Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

This morning over at Kirkus, I write about Jean E. Pendziwol’s beautiful new picture book, Once Upon a Northern Night, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault. That link is here.

Last week, I wrote here about Angela Dominguez’s Maria Had a Little Llama/María Tenía Una Llamita, to be released next month by Henry Holt.

Here are a couple of sketches and spreads from Dominguez. Enjoy.

Read the rest of this entry �

Pictured above is author/illustrator Matthew Cordell’s contribution to Peter Reynolds’ International Dot Day.

Matt’s had a busy year, what with several illustrated picture book releases. I thought I’d give 7-Imp readers a sneak peek inside a few of them, as well as some ALA drawings. (I’ll explain below.) Let’s get to it. Read the rest of this entry �

Raise your hand if you’ve seen Deborah Heiligman’s new picture book biography of Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdös, who died in the mid-’90s but remains a cult figure in the world of mathematics. I knew nothing about Erdös till I read this book, and what a good picture book it is. It’s called The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdös, and it’s illustrated by LeUyen Pham. (Pictured above are some of LeUyen’s sketches of Erdös throughout his life.)

I wrote about it very recently here at Kirkus, so today I’m following up with some art and sketches from LeUyen. Part of what I wrote in that column is that into her sharp, colorful illustrations for this book, LeUyen incorporates a good deal of math — from harmonic primes on Page 1, floating through the white space, as young Paul chases after them, to prime numbers on the final spread, part of the very fabric of the buildings, just waiting for observant eyes to discover them. In between, we see theorems, equations, graphs, and much more, all waiting to be found on nearly every spread. Pham explains all the math and all the art in a very lengthy and informative illustrator’s note at the close of the book.

Here are some final spreads and early sketches. Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry �

Today at Kirkus, I write about Angela Dominguez’s Maria Had a Little Llama/María Tenía Una Llamita, to be released next month by Henry Holt. That link is here.

I’m in beautiful Knoxville, Tennessee, today speaking about the “best” picture books thus far of 2013 for a workshop at the Center for Children’s and Young Adult Literature at the University of Tennessee. I’ll be back on Sunday with some art and sketches from LeUyen Pham from the picture book I wrote about in this Kirkus column last week.

See you then.

Last week at Kirkus, I chatted with author/illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton. That link is here. Today, I share some of her sketches and final art from both Amy Novesky’s Mister and Lady Day: Billie Holiday and the Dog Who Loved Her (Harcourt, June 2013)—the above sketch is from that one—as well as Marie Harris’s The Girl Who Heard Colors (to be released by Nancy Paulsen Books in September).

I also include here the response to one question that didn’t quite fit in last week’s Q&A.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry �

 
This morning I’m going to have cyber-breakfast with artist Chris Sickels, who creates sculptural and 3D illustrations and who illustrates children’s books (amongst other creative projects) under the name Red Nose Studio. I wish it weren’t a fake breakfast, and that’s because his breakfast of choice is, he told me, “the chocolate zucchini bread that my lovely wife Jennifer and my daughter Ava make together. Pair that bread with a cup of French press coffee, and that is the bee’s knees for me.” If I ever actually meet him in person, I’m going to remind him of this moment and hit him up for the zucchini bread and French press coffee. Coffee-lovers don’t forget such things.

Today’s post includes lots of Chris’s process images, a photographic sneak peek into how he created the art for his latest illustrated title, Jennifer LaRue Huget’s The Beginner’s Guide to Running Away From Home (pictured left), which was released by Schwartz & Wade Books last month. You may remember his 2010 illustrated title, which I covered here at 7-Imp — Here Comes The Garbage Barge, written by Jonah Winter and also published by Schwartz & Wade. To see art from that book, you can visit that 2010 7-Imp post (or even this one), but with the exception of some portfolio pieces at the close of this interview, all the images here today are from The Beginner’s Guide, a tale both funny and moving (the same illustration below that nearly brought Chris to tears, when making it, does the same for me when I see it) and which School Library Journal calls “imaginative and subversive.”

Let’s get right to it so that you can see how Chris creates his intricate worlds and also what’s next on his plate. I thank him for visiting 7-Imp today. Read the rest of this entry �

I’m going to be ever-so brief in my explanation of these images today, only because I have already written about this book over in another location. I recently reviewed for BookPage Mac Barnett’s latest book, Count the Monkeys (Disney/Hyperion, June 2013), illustrated by Kevin Cornell. And I could just send you to my review and stop there, but you all know I start to get downright twitchy unless I also share picture book art, so today I’m following that review up with some art from Cornell, as well as some sketches he sent along.

Kevin Cornell is a UK illustrator (and unitasker). Don’t let the “mediocre” bit fool you.

So, at the risk of looking lazy today, here are my thoughts on the book (which will also give you a sense of what it’s about, of course), but today here in 7-Imp Land is some art — before my kicks, that is.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry �

Today over at Kirkus, I write about Deborah Heiligman’s outstanding picture book biography of famed Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdös, illustrated by LeUyen Pham.

It’s called The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdös, and it’s a beautiful book.

That link is here.

Pictured here is LeUyen’s depiction of Erdös.

Next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll have some more art and early sketches from her.

Should I say that this is a picture book biography you can count on? Er, no. That’d be painful, right?

Pretend I didn’t. Carry on.

See you Sunday.

Can it really be Thursday already?

The week has raced by.

Today over at Kirkus, I chat with author/illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton, pictured here, about two of her recent illustrated titles, Amy Novesky’s Mister and Lady Day: Billie Holiday and the Dog Who Loved Her and (to come this Fall), Marie Harris’ The Girl Who Heard Colors.

That Q&A is here today.

Next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll follow up with some art and sketches from Vanessa.

Until tomorrow …

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Photo courtesy of Vanessa Brantley-Newton.

Quick Note from Jules: Even though I’m not sure how to summarize what I do or what I want to be when I grow up, I have an intern this summer. She’s in charge of this post today, and by the way, she’s great! But, since she introduces herself so briefly below, I want to tell you a bit more here:

Susan previously worked as a preschool teacher and is now finishing up her Master’s degree in Education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She just moved to New York City and is also an aspiring author. She’s been assisting me with various types of work this summer; she’s not only assisted me where she can, for one, on the picture book grad course I’m teaching, but she’s also listening in on the lectures (and reading lots of picture books on her own, as I’m having my students do), ’cause she’s eager to learn like that. Susan is also interested in my freelance writing, as well at my blogging at 7-Imp, so I invited her to do some guest posts. This is her first. Welcome, Susan!

Hello, 7-Imp readers!

This is Susan A. Johns here, intern/ teaching assistant/ general errand-doer and go-getter to our beloved Jules. A few weeks ago, I had the distinct privilege of dropping by 7-Imp headquarters to sift through some of the beautiful and creative picture books circulating around the Danielson house. There were so many thought-provoking stories surrounded by such vibrant illustrations, I really didn’t know what to do with myself. I was engrossed in childhood nostalgia and drawn to the ways in which I could bring these books into my preschool classrooms. Read the rest of this entry �