Thursday, May 13th, 2010
I’m having some cyber-coffee this morning with author/illustrator Thacher Hurd and author/illustrator Elisa Kleven. I’m ridiculously happy about this. I mean, you know, that’s just some good company there. Think some of their collective talent will rub off on me this morning? No? Well, I try. I always try.
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
Observant 7-Imp readers may remember that one day, back in November of 2009, I mentioned this great book (pictured below), buried deep in my kicks for that Sunday: Read the rest of this entry �
Sunday, May 9th, 2010
I love Kate Klise’s and M. Sarah Klise’s Little Rabbit books. How about you? Today, in honor of Mother’s Day, I’m featuring some art from Little Rabbit and the Meanest Mother on Earth, released by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April.
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
Since I both speak and write in hyperbole sometimes, you may not believe me when I say the book featured in this morning’s post is one of my favorite picture books from 2010. But have mercy, dear readers, and believe me, because here’s the thing: I can’t cover every picture book released in this world, now can I? So, I cover my very favorites from the year (hence, the rampant approbation and high regard for titles here at the ‘ol blawg, all hyperbole aside), and this is one. This right here is such a winning picture book on every level that I’ll be flat-out impressed with myself, something I rarely am, if my words can do it justice this morning.
Miss Brooks Loves Books! (and I don’t), written by Barbara Bottner and illustrated by Michael Emberley, tells the story of one passionate librarian and one very stubborn young reader:
Miss Brooks is our librarian. She loves books. A lot…I ask Miss Brooks why she dresses up for reading circle. “I want you to get as excited about books as I am,” she says. I think Miss Brooks get a little too excited. And I bet her costumes itch.
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
Author (and architect) Mina Javaherbin is here this morning to talk a bit about her debut picture book title, Goal! (Candlewick, April 2010), illustrated by A.G. Ford. Goal! tells the story of a group of friends in a poor South African township who revel in a game of football. (That’s soccer to those of us on this side of the big pond.) Ajani has earned a new federation-sized football for being the best reader in his class, and he presents it to his friends with great pride as they set up goals and begin to play. “The streets are not safe, but I have a plan,” Ajani tells his friends: They will take turns, guarding for the bullies in the neighborhood. Then, the game commences, and the game’s tension and excitement—as well as the boys’ passion for the game—leaps off the page in these sprawling oil spreads from Ford. Even when they are “trapped” after the bullies arrive, Ajani quickly devises a plan to keep their new ball from getting stolen. (But I won’t give that away here, in case you want to read for yourself.)
Sunday, May 2nd, 2010
Today, on this first Sunday of the month when I tend to shine the spotlight on those illustrators new to the field, I welcome up-and-coming freelance illustrator, Liz Chernov, who graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. I like the image above. Don’t you? I want to know more about that dynamic dog-and-girl duo. Let’s get right to it, since Liz is here to share some art, as well as tell us all about herself and her plans:
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
It makes me very happy when Shelley Jackson makes a children’s book, though I’m only familiar with her illustrations for 2007’s The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington. But, really. That was enough right there. What a most excellent book. Jackson’s out with a brand-new one she’s both written and illustrated, Mimi’s Dada Catifesto. It was released in April by Houghton Mifflin, and I know, I know: I featured a Houghton Mifflin book last week (and then before that), and I try to mix things up here at the ‘ol blawg in the way of different publishers, but they’ve got some great books this Spring.
This book is a force of nature is what it is. Kirkus has described it as no less than “completely spectac-
ular” and the artwork as “dazzling.” And I’d have to say I agree with them, which is why I’m excited to show you some art from it today.
What this book is, other than entirely entertaining and razzle-dazzling illustrated, as we’ve already established, is an introduction to dadaism. The Mimi of the book’s title is a cat who finally meets her human mate at the book’s close — or who finally gets a bowl of milk and becomes a genius or who teaches a pigeon something about art or have you misplaced your mustachios, madam? (This is dadaism we’re talkin’ about here.)
Mimi is a poor alley cat, living in the very tall hat (with two cockroaches living in the brim) that “blew off a rich man’s head. I was lucky he had a big head.” There are many cats in Zurich, Mimi tells us, and many artists but few artistic cats. Mimi’s best bud, Laszlo, a “cynical old pigeon,” tells Mimi to get a human already, but Mimi sneers: “Humans? Noisy things who can’t even lick their own toes…Do I look like a cat who comes running to whoever coos Kitty, kitty? For a cat with the soul of an artist, only an artist will do.”
