Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

{Note: You can click on that spread to enlarge and see it in more detail; you’ll just have to wait a bit for the download.}

On this Poetry Friday I highlight a book published by Creative Editions (hubba whoa, they make some beautiful books) in August of ’09, written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Italian illustrator Roberto Innocenti. It’s an over-sized, lovingly-designed book (as many of Creative Edition’s books are), called The House, which chronicles—via quatrains—the life of a stone-and-mortar house, the “House of twenty thousand tales,” constructed in 1656.

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So, I certainly haven’t read all of French author/illustrator Dorothée de Monfreid’s titles. Far from it. I’ve only ever seen I’d Really Like to Eat a Child, written by Sylviane Donnio and published first here in the States by Random House in ’07. (Here is my enthusiastic post about that title.)

Let me be clear, too, that I’m not one of those bloggers who is going to stop talking about 2009 titles, simply because 2010 has presented herself. Oh heavens, no. Clearly, I like to focus on illustration anyway, and so—as I shine a spotlight on Dorothée today—I mention her latest title, which was published in September of ’09, Dark Night, originally published in France in ’07 as Nuit Noire. (O, French, how I wish I had learned you better. “Nuit Noire” is just so fun to say. Say it with me now, dear readers.)

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Early this year, I did a 2008 7-Imp retrospective post — merely because, evidently, I’m crazy. (These things take a bit of time to compose.) I decided this week to write what you see here, yet another retrospective post — this one for 2009, of course.

I don’t know why I do this. I find it strangely beguiling is all I can say. Yes, I looked forward to drafting this post. I’m a sucker at the end of every year for those retrospective round-ups and best-of lists of all sorts that one sees everywhere—both online and in print—about entertainment and literature and politics and on and on. (And, now that it’s the end of a decade, my head’s about to explode with all the looking-back-on-the-naughts lists.)

{As but one example: Ooo! Ooo! This at 100 Scope Notes is fun.}

So, what can I say? It’s my warped idea of fun. It’s tidy fun.

This spiffy and sinister gentleman here, introducing this year’s retrospective, which highlights some of the folks who have visited 7-Imp this year, is Alfred. He came to life as a sketch at the hands of author/illustrator Matt Phelan. After I interviewed Matt in September of this year, he gave Alfred permission to pack his bags and take up permanent residence at 7-Imp and introduce the Pivot Questionnaire for each interview. It seemed only fitting that he’d usher us into this post. My, he’s serious about this retrospective, isn’t he?

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A quick post this morning to say a) I’m still here and b) have you seen Kazuno Kohara’s Here Comes Jack Frost (Roaring Brook Press, October 2009)? Publishers Weekly called it a “sparkling winter treat,” Kirkus called Kohara’s prints “gorgeous,” and School Library Journal called this “a beautiful piece of bookmaking.” I don’t have a copy in hand to elaborate on the book or Kohara’s medium-of-choice (though, clearly, these are prints), but I did manage to secure one beautiful blue spread to share with you today to showcase the book’s sharp design. And I have read a copy. Good stuff. Great art. If you saw Kohara’s Ghosts in the House! from ’08, you know what a treat you’re in for with her printmaking. Here Comes Jack Frost is a celebration of winter and its many joys, as a boy’s winter blues are erased with a visit from the elfin Mr. Frost himself.

I’ll be back later this week with a post I think might be quite fun. Until then…and Happy-New-Year week to all!

HERE COMES JACK FROST. Copyright © 2009 by Kazuno Kohara. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Roaring Brook Press, New York, NY.

This squirrel here looks a lot like how I feel about now, post-holidays. And I didn’t even have that much eggnog. The holidays can get just crazy, you know? It is Sunday, right? I’m not even sure what day it is anymore.

Anyway, happy holidays to all, and I hope everyone had a joy-filled, dysfunction-free holiday, indeed. For the VERY LAST kicks-post of this year (this decade, in fact), I’m sharing some spreads from one of my favorite—if not, my very favorite—picture books of 2009, Waiting for Winter by German author/illustrator Sebastian Meschenmoser. Heaven bless Kane/Miller — for many reasons, actually, but in this case, for bringing us the first American edition of this title in June of this year, having originally been published in Germany in 2007. Read the rest of this entry �

I’m saying adieu for the week to 7-Imp. I’ll be back on Sunday for a) some kicks and b) some illustrations from one of my top-five favorite picture books of 2009. So, to sign off for the week and wish you all happy holidays, I’ve got some brightly-colored spreads from one of David Díaz’s illustrated titles from ’09, Let There Be Peace on Earth: And Let It Begin with Me (Tricycle Press; September 2009), a picture book adaptation of Jill Jackson’s and Sy Miller’s popular 1955 ballad. (The book, incidentally, comes with a twelve-song CD of various folks who have recorded the song over the years, a fun fact for you fans of the ballad.)

