Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Hello again, 7-Imp readers! First, let me say a quick thanks for all the kind words of encouragement after my first post. You sure know how to make a gal feel welcome around here! This summer has been such a treat, and I will be sad to see it come to a close. But, worry not! You’re not rid of me yet. Jules has been helping me with two very exciting interviews over the past few weeks, and I’m excited to be sharing the first one with you today.

Leafing through the stacks of books at the Danielson house, it is hard not to become overwhelmingly entrenched in fandom-ly mystic wonder. As I poured over the blissfully endless words and pictures, this book immediately struck me. The art has a unique comic quality, the text is built to work for a wide range of readers, and I immediately connected to the story in its seemingly simple, incredibly humorous, and cleverly subtle messages about sibling relationships.

Young protagonist Thomas doesn’t think his little brother Nathaniel is all that interesting. In fact, all he really does is poop and scream. But, when the grown-ups in the house talk about “eating him up,” Thomas steps in to protect Nathaniel from ending up on the dinner table. I got in touch with author and illustrator Amy Young to chat about Don’t Eat the Baby! [Viking, May 2013] and how she got to where she is today. Read the rest of this entry �

Last week at Kirkus, I wrote about Bruce Eric Kaplan’s Cousin Irv from Mars (Simon & Schuster, June 2013). This book makes me laugh, and I say much more about it at that Kirkus link, which is here.

Today, I’ve got some art from the book.

I wrote here (back in 2010) about Kaplan’s last picture book, Monsters Eat Whiny Children (also Simon & Schuster, 2010), also wonderfully demented and funny.

I’m glad he makes picture books.

Enjoy the art below. Read the rest of this entry �

Today, over at Kirkus, I have a three-picture-book round-up, which includes the book pictured above. That link is here.

On Sunday, I’ll have some illustrations from the subject of last week’s column, Cousin Irv from Mars.

Until then …

After this post here at 7-Imp last year, I ended up getting a very early copy of Aaron Becker’s debut picture book, Journey. I loved it so much that one morning I, no kidding, called an emergency picture book coffee-shop meeting with two friends who love picture books as much as I do, ’cause I just had to show them this book. We sat over our cups of strong coffee and ooh’ed and aah’ed a lot.

The book’s finally out, and I chat with Aaron about it over at Kirkus this morning. That link is here.

Later (maybe next month), he’s going to come visit 7-Imp for a longer interview, filled with lots of art.

Until tomorrow …

That’s illustrator Leila Rudge. She’s eagerly awaiting the breakfast we’re going to have this morning. “As it’s a special occasion,” she said, “I’ll have fat, fluffy pancakes with crispy bacon and a fried banana. Pile ‘em up!” I’m in!

Droll. Charming. Understated. These are all adjectives that have been used to describe her illustrations. Rudge was born in England and currently makes her home in Australia, but some of her illustrated books, such as Meg McKinlay’s No Bears (Candlewick, 2012), have been published here in the States. Her newest book, Ted, which she both wrote and illustrated, is currently only available in Australia but will be out in the UK and U.S. early next year.

Leila shares lots of art today, including all kinds of peeks into her sketchbooks, which I very much enjoy, given that—as you’ll see below—she’s not committed to just one style of drawing, the one style we end up seeing in her published illustrations. As an art-lover, I find this fascinating to see.

I thank her for sharing, and let’s get right to it. Read the rest of this entry �

Well, dear Imps, it’s the first Sunday of the month, which means I invite to the breakfast table a student or recently-graduated illustrator.

This morning, it’s Kate Berube, who lives in Portland, Oregon. Pictured above is one of her pieces, called Lonely, which I very much like. (Maybe the end of the story-in-waiting in this illustration can be that the boy and the dog finally meet, you think?) Kate tells us below all about her work, and she also shares here a good handful of artwork, for which I thank her. (She also let me pick some favorites from her site and post those in addition to what she sent me.)

Let’s get right to it, shall we? Welcome to Kate … Read the rest of this entry �

This morning over at Kirkus, I write about Bruce Eric Kaplan’s Cousin Irv from Mars, which makes me laugh. That link is here.

