Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Here’s author/illustrator John Rocco as a child. You can see that he and his barber weren’t super tight.

But you never know about big hair: It could be concealing superpowers.

Today I chat with John at Kirkus about life post-Caldecott Honor, as well as his two new picture books, Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom (just released from Disney/Hyperion and which he both wrote and illustrated) and Jason Carter Eaton’s How to Train a Train, coming from Candlewick this Fall.

Next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll have some art from John.

The Q&A is here.

I’m so pleased that author/illustrator Tom Lichtenheld is visiting today. I’ve wanted him to visit the blog for a while, and we just haven’t pulled it off. (Till now!) I enjoy his work. Did you all see Exclamation Mark (Scholastic, March 2013), his most recent collaboration with Amy Krouse Rosenthal? It’s exceedingly clever, that one. Yet I never got around to blogging about it, despite my best intentions.

Tom’s newest book, Sing (to be released this week from Christy Ottaviano Books/Henry Holt) is so joyous and so just-the-right-book-for-him that I’m extra pleased he’s visiting today to tell us all about it. My regular readers know I’m a ginormous music-lover, and for that reason—and lots of others having to do with Tom’s abundant talents as an illustrator—I think this book is special. It’s unabashedly cheerful without being the slightest bit cloying about it.

As Tom explains below, this is a picture book adaptation of Joe Raposo’s song, made famous on Sesame Street. “The most interesting part,” Tom told me, “was that the song, though sweet and well-known, doesn’t have or need any semblance of a story. To turn it into a picture book I had to not only come up with a story, but one that was completely visual, so the lyrics could remain pure. Being handed this challenge was an honor, so the book holds a special place for me. I also like that it has a quieter mood than my usual zany stuff; I like books at opposite ends of the spectrum — mindlessly ridiculous or thoughtfully sweet.”

Let’s get right to it so that Tom can tell us more about it, and I thank him for sharing today. Read the rest of this entry �

Illustration from Linda Ashman’s Peace, Baby!,
illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff

Christian Robinson’s character development and exploration for
some of the characters in Linda Ashman’s Rain!
(Click to enlarge)

 
This morning over at Kirkus, I write about Emily Jenkins’ newest picture book, Water in the Park: A Book About Water and the Times of the Day, released recently by Schwartz & Wade Books and illustrated by Stephanie Graegin. (Stephanie will visit 7-Imp next week.) That link is here today.

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Last week at Kirkus, I chatted with picture book author Linda Ashman (that link is here) and follow up today with some art from her two most recent picture books, Rain! (Houghton Mifflin, March 2013), illustrated by Christian Robinson, and Peace, Baby! (Chronicle, April 2013), illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff.

Two things I didn’t have room for in the column last week: For those interested in writing picture books, Linda has some advice on the “For Writers” tab of her website. (Incidentally, Linda starting teaching picture book classes in Denver before she and her family moved, and now she’s turning those classes and other workshops into a “how to” guide.)

Secondly, in our Q&A last week, Linda talked about whittling Rain! down to its 78 words. Both manuscript and storyboard are available on the Rain! page of her website, if anyone’s interested.

Enjoy the art, and I thank Christian, who is also sharing some early development images for his illustrations in Rain!

Read the rest of this entry �

“…his hands were nimble…”

 
Last week at Kirkus, I chatted with author Matthew Olshan and illustrator Sophie Blackall, who recently collaborated on The Mighty Lalouche, released this month by Schwartz & Wade Books. That Q&A is here, and today Sophie is sharing a few sketches, some of her research images (all the vintage photos you see below), and a sneak peek inside the book. The artwork, as you can read at the Q&A, was rendered in Japanese paper dioramas, or tatebanko.

(You can click on most of these images to enlarge them, though they’re a bit blurry in spots.)

Enjoy the images and artwork. Read the rest of this entry �

“We’d wait by the windows / gaining in size /
with plans for the nighttime / and daytime’s goodbyes”
(Click to enlarge)

Philadelphia-based illustrator and designer Rita Carroll just officially became an illustrator and designer. She graduated last week from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, as you’ll read below, so I think it’s a great time to feature some of her artwork. This is something I typically do on the first Sunday of each month—feature, that is, a student illustrator or new-to-the-field illustrator—but she just earned that degree, so I think it’d be fun to do it now.

Here she is to tell us a bit about herself and share some of her artwork … I thank her for visiting. Read the rest of this entry �

(Click to embiggen)

My Imp readers will have to forgive me today: I don’t have illustrations to share this morning, as I always do on Sundays, but I was out of town this weekend for Knoxville’s 2013 Children’s Festival of Reading. Knoxville does these festivals up right, and they’re always good fun.

