Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

 
Happy Easter / Passover to one and all … Since I have children who do the Easter thing (egg hunts and such), I have bunnies for you all this morning.

To be exact, I’ve got Jan Thomas’s Easter bunny (plus one eager skunk) and Caldecott Honor winner Anita Lobel’s bunnies-plural. Read the rest of this entry �

This morning over at Kirkus, I write about Mary Ann Hoberman’s Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn By Heart, illustrated by Michael Emberley. The link is here.

Last week, I took a look at Claire A. Nivola’s newest picture book, Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle. That link is here.

I’ve got some more spreads from the biography today, and Claire is also here to say a bit about her research for this beautiful book … Read the rest of this entry �

I’ve got some spreads and early sketches/images this morning from Caldecott Honor winner Margaret Chodos-Irvine (pictured left is one early sketch), whose printmaking work has graced many a picture book. I’m always eager to see her new illustrated titles. This one, Dinosaur Thunder (Scholastic), written by Newbery Honor author Marion Dane Bauer, will be out in May, but I saw an early copy and fell for it.

And Margaret’s here today to share some images from the book as a work-in-progress — as well as some final spreads. (I am hoping some time in the near future, she’ll also stop by for a breakfast interview. I wave my hypno-spiral anyway in an attempt to talk her into it.)

Dinosaur Thunder is the story of Brannon and his imaginative reactions to thunder. “When lightning flares in the faraway sky and clouds growl like lions waking…” Well, this young boy’s big brother Chad does a happy jig in the middle of the room—thunder just does that to some people—but Brannon is scared and looks for a place to hide. He gets various responses from the adults in the house about what thunder really is, and as adults are wont to do sometimes, they confuse him. “Don’t be scared … That thunder is only a big cat purring,” says his father. But, you see, the neighbor’s cat once tried to scratch Brannon, and his imagination runs wild. Read the rest of this entry �

Okay, it’s well after breakfast, but perhaps for you brunchers …

Here’s a quick addendum to yesterday’s post, which included some art from Dan Krall.

Dan has another illustrated book coming out in July, called Skeleton Cat. It’s written by Kristyn Crow and published by Scholastic.

Since it didn’t quite fit in yesterday’s long post, I share a couple of spreads from it today.

Until tomorrow . . . Read the rest of this entry �

Next to author/illustrator Matthew Cordell, Tammi Sauer may very well be the busiest picture book author of 2012.

I wanted to chat with the very punny Tammi here at 7-Imp about her upcoming books—she sees five of her picture books released this year—and then she up and announced she was doing one of those newfangled, so-called blog tours for her picture book Bawk & Roll, being released today by Sterling and illustrated by the one and only Dan Santat. (How do you like their back-flap photos for this book, pictured right and below?) So, I said, Tams, sign me up for that blog tour thingy. (I don’t really call her “Tams,” but she’s visiting for coffee this morning, so why not?) But in true 7-Imp style, seeing as how I have an excessively overactive work ethic, not to mention I love me some picture books, I also secured some art from the other picture books Tammi will be releasing this year, so this is a long, art-filled post but also with some words from Tammi, of course.

Whew.

In fact, as you can see at the top of this post, I’ve got a wonderful image from Bawk & Roll—the back cover image, to be exact—but above that is an early sketch from Joe Berger for Tammi’s Princess in Training. I just really like that sketch, that bad-ass princess on her skateboard. More images from that book (which won’t be released from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt till October) are below.

In March of this year, we were already treated to one of Tammi’s books. (See art from Me Want Pet! below.) Bawk & Roll (the sequel to 2009’s Chicken Dance) is out today, as mentioned, and it’s mighty fun. “Sauer dispenses her many puns with an appealingly deft touch,” writes Kirkus, “offering a genuine lesson on friendship. Santat’s illustrations are similarly droll, featuring several clever and surprising page designs, making the most of the opportunity offered by the contrast between stage and audience. This flock rocks.” And, as mentioned, more Sauer picture books are to come this year.

So, let’s hear from Tammi, and as she talks I’ll show you some more of Dan’s entertaining illustrations from Bawk & Roll, as well as from all the other 2012 titles.

I thank her for visiting — and I thank all the illustrators sharing art today. Read the rest of this entry �

Okay, I’m gonna be straight-up honest with you right off the bat this morning: No stealthy April Fool’s joke is hiding ’round the corner here at 7-Imp today. I know of other bloggers with sneaky, winky plans, but … well, since blogging comes after things like my children and work, I’m lucky to produce normal, non-jokey posts on a fairly consistent basis. My co-author, Peter D. Sieruta, even had a great idea for me. But, while I consider myself a mildly to moderately clever human (who really appreciated his funny suggestion), I have a terrible poker face, y’all, and I always ruin the punch line anyway.