Last week, I wrote here about Jean E. Pendziwol’s Once Upon a Northern Night, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault and released this month from Groundwood Books.

Pictured above is an illustration from this beautiful picture book, but also pictured there is a spread from Fanny Britt’s new graphic novel, Jane, The Fox & Me, also illustrated by Arsenault, translated by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou, and to be released next month from Groundwood. This is the tenderly-wrought story, originally published in French in 2012, of a girl named Hélène, who doesn’t fit in at school and whose former friends now shun her. Hélène finds solace in her copy of Jane Eyre, as well as her Kate and Anna McGarrigle records. Hélène is none too pleased to find out she’ll have to attend a required nature camp with her classmates, “four nights, forty students, our whole class.”

Betsy Bird has a detailed review here of this deeply-felt story of despair and loneliness, which turns toward the light at its close and ends on a note of hope and friendship.

Below is one more spread from each book. Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry �

Stomp! Roar! MWAH!

I reviewed David Ezra Stein’s newest picture book, Dinosaur Kisses (Candlewick), over at BookPage. That link is here. The book will be released in several days, as you can see at the BookPage link.

So, you can read about it over there, but here at 7-Imp today I’ve got some early sketches from the book (as well as a bit more final art), which David sent. These are process pics, he told me — “from early style ideas, to character design, to some sketches, to more finished work. … You will see a few Mama Squirrels in there. I was working on that around the same time.”

Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry �

Today, I’m having breakfast with author/illustrator Aaron Zenz, whose work is very much geared at toddlers and preschoolers. And this, I think, is something I don’t do enough here at 7-Imp — invite to the breakfast table, that is, those whose work is geared specifically at the crowd of very, very young, wee ones.

This isn’t Aaron’s first visit to 7-Imp. His bright, slapstick illustrations for The Hiccupotamus are featured in this older post (2009). As you’ll read below, that was Aaron’s debut title, and it’d be perfect for a preschool read-aloud or for the very youngest of listeners, filled with spot-on rhymes as it is, all hyper-outrageous and fun. His colorful, uncluttered colored pencil illustrations are gentle and full of cheer. As I’ve written before, your lap-sitters will take in these images with big, happy eyes. “Breezy” is a descriptor Kirkus has used to describe his art.

Aaron also visited here in 2011, showing some art from his newest title then, Chuckling Ducklings (which Betsy Bird also covered the same year).

And, as those of you who regularly read blogs probably know, his family’s book review blog, Bookie Wookie, is one of the greatest treasures of the so-called kidlitosphere.

Aaron’s having cereal with me this morning, since he describes himself as a cereal man. “I eat cereal all day long,” he said. “Breakfast. Lunch. Snacks. Our family sits down all together every day for a big dinner, but outside of that meal, I tend to eat cereal, cereal, cereal. And in particular, I have to have cereal for breakfast. If I eat something else instead—a doughnut or a bagel or pancakes—I’ll feel off for the rest of the day.”

Cereal it is—I’ll set out my most colorful cereal bowls for his visit—and I’ll get out some coffee for myself.

I thank Aaron for visiting. Let’s get right to it. Read the rest of this entry �

Last week, I read Matt Phelan’s newest graphic novel, Bluffton (Candlewick, July 2013), and then turned right around and re-read it multiple times. ‘Cause it’s really good and worthy of the second (and third … and fourth …) looks.

I can promise you that you haven’t seen a book like this in a long while, nor will you see one like it any time soon. And I’m talking about the story. The format is nothing new: It’s Matt working in graphic novel format, once again, which he’s done before in very award-winning ways (2009’s The Storm in the Barn and 2011’s Around the World).

This is the story of a young boy named Henry Harrison. It’s the turn of the 20th century in the quiet, little town of Muskegon, Michigan, and it’s the launch of a summer that will change his life forever. Arriving by train in their sleepy town, where Henry helps his father at his family-owned hardware store, is a troupe of vaudeville actors, including young slapstick star Buster Keaton (legend-in-progress) and his family. Read the rest of this entry �