released back in ’07. Those of you familiar with the first title will know that Maria is Mary’s daughter, and Mouse Mouse is Mouse’s daughter. In this new book, Maria and Mouse Mouse are (separately) looking for their mothers, their experiences and goings-on fully parallel, as McClintock gives us a peek into each one’s home and surroundings.

Soon, Barbara will also see the release of another 2014 illustrated title, Jim Aylesworth’s My Grandfather’s Coat (Scholastic), which has already received two starred reviews. (Barbara also discusses below some other new projects. Fans of Adèle & Simon will be happy.) I haven’t seen My Grandfather’s Coat yet, but maybe she can come back to talk about it, especially since she’s also interested in talking further about the March Leave Your Sleep exhibit at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, as well as the Leave Your Sleep Carnegie Hall concert (back in April), which had, in Barbara’s words, “images from the book projected big as a barn behind the stage. Maybe [we can have] a discussion about ways picture books extend beyond their printed avatars.” (If you’re not familiar with Leave Your Sleep—with Natalie Merchant—you can visit this 2012 7-Imp post.)

I’d love to discuss those things, but for now, let’s look at Where’s Mommy?

I thank Barbara for sharing …

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Anyone else remember Loretta Mason Potts, written by Mary Chase and originally published in 1958? That’s (mostly) the subject of my Kirkus column today, as the book was just reissued by The New York Review Children’s Collection. That link is here.

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Last week, I chatted (here) with author-illustrator Matt Phelan about his 2014 projects, Burleigh Mutén’s Miss Emily (Candlewick), released back in March, and his own picture book, Druthers (also from Candlewick), coming in September. (Pictured above is an early sketch from Druthers.)

Today, we’ll look at a bit of art from each book, as well as some sketches from Matt. I thank him for sharing.

Enjoy.

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It’s a sort of miracle that this breakfast interview is even happening, since both author-illustrator Lisa Brown and I are not morning people. Oh wait, right. It’s a cyber-breakfast, but still … If it were a real, face-to-face breakfast, you can bet that we’d be having our chat over an afternoon snack, despite the name of this blog.

Another thing we share in common? A deep and abiding love for coffee (which certainly helps make our mornings easier), so I’m glad she was willing to come have pretend coffee with me today so that we could see lots and lots of her art. In fact, she says her usual breakfast is “a cup of coffee, then some toast and peanut butter, maybe some fruit smoothie if there is any left over from my husband and son, who will have been awake and functioning WAY before I shuffle into the kitchen in my pajamas, exhausted with the effort of having to wake up and shuffle into the kitchen. Then more coffee.” I can get behind these multiple rounds of coffee.

This year, Lisa saw the release of two illustrated titles, Lemony Snicket’s 29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy (McSweeney’s McMullens, February 2014) and Cathleen Daly’s Emily’s Blue Period, which just received a starred Horn Book review.

I love to follow Lisa’s work, and it was good to have a chance here to ask her what she’s up to next. There is a freshness and warmth to her watercolors that can be terrifically child-friendly, but there’s also an edge to many of her books (especially for older readers) and paintings. (She’s doing a sketch a day this year, as you’ll read below, which you can follow here.) As Martha Parravano writes in that Horn Book review, her work can be elegant. Yet she also embraces the enigmatic, as with 29 Myths. And embracing the enigmatic is always good. (Embracing the Enigmatic. Band name. I call it!)

I thank Lisa for visiting this morning and sharing as much art as she does.

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Today over at the Wild Things! site, we celebrate Madeline, 75 years old and still showing off her scar. There’s some art from the book over in that post. Pictured above is my favorite illustration of all.

That link is here.

Until tomorrow …

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MADELINE. Copyright © 1939 by Ludwig Bemelmans. First published in the U.S. by Simon and Schuster. First published by The Viking Press, 1958. Illustration reproduced by permission of Viking Press, New York.

(Click to enlarge)

It’s the first Sunday of the month, which means a student or just-starting-out illustrator here at 7-Imp. Today, I welcome Brooke Boynton Hughes, who has already illustrated one children’s book and is working on a handful of others now but is still relatively new to the field. It’s a pleasure to share some of her artwork today. Let’s get right to it, especially since Brooke gives us a few words of introduction.

