Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

I’m gonna resort to my favorite, the rock-and-roll hands:

I’m Chicago-bound on Friday to talk about blogging at the Center for Teaching through Children’s Books at National Louis University. Since 7-Imp is 10 years old this year, I could talk all day but instead have one hour to fill. If you’re in Chicago and signed up for this, come say hi. Here’s the info.

 

Here At Kirkus, I’m looking at The Stories in Between and “informational literacy and historical thinking.” (If you read it, you’ll see this is take-two on the column that was up for just a little while on Friday.)

 

I’ll be back later this week. Happy reading!

 

I got a postcard in the mail this week with the image above on it. It was a happy surprise and a note from a RISD graduate, named Will Quinn, who told me he reads and enjoys my blog. I was taken with the image and then visited his website to see more of his artwork.

I’m pleased that today he’s visiting 7-Imp to talk about his work and share even more art. It’s not the first Sunday of the month, when I tend to feature student or brand-new illustrators, but since I’ll be out of town next weekend at the beginning of February, I’m switching things up and posting that this week. (I will be posting next Sunday, though, for the record. Would I ever leave my kickers down? Nope.)

I see good things, and even more potential, in his illustrations. And I wasn’t at all surprised to read about his influences and the artists who inspire him.

Let’s get right to it. I thank him for visiting.

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I’m following up today with some illustrations from the picture books I wrote about (here) at Kirkus last week. They include:

• The new edition of Margaret Wise Brown’s The Dead Bird, illustrated by Christian Robinson (Harper, March 2016);
• A Danish import, originally published in 2001, called Cry, Heart, But Never Break, written by Glenn Ringtved and illustrated by Charlotte Pardi (Enchanted Lion, March 2016);
• Caron Levis’s Ida, Always, illustrated by Charles Santoso (Atheneum, February 2016);
• Emily Arnold McCully’s Clara: The (Mostly) True Story of the Rhinoceros who Dazzled Kings, Inspired Artists, and Won the Hearts of Everyone…While She Ate Her Way Up and Down a Continent! (Schwartz & Wade, June 2016).

Pictured above is an image from Christian Robinson.

Enjoy the art. …

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If I think of children’s book illustrators working today and style—that is, their manner of expression as determined by their use of line, color, shape, texture, etc.—I think author-illustrator Steve Light has one of the most distinctive styles, a you-can-spot-it-from-outer-space kind of style. In particular, his line is terrifically distinctive, and he’s visited 7-Imp several times to share his pen-and-ink sketches and artwork — and to show off those lines at my request.

Steve’s latest book is called Swap! (Candlewick), and it will be released in early February. It’s good stuff, and if you don’t believe me, trust me when I say it’s already garnered some starred professional reviews. It’s a sweet, but never saccharine, story of friendship. A young boy (the jacket flap refers to the child as “he,” though one of my daughters thought it was a girl, and I like this about that character), with a peg for a leg, sets out to cheer up a friend, a sea captain whose ship is falling apart. Through a series of barters, starting with the trade of a button for a teacup, the child helps fix up the ship for his friend. And it’s through these barters that the adventures occur and readers meet a cast of wonderful sea-side characters — from tattooed burly men drinking tea; to a get-it-done female blacksmith, forging anchors; and just about everything else in between. Read the rest of this entry �

“Week in, week out, from sun to sun,
always more chores to be done.”
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Over at Kirkus today, I take a look at some new 2016 picture books addressing death and loss.

That is here today.

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Last week, I wrote here about Carole Boston Weatherford’s Freedom in Congo Square (Little Bee Books, January 2016), illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. I’m following up today with some spreads from the book. Be sure to click on the column from last week to see a fourth spread there at that post.

Until Sunday …

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“We create art and share art, because it helps us express visions of ourselves, our values, our history, or hopes. I resist any notion that this communication must be a one-way street, given from adults on high to children below; as children encounter picture books and their stories and art, I want to empower them to critically engage with the ideas, ideologies, and representations that text and art communicate and to delight in how sharing books and talking about them can foster their own thinking and creativity.”

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Over at Kirkus today, I talk to Megan Down Lambert, pictured here, about her new book, Reading Picture Books with Children: How to Shake Up Storytime and Get Kids Talking About What They See (Charlesbridge, 2015). If you love picture books, you will be interested in this.

That link is here today.

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Photo of Megan used by her permission and taken by Sean P. Lambert St. Marie.

 
If I had to create at, say, knife-point a list of the Funniest Picture Books of the Last Decade (that sounds violent, but I’m not a fan myself of creating such superlatives-lists), I’d put Michael Ian Black’s I’m Bored, illustrated by my guest Debbie Ridpath Ohi (her illustrated self-portrait is above), on that list. What can I say? I’m a fan of the potato.

Know what else I am? Slow. Or busy. Or both. When Debbie released a new picture book last year, one she’d both written and illustrated, she sent me these interview responses, and I’m just now getting around to posting the interview. I thank her for her patience — and also this image of us getting ready for breakfast:

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It looks like we’re having tea and toast, though I’ll have to make some coffee too. Also, we’ll have steelcut oatmeal with raisins, because that’s her breakfast-of-choice. “I like the texture,” Debbie tells me, “especially if they’re fresh-cooked and a little crunchy. I never used to like oatmeal until I read Angela’s Ashes.”

I really enjoyed this interview, because I learned quite a few new things about Debbie. You think you know someone—at least from their public persona—and then they up and surprise you. I like that. Also, I like the way she sees the world (her found-object art being a lovely case-in-point). Let’s get right to it, shall we?

Thanks again to Debbie for visiting. …

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“Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea.
‘I don’t see any wine,’ she remarked.”
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I’ve got the artwork today of art director, illustrator, and graphic designer Andrea D’Aquino. In this, her debut, she provides illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as part of a series from Rockport Publishers, called Classics Reimagined. D’Aquino’s interpretation of this story is bold, beautiful, and surreal; her watercolor, collaged artwork provides a modern, fresh look at a story many know so well. It’s a thoughtfully-bound book; go here and scroll down to see images of how the publisher worked quotes into the book’s exterior. (They put quotes on the page’s edges, a nice touch.)

Andrea shares quite a bit of art below from the book, so let’s get right to it so that you can see for yourself. I thank her for sharing!

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“‘Oh!’ said Lucy. ‘I know where we are.'”
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Above is a spread from Jessica Ahlberg’s Fairy Tales for Mr. Barker: A Peek-Through Story (Candlewick, March 2016), which I wrote about here at Kirkus last week.

Today, I’ve got a look at Carole Boston Weatherford’s Freedom in Congo Square (Little Bee Books, January 2016), illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. That is here.

Until Sunday …

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FAIRY TALES FOR MR. BARKER. Copyright © 2016 by Jessica Ahlberg. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA on behalf of Walker Books, London.

” … under her own special, magical manta. /
… bajo su propia manta especial y mágica.”
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Here’s a quick post, featuring the artwork of David Díaz. The illustrations are from author Monica Brown’s Maya’s Blanket/la manta de Maya (Lee & Low, August 2015). Last week Monica and I chatted over here at Kirkus, so here are a few spreads from the book.

Enjoy.

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