Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Mrs. Santa

This morning, I welcome new-to-the-field illustrator Melissa Guion. She’s here to share some of her bright, gentle watercolors and talk about her debut title, Baby Penguins Everywhere!, a picture book as much for the parents and teachers of this world as it is for children (as Melissa herself notes below). It tells the story of a lonely penguin, suddenly visited by a gaggle of baby penguins. (Can penguins exist in gaggles? I’m going to pretend they can, even though I think gaggles involve geese.) Finding herself a bit frazzled by all the wee penguins in her care, she comes to understand that she needs a moment’s peace. (Ah, isn’t that the truth if ever the truth was spoken?) She needs, as Publishers Weekly put it in their review, time to recharge, though she comes to appreciate the company of the young penguins, even when it’s chaotic.

I’ll let Melissa tell you more about it — and her work. I certainly look forward to what she brings readers next. Also, please note that Melissa’s online portfolio is here, if you’d like to see more art. Read the rest of this entry �

Illustration from Amy Hest’s Charley’s First Night,
illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

 

Early sketches from Carin Berger’s A Perfect Day
(Click to enlarge image)

 

“On Saturday, the icicle on General Toby’s nose reached down to the dimple on his chin. Ice glazed alleyways. Spoken words became puffballs in the frigid air. Page one of the Toby Mills Crier read: COLD SNAP! The Sullivan Sisters served steamy soup and bubbling stew at the Sullivan Diner. In between customers, they knitted mittens as big as flapjacks for all the kids in Toby Mills. Mrs. Moffat—the church soloist—
gargled with salt water every hour to avoid getting a sore throat.”
— From Eileen Spinelli’s Cold Snap, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
(Click to enlarge spread)

 

It might be near seventy degrees here in middle Tennessee (I wish I were making that up) here on the fifth day of December, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying—and maybe living vicariously through—good, new picture books that are snowy in nature. I’ve got three today, an image from each posted above with more images and final art below, as well as some sketches from Carin Berger. (Below and to the left is a Helen-Oxenbury puppy from Charley’s First Night.)

Last week at the Kirkus Book Blog Network, I wrote about Eileen Spinelli’s newest picture book, Cold Snap, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman (Knopf, October). That link is here, if you’d like to read all about the book.

I’ve also got here today some sketches and final art from Carin Berger’s A Perfect Day, released by Greenwillow in November. This is the story of a day of unbridled joy, as a group of children revel in new-fallen snow: “The whole world was white.” Berger enchants with her collage art, creating her illustrations atop graph paper, what look like old letters, and other lined paper; in the New York Times (here, where she also writes about Cold Snap), Susan Dominus wrote (and I love this), “Berger creates the backgrounds of her collages using faded old receipts and other ephemera. Children may not even notice the ghostly scrawlings, but for adults they serve as a reminder of the contrast between the concerns of grown-ups (bills, balances, investments) and those of the Finns and Sophies who populate this snowy world.” Berger captures the specific joys of a day of snow play—snow forts, “a wild flurry of snowballs,” sledding, snow angels, going home to “warm hugs and dry clothes and steaming hot chocolate”—with warmth. As mentioned, Carin shares some early sketches and final art below. Read the rest of this entry �

Fall Walk

This evening I’m handing the blog over to illustrator Lee White, who’s here to share some artwork, including his illustrations for Sophie’s Fish, written by A. E. Cannon and released by Viking in March. Lee, who lives and teaches in Portland (the Art Institute of Portland), has illustrated many picture books and is currently writing his own stories as well.

Sophie’s Fish, which received a starred review from Kirkus, tells the story of Jake, a young boy who promises to babysit his friend Sophie’s fish. The balance of the rest of the book is him worrying himself ragged over everything that could go wrong while taking care of this fish, all wrapped up with a very funny punch line of an ending. All that creative worrying in between Sophie’s request and the final page is quite entertaining, and observant readers will have fun spotting White’s fish all throughout the illustrations. Kirkus, calling it “visually offbeat and beautiful,” wrote:

“Watercolor dominates the mixed media, inventively complemented by collage and drawing. Lines dance playfully around the shapes they’re meant to outline, sometimes sliding off a shape’s edge, sometimes bleeding into the watercolor. Tidbits of collage, sometimes of patterned paper, are fascinating yet never loud.”

There’s lots more from the book below—I’ll close this post with illustrations from the book—but I’ll open with some illustrations from White’s portfolio. (Why not open with random pieces? His work is beguiling.) [Note: The font and text in some of the spreads below from the book are slightly different from the spreads as they appear in the final printed version.]

Enjoy the art. Read the rest of this entry �

The first Sunday of the month is upon us once again (the last 2012 one, at that — GASP), which means I normally feature the work of a student or debut illustrator. I had the latter lined up for today, but it didn’t quite work out in time. This author/illustrator will, most likely, visit next week instead, which is all good and a-okay and all that. I’m easy like Sunday morning (as I told her — and you’re welcome for that Commodores song now on your brain radio).

Know what I have for you today? I’ll be ever-so brief: Read the rest of this entry �

“Oliver felt a bit different.”
(Click to enlarge)

“The next day, as he was playing tennis on his own . . .”
(Click to enlarge)

Today over at Kirkus, I write about Eileen Spinelli’s Cold Snap, illustrated by two-time Caldecott Honor-recipient Marjorie Priceman. That link is here this morning.

Last week’s column was devoted to Birgitta Sif’s Oliver. (Misfits unite! Oh, and introverts, too!) Here is that link, and today I’ve got two spreads (above) from the book.

