Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

 
Pictured above is one of the characters from Ame Dyckman’s upcoming picture book (coming in April), illustrated by Zachariah OHora. I love this girl’s shock of red hair. She’s welcoming you all to a sort of illustration dump today. Well, that phrasing sounds very ineloquent, but it’s a happy thing.

About two weeks ago, I wrote over here at Kirkus about some upcoming early-2016 picture books—-collaborations between authors and illustrators, some new pairings and some to which we readers are accustomed—and I follow up today here at 7-Imp with some art from each one.

Enjoy!

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“… When the gavel slammed down to end court that day, it announced change all over the country. And in its echo, you could hear the sound of Sarah’s first steps
to school and her long road to justice.”
(Click image to enlarge and see spread in its entirety)

 
Hi, dear kickers. I’ve got a review over at BookPage of Susan E. Goodman’s The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial, illustrated by E. B. Lewis (Bloomsbury, January 2016).

That review is here, if you’d like to learn more about the book. Since I always like to follow up with some art, I’ve got a few spreads from the book here today.

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Over at Kirkus today, I’ve got some thoughts about the book pictured above, the first one both written and illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg. It was originally published last year in the UK but hits American shelves this March.

That is here today.

Until later …

“These books represent my desire that our multiracial and multicultural children are not considered ‘fractions’ but rather celebrated for containing multitudes.”

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Over at Kirkus today, I talk to author Monica Brown, pictured here, about her newest picture book, Maya’s Blanket/la manta de Maya (Lee & Low). It was released back in August and illustrated by David Díaz. We also discuss what’s next on her plate for 2016.

That link is here today.

Next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll showcase some spreads from the book.

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Photo of Monica used by her permission.

 

“Baby has fallen into a nest, / Cozy and snug now, starting to rest. /
Mama Crow frets, ‘This bird is too big!’ / Nudges the babe …”
(Click to enlarge spread)

 
If you’re talkin’ nursery rhymes/Mother Goose rhymes and their inherent eccentricities (the rhymes themselves and their origins), I think many people would agree that one of the oddest of all is “Rock-a-bye Baby,” what with the falling baby from the treetops. It’s macabre, to say the least.

One of my favorite picture book authors is Linda Ashman. She consistently brings the goods. Her brand-new book (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Random House), illustrated by Italian artist Simona Mulazzani, is an early-2016 treat. (It’s coming to shelves this month.) It’s called Rock-a-Bye Romp, and it almost reads as Ashman’s response to this bizarre traditional rhyme, yet it’s not as if she’s trying to fix the rhyme. It’s not as if she’s saying anything is wrong with it. In fact, she does her part to extend the wonderful madness of the tale — yet brings it all full-circle with lots of warmth.

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It’s the first Sunday of the month, fellow kickers, and that means a student or debut illustrator. I’ve got the former today, a student from Montserrat College of Art. Erin McLaughlin is nearly done with her studies, tells us all about herself below, and also shares some of her art with its bright palettes and simple shapes. (It’s almost as if a child’s toys have come to life, her pieces below.) So, let’s get right to it. I’m handing it over to Erin now. …

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Over at Kirkus today, I’ve got a sneak-peek at some early 2016 picture books. Well, a couple might be Summer releases, as I can’t help myself.

That is here, and pictured above is my favorite of the lot.

Until Sunday …

“A white blanket lay humped and piled over everything in sight.
Could this be the New York he had known in the green of summer?”

 
Last week here at Kirkus, I wrote in part about Rhoda Levine’s Arthur, illustrated by Everett Aison. Arthur was originally released in 1962 but re-released in October by the New York Review Children’s Collection. I’ve got a bit of art from the book here today.

(I also wrote last week about John Burningham’s Harvey Slumfenburger’s Christmas Present. You can see a spread from it in this previous 7-Imp post.)

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“All of the sudden an enormous whale came puffing up to him and cried out,
‘Who said you could catch the subjects of my realm and take them away with you?
This will cost you your life!'”
— Andrea Dezsö’s illustration for “The Three Sisters”

 

“Little Red Cap opened her eyes wide, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing back and forth as they shone through the trees, and all the lovely flowers growing in the forest, she thought: if I take Grandmother a bunch of fresh flowers
she’d like that, too.”
— From Little Red Riding Hood, illustrated by Sybille Schenker
(Click to see spread in its entirety, including the text)

 

“The hedgehog shut the door behind him and took the path to the field. He had not gone very far from home, and was just rounding the blackthorn bush which stands at the edge of the field, when he spied the hare who had gone out on business
of the same kind—namely, to visit his cabbages.”
— From The Hare & the Hedgehog, illustrated by Jonas Lauströer
(Click to enlarge spread)

 
Good morning, dear kickers. Last week over at Kirkus, I had fairy tales on the mind (that is here, if you’re so inclined to read it), and so today I’m following up that column with art from the books I wrote about. This means I have illustrations from the following books:

• The Brothers Grimm’s The Hare & the Hedgehog from German illustrator Jonas Lauströer (Minedition, October 2015);
• The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition, translated and edited by Jack Zipes with illustrations from Andrea Dezsö (Princeton University Press, 2014);
• Sybille Schenker’s Little Red Riding Hood, translated into English by Anthea Bell (Minedition, 2014).

In that column, I also mentioned Schenker’s Hansel and Gretel (2011), and I’ve got art from that here at 7-Imp.

Enjoy!

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I write about picture books for Kirkus, but sometimes … well, you read a children’s novel so great that you ditch your plans and write about that novel instead. That’s what I’m doing today over at Kirkus, writing about Katherine Rundell’s The Wolf Wilder. That is here.

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And, because freelance writing deadlines don’t stop for the holidays, I’ll have a column up over there tomorrow about my favorite Christmas picture books — one is a long-time favorite (Burningham!), and the other is an older one I just discovered this year. That will be here on Friday.

See you Sunday!