Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Jules: What a pleasure it is to have Laura Nyman Montenegro here today to share some art work from her latest title with us! If you’re already familiar with some of Laura’s previous titles (here’s just one of my favorites), then you already know about her beautiful line-and-watercolor spreads and, as the above Just One More Book!! link put it well, her stories of “confidence, creativity and acceptance.” And here’s something not-to-be-missed: A Spring ’08 feature on Laura at The Prairie Wind (newsletter of the SCBWI-Illinois chapter), in which Laura talks about what a person’s bookshelf reveals about him or her — and elaborates on her own mother’s bookshelf, as she viewed it as a child:

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Jules: IT’S SPRING! And here are some poppies for you, courtesy of the very talented Kelly Murphy, an illustrator whose work Eisha and I adore. We’re so glad she’s stopped by today to share some new art work from some upcoming projects. This one, actually, is already featured on her site. Please do go see her re-vamped site. It’s seven kinds of awesome, people. Very beautiful. Anyway, Kelly gave us permission to pick which images we love the most — as well as sent us some new stuff, which we’ll get to in a minute — and it was very hard to pick, indeed. But here are two more:

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It’s time again for a look at some of my favorite new picture books — with the added bonus of taking a peek inside at some of the art work.

So, Adrienne and I are composing a list of our favorite Slightly Demented Picture Books and why we love them so. One of the books you’ll see on that list — whenever we actually post that thing, the idea for it having been born last August, I think (can someone please give me three more hours in each day?) — is Kara LaReau and Scott Magoon’s Ugly Fish, which I raved about here at 7-Imp over a year ago. Good things like Ugly Fish happen when LaReau and Magoon put their heads together, so I was thrilled to see they have a new one from Harcourt, Rabbit & Squirrel: A Tale of War and Peas, to be released this May.

If you’re wondering what exactly we mean by “slightly demented picture books,” well…you’ll have to tune in later and check out our list, huh? But, as a teaser and as Adrienne put it so well, they are those books that we love and that kids love that make some adults uncomfortable, ones that tell big truths about life in one way or another. We think Ugly Fish most definitely fits comfortably in that category, and more on that later. Is Rabbit and Squirrel’s tale one that is going to make some parents squirm a bit? No. But does it tell big truths about life? You’re darn tootin’ it does (sorry, my four-year-old’s vocabulary is encroaching its way into my own), in this case a bit of commentary about nothing less than war and peace. Whoa.

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Jules: This is one of those Sundays in which we’re really featuring a book (as opposed to, say, an illustrator stopping by to share something new or not-seen-before), this one a (mostly) wordless picture book, entitled Jukebox, published by Kane/Miller this year (originally published in France in ’07), and created by French illustrator David Merveille — ahem, make that “illustrateur.” Having gotten these spreads from the publisher, since I think this book is awfully fun, I did email David to see if he wanted to send us some commentary about the book and perhaps talk about his creation of the art work therein, but alas! I had to send my email in l’Anglais, and I have no idea if he understood me (my high school French has receded into the far corners of my memory, and it is très mauvais — at least, I think that means very-bad-as-in-LOUSY).

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It’s time once again to take a look at some of my favorite new picture books, but instead of merely reviewing them, we’ll take a peek inside at some of the art work therein, thanks to either the illustrator him or herself or the publisher. I have four books this week, and — since it would pain me to have to pick a favorite — I’ll put them in alphabetical order by illustrator. Yup, everything’s coming up Eun-hee Choung, Frank Dormer, Pascal Lemaitre, and Jeremy Tankard this week. Let’s get right to it then.

So, just take a look at what Minji is up to while her mother is away at the salon, getting her hair dyed a blazingly cool shade of red (illustrations used with permission from publisher):

This is from Minji’s Salon by South Korean illustrator Eun-hee Choung (Kane/Miller, February 2008), who was awarded the grand prize in the Korean Published Arts Contest in 2005. Her goal is to “make unique picture books,” and she undoubtedly succeeds with this one, originally published in South Korea in 2007.