* * * * * * *

OLIVER. Copyright © 2012 by Birgitta Sif. Spreads reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

“I say to you today, my friends, that even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”

“With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together,
knowing that we will be free one day.”

“And when this happens, when we allow freedom [to] ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands
and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: …”

“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

(Click each spread to enlarge)

Read the rest of this entry �

A couple of quick 7-Imp notes here, while I drink my coffee, which I keep meaning to share (the notes, that is, though I’m always happy to share my coffee, too … come on over) …

First up, regarding the video above: I admit that here in 7-Imp Land, I tend to fly by the seat of my pants. I never really have a schedule for what I’m going to post when, but I can say that it will be very likely that my first “breakfast” interview of 2013 will be with author/illustrator Stephen Savage. That’s ’cause he’s still busy trying to find Walrus and couldn’t quite meet with me for breakfast this month.

Nah? My excuse not working? Okay, really what happened is that we had started planning—good heavens, this was such a while ago that I can’t even remember how long—a video interview. Oh, we were gonna do such fun things with this video interview, I tell you! But … well, the above video (just us planning things out) is effectively as far as we got. (Look how psychedelic the thumbnail image is. Aren’t you intrigued? Those special effects, needless to say, were all Stephen’s doing.)

Now, let me tell you … this Stephen Savage … he missed a calling in film direction, but let’s just say I’m not exactly a video ninja, so we happily decided to do a straight-up, traditional written breakfast interview instead. (Stephen had infinite patience with my video-bumbly self.) We’re going to do it in early 2013, since his new illustrated title with Lauren Thompson will be out then. So, I look forward to that in January: He will tell us more about the new book, as well as about Little Tug (pictured above), which was released in October and which I hope you’ve seen.

Secondly, a note for fellow picture book junkies: In the November 2012 issue of Book Links, there is a wonderful interview with author and illustrator Steven Kellogg by teacher and reviewer (and Nashvillian!) Dean Schneider. (Dean has written and done many good things in this field—do you have all day for me to list them?—but this, written with Robin Smith, makes me cheer every time I see it.) Here’s an excerpt, Steven’s thoughts on picture books:

“The picture book is the art form designed specifically for kids, and it has everything to do with shaping their aesthetic judgment; introducing them to the whole world of art; encouraging them to sharpen their visual literacy. …”

…to which I say, amen. Here is a link to the full article. As you can see, a subscription is required to read it, but I bring it to readers’ attention here, should your local library have access — and because it really is a great interview.

Until tomorrow…

(Click to enlarge)

I’m slowly inching my way toward the holidays. I have to ease my way in, given the rampant commercialism. (Am I just a grinch for letting it wear me out? I guess that’s a question for another day.) But I do gladly share above this work-in-progress image from Steve Light’s The Christmas Giant, released by Candlewick in 2010. (I covered it here at 7-Imp a couple years ago, if you’d like to see some final art from it.)

Steve is visiting this morning in what is—triumphantly (to me anyway, since I’ve missed them)—the return of the 7-Imp breakfast interview! I got really super swamped with manuscript revisions for a bit there, so I haven’t done a breakfast interview in a while, but for now I’m back to a normal (for me) schedule. For this, I roll out the red carpet for Steve.

Steve tells me way more about his career below over breakfast (“truck-stop” eggs), and he shares lots of art, for which I thank him. His very latest picture book, also released by Candlewick (October), is the charming story of a young girl, named Zephyr, who loved airplanes and one day hoped to fly one of her own. (Yes, it makes me happy that this little girl is into planes, and guess what? Her dad also wears an apron and cooks, and her mama is the one in the shop—or maybe it’s a garage—with tools repairing things. Take that, gender sterotypes.) I couldn’t sleep at night if I gave away the entire story of Zephyr Takes Flight, in case you want to read it for yourself, but it’s an entertaining story that tips its hat to more than one kind of flight (actual flight, as well as flights of the imagination) and brings us an irrepressible picture book protagonist in the free-spirited Zephyr.

And Steve’s swirly, elongated lines and playful perspectives and proportions are perfect for this tale of flight. Let’s get right to it so that we can see more artwork. Read the rest of this entry �

The finished Mac and Adam puppets from Mac Barnett’s Chloe and the Lion
with pictures by Adam Rex

 

“Here’s Jimmy. He’s the guy with the shoes.”
— From Jairo Buitrago’s Jimmy the Greatest, illustrated by Rafael Yockteng
(Click to enlarge)

 
Since it’s almost December (GASP!), I decided to devote today’s post to two 2012 picture books that I really liked a whole heapin’ lot, yet I had never gotten around to posting about. I do manage, I think, to post about picture books here at 7-Imp in a relatively timely manner, but these two fall into the better-late-than-never category. Here, I post about them before I see that the year has all sneaky-like ended on us — and in my own little effort to tip my hat to this pair of 2012 picture book beauties.

Those two books? Jairo Buitrago’s Jimmy the Greatest, illustrated by Rafael Yockteng and released by Groundwood Books back in April (first published in Spanish in 2010), and Mac Barnett’s Chloe and the Lion, released by Disney Hyperion in the same month — with pictures from Adam Rex.

I’ve got art from Jimmy the Greatest, and for Chloe and the Lion, Adam Rex visits briefly to share art, early sketches, thumbnails, and such. Let’s get right to it… Read the rest of this entry �

 

This morning over at Kirkus, I write about Birgitta Sif’s Oliver, released by Candlewick in October. Sif is a debut author/illustrator, originally from Iceland.

That link is here.

Until Sunday …