Happy holidays to all. Here’s to the notion of taking each moment and living it in peace, as Jackson and Miller wrote about…See you on Sunday, I hope!

{Here are two more of Díaz’s radiant, joy-filled spreads. Click to enlarge, if you’re so inclined. Enjoy.}

LET THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH: AND LET IT BEGIN WITH ME. Text copyright © 1955 by Jill Jackson and Sy Miller. Illustrations copyright © 2009 by David Díaz. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Tricycle Press, Berkeley, California.

Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you.

This week, as a gift to you, I’ve got a little round-up of some holiday art. Okay, well, I say “holiday,” but this week it happens to be all Christmas in nature.

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It seems hardly anyone is around now, and folks are very busy this time of year, but I’m here once again this week, for whomever might be lurking, to check in with British author/illustrator—and one of my Most Favorites Ever—Mini Grey. Mini visited 7-Imp in October of last year, and I’ve been following her book releases this year as well. First off in 2009, there was Egg Drop, released by Knopf Books for Young Readers in July and originally published in Great Britain in 2002. In fact, as you’ll see below, it was Mini’s first picture book release. More on that in a sec.

Let’s start with her very most recent illustrated title, not even out in the States yet, Hilaire Belloc’s classic cautionary tale of a poem, originally written in 1907, Jim (Who Ran Away from His Nurse and Was Eaten by a Lion). It was released in October of this year in the UK by Jonathan Cape/Random House, and I’ve actually got a copy in hand, though it’s not available here on this side of the pond, as they say.

As you can see on the cover there, you’ve been warned: “Contains a dangerous beast and a miserable end.” If this book had existed when Adrienne Furness and I composed our “Straight Talk About the Food Chain” / Slightly Demented Picture Books post, also one of my Most Favorites Ever, boy howdy and howdy boy, this would have been at the top of our protagonists-getting-eaten list. As Adrienne said in that post, cautionary tales make great sense to kids, though some parents often get squirmy over the violence. This very tongue-in-cheek, black-humored poem, as you can read here in its entirety, is one of Belloc’s no-holds-barred humorous cautionary tales. (Think Roald Dahl for tone.) He wrote many, which were later illustrated by Edward Gorey, and they were said to be intended for children — but most appreciated, in all their satire, by the grown-ups around them.

Mini seems to have delighted in illustrating the classic poem, and she doesn’t hold back. See what I mean? (Click to enlarge each spread.)

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For the past several weeks, I’ve been highlighting the recent work of folks whose work has been featured previously at the blog — either in some kind of feature or interview. They happened to all be men, and so I determined to shine the spotlight on some women. Since it’s so close to the holidays and I’m generally disorganized, I don’t have as many women lined up here: In fact, I’ve got Lauren Castillo and Leslie Evans today, and I hope to bring you some work from the delightfully subversive and always surprising Mini Grey very soon. And that’s it. But perhaps this is something I can continue in the new year.

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{Quick Note from Jules Here and I Mean Quick Because I Don’t Intend to Run My Mouth Before Each of Steven’s Interviews: For those 7-Imp readers who missed this recent announcement, writer and researcher and teacher and editor and producer/film-maker and poet (whew again) Steven Withrow will be contributing one interview every month to 7-Imp. He’ll be featuring a children’s publishing professional, or an expert from a related area, who is not primarily known as an author or illustrator—a publisher, editor, agent, art director, designer, critic, scholar, professor, librarian, bookseller, printer, marketer, museum curator, etc. (Suggestions are always welcome, he says.) I’m delighted. I think we’re all going to learn a lot, and all I had to do was format this interview! Yup, it’s all Steven. And I really enjoyed reading it. I’ll see you all soon. Until then, here’s Steven, and I thank both him and Susan for the visit…}

Welcome, Susan Sherman, to 7-Imp. Susan has been designing children’s books since 1977. Currently, she is art director at Charlesbridge Publishing in Watertown, Massachusetts. Over the years, she has been art director of children’s trade books at Houghton Mifflin and creative director at Little, Brown and Company. She also has her own graphic design business, Ars Agassiz.

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