This year (as I did last year) I moderated a picture book panel. 2013’s visitors included—as pictured left to right above—author Deborah Diesen, author/illustrator Bob Shea, author/illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka (had never met him in person before, but I feel like he’s an old friend, so that was particularly fun), author Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, and author Marc Tyler Nobleman (do you all know about his pop culture research projects? … I love that).

So, that’s what I offer you today — a photo of people having just finished discussing picture books, which is always a kick. (Best question was from a child, and it was along the lines of “you’re grown-ups, so how do you relate to kids?” Or maybe it was “…so, how do you write for children?” Either way, it was a pretty profound question.) Read the rest of this entry �

I’ve been chatting it up with people this week. Here’s the run-down:

I’ve always wanted to chat with picture book author Linda Ashman. Today, I get to. That link is here today.

Legend has it that Tom Jones—I’m sorry, but I just gotta post his picture now—passed out in the studio when hitting the final, dramatic note of “Thunderball” for the 1965 James Bond film of the same name. I sort of imagine author/illustrator Brian Floca similarly falling to the ground after having finished the artwork for Locomotive (coming from Atheneum this Fall), because it’s rather masterpiece’y. (That’s professional speak.) I won’t be at BEA this year, but I wrote about the book for Kirkus’ special BEA supplement (page 42!) in their current issue, and I chatted briefly with Brian about it. I’ll chat with him even longer in August and share some art then, too, from this beautiful piece of nonfiction.

Finally: Yesterday, I chatted with author Matthew Olshan and illustrator Sophie Blackall about The Mighty Lalouche, released by Schwartz & Wade this month. That Q&A is here, and next week I’ll have some of Sophie’s artwork, some sketches, and some of her research images.

Until later …

Last week at Kirkus, I wrote (here) about Cecil Castellucci’s and Sara Varon’s Odd Duck (First Second, May 2013) and wanted to be sure to invite them here to 7-Imp to talk a bit about this graphic novel for children, as well as showcase some art from it.

So, we three misfits sit here at the 7-Imp cyber-breakfast table. (Odd ducks RULE.)

I’m going to turn it over to them, while I pour the coffee and listen, and I thank them for visiting.

Read the rest of this entry �

I’ve been wondering a lot lately about the rampant popularity of picture books about bullying. Is the world really a meaner place that it was, say, thirty years ago, especially in the realm of childhood? I don’t know. Surely, people can be cruel, but are these instances of violence and bullying just more televised than they were in the past? It’s a big question that needs more than one cup of coffee (which is all I’ve had thus far today) for pondering further.

Either way, I’d hate to see today’s featured picture book, Ben Rides On (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook), merely get lumped into the category of Books About Bullies, if only because then people might tend to disregard it. This isn’t a picture book trying desperately to force its way into a publishing trend. It’s a genuinely poignant, yet never saccharine-sweet, tale about kindness — one that Kirkus in their starred review calls “[g]reat amusement for the bold and timid alike.” And it comes to readers by way of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Matt Davies. This is his first children’s book, and I believe it’s scheduled to be released next week.

Read the rest of this entry �

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As I’ve made clear before here at 7-Imp, I’m a fan of the illustration work of Komako Sakai (who even visited for a brief interview last year). So, I was happy to see that she’s illustrated a new book, this one written by Hatsue Nakawaki. It’s called Wait! Wait!, and it’s for very young children. It will be released by Enchanted Lion Books in June, but I’ve got a sneak-peek of it today.

In a story mirroring the staccato rhythms of a toddler, we meet a young child dressed in overalls, ever-curious about the natural world. The child spots a butterfly—“Wait! Wait!”—and watches it flutter away. With each animal seen, the child reaches out to touch and learn, yet the creature flees — flying in the air, wiggling away. In the end, an adult (whom we assume is the parent) picks up the child, saying “Wait! Wait” in the same manner in which the child was trying to secure and hold other creatures. He then places the child on his shoulders, saying “Here we go!”

Sakai’s delicately-colored acrylic and oil pencil illustrations are beautiful. Her tight focus in these spreads puts us right with the toddler, exploring and reaching. She also includes pretty much the essentials here — the child and the creatures with which he or she (this could easily be either a male or female child) is fascinated, with the addition of a few supporting details, barely outlined in some cases, and generous white space. It really works. And I’m taken with her flying pigeons, as you can see below, and the compelling sense of movement here. Read the rest of this entry �