Move over, Max. There’s an art-lovin’ feline in town. Read the rest of this entry �
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
This is artist Scott Teplin. Or his alter ego. “From when I was sixteen until Sept. 11, 2001,” he told me, “I used to wear insane disguises (wigs, black-eye makeup, prosthetic pimples, bandaids, cotton stuffed in cheeks, weird eye twitches, etc…) for driver’s license photos. Wisconsin, Washington, and NY. After 9/11, it pretty much had to stop, unfortunately.” This picture makes me laugh so hard that it’s making up for the fact that I haven’t had my coffee-with-Bailey’s yet. But I will soon, as Scott’s here to have some with me. And chat. More on that in a second.
If you saw Betsy Bird’s March review of The Clock Without a Face, to be released in early May from McSweeney’s, you know that she called this “the world’s weirdest book.” To this I say: Word. Word up. Coming from her (and from me, too), this is a compliment.
As Betsy further explained, this is a treasure-hunt book, à la Kit Williams’s Masquerade, which was published in 1979 and which ended in scandal. No scandal here, though: Children’s book author Mac Barnett; long-time editor of the wonderful McSweeney’s, Eli Horowitz; children’s book author and illustrator Adam Rex; high-fashion jewelry designer Anna Sheffield; and visual artist Scott Teplin, who—as mentioned—is visiting 7-Imp this morning, all collaborated on this title, which tells the story of the mysterious Ternky Tower. (The two hairy-knuckled, fat-sneakered doormen of Ternky Towers, brought to us all by Adam Rex, are pictured here.) There has been a robbery on each floor, thirteen total, of the penthouse. Gus Twintig is still in his PJs when he gets the call from the great detective Roy Dodge: They now have thirteen cases to solve. “A crime spree,” Gus murmurs as he stares up at the tower. Gus is Roy’s assistant: “As anyone with a knowledge of detection knows, confidential assistants are essential to the crime-solving process. It’s simple, really: I have an eye for detail, and Dodge has a genius for figuring out what the details mean… {I}t is a detective’s job to help others, and a confidential assistant’s job to help with the helping.” Read the rest of this entry �
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
Today’s illustrator feature will be short and sweet, as these are images from a book I’ve already raved about here at 7-Imp. And that would be Suzy Lee’s new title, Mirror. Here’s what I wrote about it back in March:
In May, a book that the ultra-talented Suzy Lee (who you may remember visited me in 2008) created in 2003 (I believe) will be published here in the States by Seven Footer Press. It’s called Mirror, and it is beautiful and sad and funny and stunning in that Suzy-Lee way. I’m hoping to secure some illustrations from it to show you, but I had to mention it today, what with this mirror theme. (Also: I got a copy of it just today, and the world stopped spinning while I read it, another reason I have to yawp about it now.) This wordless wonder, all about a young girl playing with her mirror image, also demonstrates the Best Use Ever of the Space Eaten Up by the Necessary Binding of a Book and also More Brilliant Use of Symmetry in Illustrations. More on this later. God, I love Suzy Lee.
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
It’s hard to say why a book about the wildly different types of quiet that fill a child’s day is so hysterical to me and why it’s one of my favorite picture books I’ve seen all year. And that’s because it’s really the subtlety in both the writing and illustrations that gets me. And expert, comedically-timed subtlety is hard to describe to another.
But let me back up a bit first and tell you what I’m talking about. I’m talking about Deborah Underwood’s The Quiet Book (released this month by Houghton Mifflin), illustrated by Canadian Renata Liwska and pictured here. Do you like how they’re being so quiet that they even have to whisper the author’s and illustrator’s name on the back cover (pictured at the bottom of this post)? And the book is exactly what I described above: A catalog of the many types of quiet in a wee one’s day, which Kirkus has described as “soothing and layered,” Booklist adding,
“{t}he most moving scenes leave space for imagining.” We all might expect “Sleeping sister quiet” and “Hide-and-seek quiet,” but it’s when Underwood and Liwska surprise us with something like this… Read the rest of this entry �
