Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Elisha Cooper may say below that he’s not so sweet—and doesn’t necessarily believe children’s books should be either—but he was a joy to interview for many reasons, not the least of which being Eisha and I have always been fans of his picture books. To be sure, he’s written books for the non-child set as well (though I think Eisha and I would both argue his picture books are, indeed, for all ages), including his memoir of parenthood, Crawling (Pantheon, 2006), which the Chicago Tribune called “hilarious and beautiful” and The New York Times described as “bravely honest”; 1995’s “Valentine to the city” of New York, A Year in New York (City & Company, 1995) as well as California: A Sketchbook (Chronicle Books, 2000) and 1996’s cross-country road trip, Off the Road (Villard Books/Random House, 1996); and the personal essays he’s written for publications such as The Morning News (“The Dream Vacation” and “The Bear”), Runner’s World (“Running with Purpose”), and Publishers Weekly (his recent “About the Author,” in which he discusses the agonies of writing one’s own back-flap bio).

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Know how 7-Imp loves to feature illustrators on Sundays? Well, sometimes I just can’t wait.

Introducing “twenty-something” author/illustrator Julian Hector, whose first book, The Little Matador, was released by Hyperion in July. Julian stopped by to say a few words and share some of his art work:

“My name is Julian Hector, and I’m a 25 year old author/Illustrator from Austin, Texas. I went to Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, where I still live. The second I entered the Illustration department at Parsons, I realized that children’s publishing was the place for me, and I quickly became friends with Pat Cummings (she’s easily one of the greatest people I know), who taught the Children’s Book-making class there. From Pat, I learned all about the thirty-two-page picture book format and by my Junior year (2005), I had my first dummy put together. Pat decided to send me out into the business and gave me the contact information to about twelve editors, spread across all the major publishing houses in New York. Initially, only one editor (at Hyperion) replied back to me and agreed to set up a meeting. She and I hit it off immediately, and (after a couple revisions) my first dummy eventually made it to a Hyperion acquisitions meeting where it was denied. At our first meeting though, while looking through my portfolio, my editor was really drawn to an image of a ‘little’ matador giving a bull a flower. She made it clear in several passing emails that she would love to see a story for that character, and after the first dummy was rejected, I got to work writing The Little Matador.

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Alphabet picture books and picture books in rhyme are—admit it—very difficult to do and often done quite poorly. Raise your hand if you pick up an alphabet book and then wonder with a bit of ennui what the author could possibly manage to pull off for the letters “x” and “z” this time.

Well, here’s what I found to be a breath of fresh air when it came to alphabet picture books AND in rhyme: Linda Ashman’s M is for Mischief: An A to Z of Naughty Children (Dutton Children’s Books, July ’08), illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. Really, you will not hear me praise books-in-rhyme very often. Not ’cause I raise my nose at them — but because they’re very difficult to do well. But Ashman does it well here and does it with style. Naughty style. Ooh, sizzle! Read the rest of this entry �

Welcome to our 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.

As you know, we feature students of Illustration or brand-spankin’-new illustrators the first Sunday of every month.
Today’s featured illustrator, Jeff Miracola, isn’t exactly new to illustration—he’s been working as a freelance illustrator since 1993 for companies such as Wizards of the Coast, Inc., Hasbro, Inc., Upper Deck Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Inc., ImagineFX Magazine, Advanced Photoshop Magazine, and many more—but he is new to children’s books, so we’re featuring him today. Welcome, Jeff!

These illustrations today are from Jeff’s upcoming thirty-six page picture book, Welcome to Monster Isle, written by Oliver Chin and to be published by Immendium this month. The book is about a family’s vacation gone haywire when a perfect storm tosses their skipper’s tiny boat off course. Seven castaways are stranded on an uncharted desert island. A boy named Finnegan, his sister, his parents and his dog, Howl, venture into the wild and encounter a zootopia of mythical creatures with names like the Yowie and Ogopogo. Super-keen. Or, as Jeff puts it: Read the rest of this entry �

Remember how I indicated in 7-Imp’s blog-identity-crisis post that I’ve had less time lately for reviewing books? Well, that’s still the case, but I figured I could touch base with our dear readers and share what it is I’m reading now — or at least have lined up to read. And my focus today is going to be sequels, ’cause Eisha had this great idea a while back to have a 7-Imp Sequel Week. As you can see, sometimes we have great ideas and then it takes a bit of time for life to slow down for us to make them happen. But in the meantime, here are some sequels I’m either reading or have read or am getting excited about reading (and don’t forget Adam Rex’s Frankenstein sequel, which Kelly Fineman and I already covered):

Traction Man Meets Turbodog by Mini Grey (Knopf Books for Young Readers; on shelves in September, I believe) — Traction Man is back! Guess how many starred reviews it’s gotten already? Five — from the The Horn Book, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Kirkus, no less. There may even be more stars floating around for it, for all I know. Bottom line is it’s great. Traction Man and his faithful pet Scrubbing Brush are back for more heroic rescues — this time Traction Man must rescue Scrubbing Brush, since the family chucked him after a trip to the northwest slope of Mt. Compost Heap (“it’s just so unhygienic, it must be FULL of germs…”), though it takes Traction Man a while to figure this out while he’s off having adventures with the battery-operated Turbodog. In Grey’s further tributes to the imaginative play of children—not to mention the very real bonds wee ones have with their toys—Traction Man meets up with Handbag Dwellers, the Lone Sock, the Grand Sofa Canyon, the Dark and Terrible Underworld of the Bin and its Evil Creatures and Bin-Things, and much more. How much do I love Mini Grey’s books? Let me count the ways. And she’s supposed to stop by for a seven-questions-over-breakfast interview soon, so we’ll chat with her more then. Read the rest of this entry �

Jules: I really, really hope that folks are around this weekend, despite it being a holiday weekend, to see the art work of our featured illustrator today, Hyewon Yum, who studied painting, printmaking, and illustration at both Seoul National University and the School of Visual Arts in New York.

