Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Look here. It’s Lyle. And he’s fifty years old now. (He can kick, he can shimmy … oh wait, it’s another annoying Saturday Night Live reference. I have one of those for everything in life.)

First off, for anyone who may be reading who is not a fellow picture book junkie, here’s a Lyle 101: Lyle, the crocodile, debuted in 1962 in author/illustrator Bernard Waber’s The House on East 88th Street. This book was followed in 1965 by Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, probably the most famous Lyle book, and a total of eight books exist in the series.

All the books concern the Primm family, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph F. Primm and their son Joshua, who moved into this house on East 88th street only to find a crocodile in their bathtub. “The next moment found them flying off in different directions,” screaming a lot. Suddenly, an “oddly dressed man” appeared at the door with the note pictured above. Lyle is an artist? He’s gentle? Read the rest of this entry �

Tomorrow morning at Kirkus, I take a look at illustrator and designer Chris Haughton’s newest picture book, Oh No, George! The link will be here.

Last week, I weighed in on Shana Corey’s picture book biography, Here Come the Girl Scouts!, illustrated by debut artist Hadley Hooper. That link is here, if you missed it.

Today, I feature some spreads from the book (a spread above, which I loveloveLOVE, and a couple more below). Enjoy.

(Also, I highly recommend taking some time today to explore the art featured at Hadley’s site. Such good stuff there. I hope she illustrates more picture books in this world.) Read the rest of this entry �

I initially created this interview format, the Seven Questions Over Breakfast one, for brand-new illustrators — so that my readers and I can meet up-and-coming artists. Turns out I use it for more experienced authors and artists as well, ’cause the ready-made format, given my busy schedule, makes it, quite simply, easier to post any interviews at all. But my point? Today’s featured illustrator, Stephen Shaskan, is definitely new to the scene, his first published picture book released last Fall by Chronicle Books (and featured here at 7-Imp). Having this cyber-breakfast with him is, I think, a good introduction, a way for all of us to get to know his work a bit more.

Stephen’s thickly-lined and quite manic art from A Dog Is a Dog was met with good reviews. “Shaskan’s debut looks simple,” wrote Publishers Weekly, “but it’s in fact a polished and controlled piece of work. … There’s a chunky, woodcut feel to Shaskan’s hip and cheery art, and he gives each of the animals abundant personality.” As I already said here at 7-Imp in the 2011 post, I liked his debut. It’s a fun and clever book for the youngest of readers, and I look forward to what comes next from Stephen (whose last name, he likes to assist readers, rhymes with “trash can”).

So, I invited him for a breakfast interview to find out what does come next for him. His breakfast-of-choice? “Dim sum. Especially the steamed pork buns, shrimp with cilantro dumplings, Chinese broccoli, and crispy shrimp balls!” He added, “if you’re ever in Minneapolis, I’ll have to take you to the Mandarin Kitchen. If you’re super adventurous, you can try the chicken feet, shark fin, and beef stomach!”

Well, dim sum for breakfast is new for me, but I’m game. I’m going to put on lots of coffee, too, as usual.

I thank Stephen for visiting. Read the rest of this entry �

This morning, I’m featuring the last two 2011 titles I had planned to feature last Fall in a very short series of posts highlighting some good picture books for the wee’est of readers.

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed many of Bob Barner’s picture books for very young children. Last September, he released Animal Baths (Chronicle Books). Using cut paper, ribbons, and pastels, he very colorfully shows the various ways different animals get themselves clean. His rhymes are appealing for the youngest of listeners, and the cut paper and ribbons in his artwork make for very textured spreads, which also cover every inch, these animals ready to burst forth from the pages. It all works. Bob’s pig spread opens this post, and even more spreads are included below.

In September, Candlewick released Sue Soltis’s Nothing Like a Puffin, illustrated by Bob Kolar, which Kirkus gave a starred review. “Look, a puffin! What a marvelous creature, one of a kind and amazing,” the book opens. “Indeed, there is nothing like a puffin.” Bob’s friendly puffin is here to greet us readers at the start, and he makes his presence known to many, usually wreaking havoc. Soltis, giving readers a subtle lesson in comparisons and inferencing (all disguised in great fun), pairs this puffin up with a ladder, a house, a newspaper, a pair of jeans, a goldfish, a penguin, and just about everything in between, asking whether or not they really are that different. Barner’s digital illustrations give clues to young readers, and the energy and movement in the illustrations really propel the book along with a brisk, happy pace. There’s lots of humor here, too, given that the puffin usually leaves confusion and slight chaos in his wake.

This is a great one for teachers about to cover comparing and contrasting, making inferences, etc. It’s very fun. A spread from this one is featured above, too, and below is some more art from Bob. (Well, both Bobs. We’re seeing double here at 7-Imp today with Bob-squared.)

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry �

My Kirkus column for this week goes up tomorrow, as usual — not today. (Yup, I’m posting a bit early, but I wanted to go ahead and share some art today.) Tomorrow’s column, which will be here in the morning, will be about the new picture book biography of Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low, written by Shana Corey with artwork from debut illustrator Hadley Hooper. Low was the founder of the Girl Scouts, and I like this book — thank goodness for Shana Corey’s devotion to picture book biographies about remarkable women. So, more on that tomorrow.

In last week’s column, I took a look at some illustrated books I’m eager to see in 2012. One of those books mentioned was D.B. Johnson’s Magritte’s Marvelous Hat. (An illustration from that opens this post.) Even though it’s scheduled to be released in April by Houghton Mifflin (yikes, sorry I’m posting this so early — I just get excited), I was able to see an F & G of the book. And then I contacted Don about sharing some art and early sketches from it.

In last week’s column, I also mentioned a 2012 YA title (Vaunda Micheaux Nelson’s No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller), illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, which I’m eager to see. But this week I’ve got some artwork from another of Christie’s upcoming illustrated titles, Don Tate’s It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw (also scheduled for an April release, this one from Lee & Low Books). This is especially fitting, since very recently Don joined me for a breakfast interview and talked about this book. (A spread from that book is also pictured above.)

Read the rest of this entry �

Here’s another quick post before breakfast about a 2011 title that caught my eye, yet I never quite got around to posting about it last year.

Anyone else out there see Patricia Intriago’s Dot? It was released by Margaret Ferguson Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux in August. This is Intriago’s first picture book; she’s the principal of Intriago Design.

Read the rest of this entry �

Last Fall, I did a small handful of posts in which I highlighted some new picture books for the wee’est of readers, and I never quite finished. One of those books (and more are to come, as I will get to them, even if in 2012), another book geared toward your toddler-sized readers, is Angela DiTerlizzi’s Say What?, illustrated by Joey Chou and released by Beach Lane Books in July of 2011.

The illustrations Joey shares today give you a good sense of the book, which ends with a wee human child, telling his mother how much he loves her. This is always good for toddlers. (In fact, I envision this book as becoming a board book one day. Hey, good idea. Should I call the editor? “Jules WHO?” Seriously, I hope they consider it. It’d work.) This one is also good for, as the Kirkus reviewer noted, preschoolers who enjoy language play. Read the rest of this entry �

This week at Kirkus, I take a look at 2012 picture book titles I’m particularly eager to see. The link is here this morning.

If you missed last week’s column, I wrote about Martin Jenkins’ Can We Save the Tiger? — illustrated by Vicky White and published by Candlewick in February of last year. Beautiful book in every way. That link is here, and above is a spread from the book. Read the rest of this entry �

Here’s a quick post in celebration of a 2011 title that I really enjoyed, Michael Morpurgo’s adaptation (Candlewick, October 2011) of the classic Pied Piper of Hamelin, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark, a story which—according to this link anyway—may date back to the Middle Ages. (Now, suddenly, I want to know everything about this fairy tale, but I guess that’ll have to get added to my to-do list. Wonder if anyone anywhere has annotated it?)

Read the rest of this entry �

I’m doing something a little different today. Author/illustrator Carin Berger is visiting, which always makes me happy, but the slightly different part here is that she’s sharing art from a book not scheduled to come out till over a year from now. But, hey, why not? Right? I always like to check in to see what Carin’s doing, and as you can read below, she’s having fun with dioramas, her three-dimensional art — and the results are good. Very good. (I’d like to live inside Carin’s brain for at least one day, thanks very much.)

So, let’s get right to it. Carin (who visited me for a cyber-breakfast in 2009) is here to explain what in the hubba-what I’m talking about here: Read the rest of this entry �