Brooke: I’ve wanted to illustrate children’s books ever since I was little. When other kids my age were moving on to middle-grade books, I was still poring over picture books. I loved reading, but I was especially enthralled by visual storytelling. As a kid, I spent a lot of time drawing and becoming engrossed in whatever visual world I was into at the time. There were a couple of years where I drew almost nothing except for tree houses, and there was the year of underground rabbit houses. The imagined worlds that I created in my drawings felt really real to me. I guess I loved, and still love, residing in imagined worlds.

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Back cover character sketches from Bob Staake’s My Pet Book

 

“Read along. Read out loud.”
— From Rilla Alexander’s The Best Book in the World
(Click to enlarge)

 
This morning over at Kirkus, since women’s rights (given the news this week) are heavy on my mind, I write about Amrita Das’ Hope is a Girl Selling Fruit, an April release from India’s Tara Books. That link is here.

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Last week, I wrote (here) about Rilla Alexander’s The Best Book in the World! (Flying Eye Books, July 2014) and Bob Staake’s My Pet Book (Random House, July 2014). Now, that column also included Jen Bryant’s The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus, illustrated by Melissa Sweet and coming to bookshelves in September from Eerdmans, but I will have some images (preliminary images, final art, and some words from Melissa) next week.

Today, I have some art from Rilla’s and Bob’s books — and Bob shares some early sketches as well.

Enjoy!

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“And then, one morning, their father announced he was taking them with him to work.”
– From Neil Gaiman’s Hansel & Gretel, illustrated by Lorenzo Mattotti
(Click to enlarge)

 

From Yvan Pommaux’s Theseus and the Minotaur
(Click to see spread in its entirety)

 

From Fred’s Cast Away on the Letter A: A Philemon Adventure
(Click to enlarge)

 
Last week over at Kirkus, I chatted with designer and editor Françoise Mouly about TOON Graphics, the new imprint from TOON Books. That conversation is here, and today I follow up with some art from the imprint’s three debut titles — Neil Gaiman’s Hansel & Gretel, illustrated by Lorenzo Mattotti; Yvan Pommaux’s Theseus and the Minotaur; and Cast Away on the Letter A: A Philemon Adventure from Frédéric Othon Théodore Aristidès, who went simply by Fred.

Enjoy.

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“And nobody knew, as we ate a little, talked a little, and headed to the fields
as the sun was rising, that soon, it would be all different.”
(Click to enlarge spread)

It would have been very fitting to post about this picture book in June, but I’m mostly disorganized. (I put this book in a Read Right Away stack, on account of my love for the illustrations of E.B. Lewis. But then I promptly misplaced this stack and couldn’t find it, for the very life of me.)

It’s July 1st, though, and clearly I found my Read Right Away stack. Better late than never.

If ever there were doubt that E.B. Lewis is one of the greatest living illustrators, Angela Johnson’s All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom (Simon & Schuster, May 2014) would put an end to that. This is the story of the first Juneteenth, the day freedom arrived to the last slaves in Texas in the year 1865. Read the rest of this entry �

” … the shadow of CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG
chased after them over the ground.”
(Click to enlarge)

“Sylvie asked a little bear to come back with her.
He did and slept in her bed.”
(Click to see spread from which this illustration comes)

 
I’m keeping things incredibly brief today. There’s been a lot of moving of furniture in our home (made all the more complicated by the fact that our house is tiny), and it’s been a lot like moving, as well as a game of Tetris. I’m about to fall right over, and it’s a tiny miracle I’m even getting this post up.

John Burningham is one of my favorite illustrators of all time. Today’s post celebrates the fact that he has two new illustrated titles out — The Way to the Zoo (Candlewick, August 2014) and the 50th anniversary edition of Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, coming from Candlewick in August.

Burningham created the original illustrations for Chitty, the only children’s book Ian Fleming wrote. (Fleming, as the story goes, wrote it for his son.) Published in 1964, it was then adapted to film four years later (with a screenplay by Roald Dahl, no less), as well as a 2002 musical. This deluxe anniversary edition of the novel is beautifully-designed (ah, silver endpages), and Burningham’s dynamic illustrations are expertly reproduced in all their glory.

The Way to the Zoo is a brand-new picture book and includes many things I’ve come to love about Burningham’s books over the years — secret passageways, adventures, and intrepid, young protagonists in a (mostly) adult-free world, to name but a few. Read the rest of this entry �