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Jules: Excuse the decidedly uncreative post title. Not enough coffee yet. You think I’m joking with my severely cheesy “Instant Human: Just Add Coffee” mug? I’m not.

I’m happy to be joined today by Kelly Fineman of Writing and Ruminating in discussing the new monstrous poetry anthology from Adam Rex, Frankenstein Takes the Cake (Which is Full of Funny Stuff Like Rotting Heads and Giant Gorillas and Zombies Dressed as Little Girls and Edgar Allan Poe. The Book, We Mean — Not the Cake), the sequel to 2006’s Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich (And Other Stories You’re Sure to Like, Because They’re All About Monsters, And Some of Them Are Also About Food. You Like Food, Don’t You? Well, All Right Then) — both books published by Harcourt. (And how much do you love those titles, Jules? you ask. A whole heapin’ lot.) As I noted a few weeks ago here at 7-Imp, if you haven’t read that prequel, well there’s a hole in your life too big and awkward for us to even address. But Kelly has joined me today to talk about the new poetry anthology, so let’s get right to it…

This, by the way, is also posted over at Guys Lit Wire today if you’re so inclined to read it over there. But this post here includes pretty much sorta the same content and same images, so you get to take your pick.

Also: This may be the first and only time you’ll read the words “Adam Rex” and “The View” in the same sentence. I could have never predicted that.

Also: Adam Rex is a superspy.

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This is Lane Smith with his wife and book designer extraordinnaire, Molly Leach. We told him this would be one of our breakfast interviews, but we didn’t expect him to attempt to take a chunk out of his own face. But that’s the thing with Lane: You never know what to expect. After gently talking him into lowering the fork and having something else for breakfast, he’s considering either oatmeal or Cheerios, fresh OJ, and one small cup of decaf, adding that it’s a boring breakfast. For the record, we don’t think it’s boring, but we’ll just pretend he didn’t say decaf, which is the devil’s blend. But, hey…to each his own.

Here are 7-Imp’s Seven Reasons Why We’re Super-Nerdy Excited That Lane Smith is Here Today For a Chat:

1). He has a Bachelor of Awesome. See below.

2). He is one of the most inventive, most unpredictable (in the good way), most entertaining, and most imaginative contemporary illustrators whose work displays a tremendous respect for children and possesses a sharp, irreverent, wisecracking humor. Cases in point (just some of many): 1991’s Glasses (Who Needs ‘Em?); 1995’s Math Curse, written by Jon Scieszka; 2001’s Baloney (Henry P.), received and decoded by Scieszka; and 2004’s Science Verse, also by Scieszka — all published by Viking.

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South Korean illustrator Suzy Lee is here this morning, and I couldn’t be happier. She’s joining 7-Imp for breakfast with her sandwich, apple, and whatever is left-over from her baby’s breakfast. I would venture to say that she’ll join me for some coffee, too, by the looks of her responses to the Pivot Questionnaire. Oh my, she’s a coffee-drinker after my own heart, I must say.

She’s also an illustrator after my own heart. Lee, who received her BFA in painting from Seoul National University and her MA in Book Arts from Camberwell College of Arts in London, shows us the world through a child’s eyes in ways I don’t quickly forget after putting down her books. We have Kane/Miller Books to thank for bringing Lee to our country’s attention in 2007 with The Zoo, first published in 2004 in Seoul, Korea. In this book, what starts out as a normal trip to the zoo turns into an imaginative romp for a young girl, whose poor parents are put through the wringer, to say the least, trying to find her. And it’s also a picture book in which Lee very much meets you halfway, allowing you to bring your own ideas and perspectives to the book in your hands. And what reviewers and bloggers saw in it varied quite a bit: “Personally, I think the book identifies how wonderful freedom feels to a child. You’re forever under someone’s protection. How cool would it be then to transfer that protection to the wild and wacky animals in the zoo?” (Betsy Bird, A Fuse #8 Production); “a mix of reality and imagination…that suggests closeness to nature” (The New York Times); “{t}his is a book for any child who loves animals, and thinks that zoos are paradise. It’s also a book for any parent who has temporarily misplaced a child…All in all, it’s an unexpected and rewarding adventure” (Jen Robinson’s Book Page); or, perhaps the blog bloogs blowing by captured it best by saying the book is open “to a hundred and one creative interpretations.” What does Suzy say about it herself?

This book is about the zoo, a strange place where children and adults alike learn about nature, but also about its deprivation and despair. Curiously, children see the zoo differently from adults’ perspective; they know how to make friends with animals.

Here’s my favorite spread from the book—arguably, my favorite picture book spread from all of 2007—as a whole, but underneath it are larger images of each side of the spread so that you can soak in Lee’s gorgeous colors and the details to her art work:

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eisha: Did you hear that? BRIAN PINKNEY!!! Can you stand it? Can you possibly bear the full-on hard-core joy explosion that is this collection of illustrations? Look at that little boy! Is that not the most perfectly captured moment of summer sweetness ever? And how about this one:

I know, right? It’s like those kids are so vibrantly buoyantly happy that gravity has totally given up on them.

Oh, hey, I’m getting ahead of myself. Welcome to our weekly feature 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, where we invite everyone to share 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. And we feature some lovely illustrations. This week, we’ve got a few spreads from We Are One (Harcourt, 2008), a new picture book by Ysaye M. Barnwell (member of the a capella group Sweet Honey in the Rock). Obviously, Mr. Pinkney did the fabulous illustrations. Here’s another:

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