Glad we got that out of the way.

So, no kidding, my post today is one of those where I feature a student or debut illustrator, since it’s the first Sunday of the month. (March, WHERE’D YOU GO anyway? That March. So zippy-quick and tricky.) Today it’s the latter, a self-taught debut author/illustrator, who lives in Michigan. His name is Kenneth Kraegel, and he’s visiting today to say a bit about his first book. Now, this picture book, King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson, comes out in July of this year (Candlewick), so I apologize for showing you art from a book you can’t quite yet purchase or find on library shelves, but July will be here before you know it. Moving on then … Read the rest of this entry �

Last week, I wrote about Polly Horvath’s Mr. and Mrs. Bunny: Detectives Extraordinaire! (Schwartz & Wade, February 2012), illustrated by Sophie Blackall. That link is here, if you missed it and are so inclined to read it.

Today, Sophie shares a handful of interior illustrations from the book. Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry �

Right. I know I’m normally posting before breakfast and such. Impossibly and all that, true to the blog’s name. But here’s a post before I say night-night about Night Knight, a quickie post to showcase a couple of spreads from a new picture book I like.

Owen Davey’s Night Knight was originally published last year — in the UK, I assume, given that Davey is from there. [Be sure to check out that link, incidentally. He writes, “I have been earning a living from my drawings and have had work published in every continent except Antarctica (damn those pesky Penguins).” That made me laugh.] This year, Night Knight sees its U.S. publication (January 2012), thanks to Templar Books.

Boy howdy and howdy boy (to put it eloquently), do I like these illustrations. This is simply the story of a young boy heading to bed, but there’s nothing simple about the imaginative spreads here. In his mind, you see, the boy is a knight and “going to bed…is a great adventure.” (Cue “ye olde yawn,” my favorite part of the book.) Read the rest of this entry �

Illustrator Adam Gustavson is visiting for breakfast this morning. It may be a cyber-breakfast and we may not actually be face-to-face over the breakfast table with either the coffee or wine mentioned in my 7-Imp interviews, but he tells me he “answered these questions over a few cups of coffee, actually, whereupon I proofread it all over a glass of red wine. I think we’ve had the full experience here.”

Adam states at his site that at first, he was going to be a cowboy. I’m glad he turned to children’s book illustration instead, though I do believe in the power of his two-pint ten-gallon hat of childhood. As you can see below, Adam’s had a relatively long and prolific career in illustrating children’s books, and he also teaches. His teaching is something he also discusses below. (Can I just say that I’d like to clone him as an interviewee? I really enjoyed formatting this interview and appreciate how detailed he is in his responses, as well as the thought he put into answering the questions.)

Adam works in oils, rendering lush, detailed illustrations with rich colors. He often plays with perspective and captures many a text’s atmosphere with precision and spot-on pacing. “Gustavson creates a festive mood with his oil illustrations, so luxurious and ample they feel like bundles of winter clothing, topped with bright scarves,” wrote Kirkus about his illustrations for Lester Laminack’s Snow Day (Peachtree Publishers, 2010).

Looks like he and I are eating well this morning. “When I can, I’m a bagel-with-cream-cheese-and-lox breakfaster,” he tells me. “If I’m planning ahead, I make my own lox using my Finnish grandmother’s time-tested technique.”

Sounds good to me. I’ll set the table while I get the basics before our seven questions over breakfast. I thank Adam for stopping by. Read the rest of this entry �

I’m happy to have Piggy Bunny, the star of this book (Feiwel and Friends, February 2012), visiting today — and his creators, author Rachel Vail and “authorstrator” Jeremy Tankard. (Jeremy was the first-EVER subject of my 7-Imp breakfast interviews years ago.)

So, I’m going to do something kind of unusual for me here. I’m not going to say much right now in this intro to today’s post. Rachel and Jeremy do such a great job of talking about the genesis of and creation of this book that for me to go on about it—try to summarize it, that is—would be redundant. I’m grateful that they’re so forthcoming with their thoughts below.

As you’ll see, this is the story of Liam, a piglet who wants to be a bunny, and it all stemmed from a piece in Jeremy Tankard’s portfolio. Rachel decided she wanted to eschew writing yet another just-be-yourself tale in children’s lit and finds it the most subversive book she’s ever written. “Though the believe-in-yourself theme has been told in many ways,” writes Kirkus, “Liam holds his own with his quiet determination. Who can resist a piglet who introduces himself with ‘Hello, my name is Liam and I’ll be your Easter Bunny’?”

Indeed. So, let’s get right to it … I thank Rachel and Jeremy for sharing. Read the rest of this entry �