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I’m going to do this week’s list the lazy-blogger’s way by pretty much just rounding up others’ reviews of these titles (others’ thought will be in this fetching shade of blue — woot! Fun with HTML colors!), since my oldest turns four this week, and we have some serious partying down for which to get ready, people.

If you’re new to this feature, it’s where I’ll talk about some books that were, for the most part, released last year, the idea being that your local library should have them (no reviews of advance copies, not out for two more months or so, are allowed here). In fact, every book on my list this week was one I retrieved from one library or another, so I’m really hoping yours will have them, too.

Let’s get right to it. Again, I’m going to include review excerpts from others, but only if I agree with them, of course of course of course. Heh. And these titles will cover a wide age range. I’m not going to narrow this week. They’re all over the place, the only common denominator being that they’re all what I think are good — or great — books. And, since there are so many more and these are but seven, do tell me what you’ve been reading this week with your own wee ones.

Okay, wait, so this was released this year, and you might have to wait a bit at your local library to get this one into your hands, but it’s worth the wait. OH MY, have you SEEN this book, the one that received Caldecott buzz — as in, 2009 buzz — during the first month of the year? This is the first book Nelson has both written and illustrated, and it’s a jaw-dropping wonder of a thing. Nelson, using an “Everyman” player as the narrator, tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through the decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. Publishers Weekly calls it “a sumptuous volume that no baseball fan should be without” and adds, “while this large, square book (just a shade smaller than a regulation-size base) succeeds as coffee-table art, it soars as a tribute to the individuals . . .” Don’t miss Betsy Bird’s detailed review of it over at A Fuse #8 Production, including her memorable opening (“Nope. Sorry. Not fair. Kadir Nelson, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you’ve completely overdrawn your account in the creativity department. I could accept that you are one of the greatest living illustrators making his way today. I didn’t even mind how young and talented you were. That was fine. But dude, did I actually have to learn that you were a remarkable writer as well?”) and closing (“It’s a one-of-a-kind book, the like of which you have not seen, nor ever will see again. A triumph.”) Kelly Fineman also covered this title over at the wonderful, new blog dedicated to nonfiction and authored by a whole slew of fabulous nonfiction authors and illustrators, I.N.K. (Interesting Nonfiction for Kids):

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So, I’m not so sure about this “Illustration Matters” title for this new series of sorts I’m trying out, but since I have no brilliant replacement for it, I’ll forge ahead . . .

Now, just feast your eyes on this lovely piece of art work (used with permisson from Random House) from illustrator Nicoletta Ceccoli:

This is from The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum by Kate Bernheimer, released last month from Schwartz & Wade Books. This is Bernheimer’s first children’s book. She’s the Editor of the literary journal, Fairy Tale Review (really, how great is that and why haven’t I heard of it before? If other bloggers have talked about it, well, I’ve missed it, what with me being perpetually behind on my blog-reading, it seems. Anyway, maybe I’ll talk a bit more about this fabulous publication on Poetry Friday). In this profile of her at TuscaloosaNews.com, she talks about reading children’s books to her daughter and getting discouraged. She also talks about how writing one was the hardest thing she’s ever done, thereby helping fight the prevalent notion that writing for kids must be easy — “I wanted it to be really accessible, almost effortless, to the reader; to get it to feel that way took a lot of effort. I didn’t want it to talk down to the child at all, and I didn’t want it to talk up to the adult either . . . I didn’t want any winks to the adult.” I, for one, am glad she tried her own hand at one. It’s a beguiling thing, this book. “I wanted it to be a book that you might read as a child and remember as an adult,” she said in the aforementioned feature. I think she might have succeeded.

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So, I just made up that title for a new series of sorts, which I also just made up: Illu-
stration Matters (as in, concerning illustration and as in illustration is ever-so important — ah, okay, you get it and I’ll shut up now). This is when I’ll share some illustration(s) from a new picture book I love (with permission from the illustrator and/or publisher, of course) instead of waiting ’til a Sunday feature (or perhaps because our Sunday features are already filled up for a while, but there are too many interesting illustrators whose work I want to show you). Think my Charlotte Voake post from last week. Yeah, that.

This week it’s LeUyen Pham and Valorie Fisher, who have some kickin’ new picture books out.

Anyone else remember when LeUyen stopped by in October and shared a whole slew of illustrations with us? Well, one of the illustrations she shared is from her brand-new picture book, written by Kelly DiPucchio, entitled Grace for President (Hyperion), so here’s that illustration again — since the book was released just yesterday, I believe, and since I’m lucky enough to have an ARC. This also happens to be the spread which Publishers Weekly praises specifically in their review of the book: “. . . {t}he don’t-miss-it picture is at the beginning, of kids looking at a poster containing the presidents’ portraits, all of them rendered to an almost photographic likeness by Pham.”

This title, which Publishers Weekly also called a “well-timed lesson on the electoral system,” is more than just well-timed. With the female African American candidate for school president that is our protagonist, Grace, it’s almost eerie (in a good way), what with Obama and Hillary going at it for their own chance at our country’s presidency. In our October feature, LeUyen told us, “when deciding on how Grace should look, I thought an African American girl sounded ideal, and gave her as much spunk as I could. This, of course, was before Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton decided to run for president — how timely that my candidate is both female and African American!” Read the rest of this entry �

Jules here. Well, it’s been almost one month since my last post for Impossibly Busy Parents, and — for any parents paying attention — I apologize. But here we are with installment number three. If you’re new to this, here’s the idea behind these posts, as I explained it in my last one: I’m going to attempt — as often as my schedule allows — posts in which I round-up seven picture book titles with reviews for the impossibly busy parents of the world. There can’t be any advance-proof reviewing goin’ on in these posts, none of that this-book-is-filthy-cool-but-won’t-come-out-for-three-more-months bit in these posts. I need to line up those titles that are new, yet should be available at your local library — or at least being processed and about to be added to the collection.

Okay, usual spiel done. So, thanks for your patience, and let’s get right to it . . .

This is a puts-the-very-quirk-in-quirky title from Dutch illustrator and animator Sylvia van Ommen, released in 2003 in the Netherlands and released by Front Street Books last year. This wordless picture book opens with a sheep standing on a scale and then measuring her own wool, followed by a trip to the store to purchase some red dye. Using the red dye to dye her own wool, she then shaves it off, takes it to a poodle with a spinning wheel, and then takes the material home to knit a sweater for her pal the giraffe, whose long neck is in need of some covering-up. This is the titular surprise, which unfolds delightfully for the reader via van Ommen’s heavy gouache illustrations, ones you want to reach out and touch. I admit that I wince slightly at each read when the sheep is shaving red wool off her body; the splotches of red dye all over her take my mind to blood, but perhaps van Ommen even intended this. The aforementioned spinning poodle also has a cigarette dangling from her (or his?) mouth, which I hope to the high heavens will not keep it out of school libraries, but — as the Booklist review points out — this is “an element that suggests the book’s European origins . . . and may strike U.S. readers oddly.” In other words, don’t let that cigarette keep you from showing this engaging book to children — but perhaps there will be some giggling about it during story time. At its core, it’s a truly sweet story about the act of giving and of friendship — shoot, even of self-sacrifice with that sheep giving up her very coat for her friend. And with van Ommen’s bright, wordless, uncluttered illustrations, it’s a good choice for discussing story sequencing in the elementary classroom.

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I love love LOVE Charlotte Voake’s picture books. I believe her last one was published in ’06, so it’s exciting to see that she has a brand-spankin’-new one, to be published this Spring. I’m quite fond of the uncluttered design and the open spaces in her art work, the singular, airy world she creates in her mind’s eye. There is an immediate accessibility and free-spirited sense to her finespun watercolor-and-ink work as an artist, and she never pulls the sash on the window to her child readers; her books are terrifically child-centered. I love her “freewheeling calligraphy” and how what she calls her doodling goes “all higgledy-piggledy over the page” (those last two quotes come from here). And who wouldn’t immediately fall in love with Ginger (1997), which won the 1997 Kate Greenaway Medal, and Ginger Finds a Home (2003)? These books are funny, affectionate-without-being-cloying, and captivating in every way.

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