Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“I could get in some laughs with inside toys —
cars and games that bring much joy.”
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I know I’ve said here before at 7-Imp that my favorite thing about Instagram is the feed of artist and illustrator Charly Palmer (whom I got to interview back in 2017). If you missed his recent cover art for Time, see it here. Magnificent.

So, I was happy to see he’d illustrated a new picture book that, somehow, I missed back in May but finally read this past week. My Rainy Day Rocket Ship, written by Markette Sheppard, is the story of a boy who must play inside on a rainy day — and decides to take his imaginative play to the next level.

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It’s my pleasure to share some spreads today from Tessa McWatt’s Where Are You, Agnes? (Groundwood), illustrated by Zuzanna Celej and coming to shelves in early August. This is McWatt’s picture book debut, and it’s a deeply contemplative, thoughtfully-executed story.

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An early study of Ernestine and her father
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Ernestine has been invited to go camping at Cedar Tree Campground with her Aunt Jackie and her cousin Samantha. She’s excited, though a bit worried her father might miss her too much. It’s her first camping trip. What can she do when she wakes in the middle of the night, scared and ready to go back home?

This is the newest picture book from Jennifer K. Mann, The Camping Trip (Candlewick, April 2020), and it’s another satisfying, well-executed tale from her about children’s everyday anxieties and how they overcome them. Bonus: This one has s’mores!

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Today’s featured picture book is from Estonian author Piret Raud, a book first published in France in 2016. Coming to shelves this August, Ellie’s Voice: or Trööömmmpffff was translated from Estonian by Adam Cullen and comes from Yonder, an imprint of Restless Books.

Ellie the bird is puzzled and sad to have no voice, especially when everyone and everything around her does: “The trees rustle. The waves crash. Even the rain sings when it falls.” When a trumpet washes ashore, Ellie is thrilled to create sounds with it, even if those sounds are awfully strange.

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“But before long, it was winter again. I knew the moment he returned. I could feel it.
The earth trembled. My friend was back!”
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I’ve some spreads today from Gaya Wisniewski’s My Bison (Princeton Architectural Press, March 2020). Wisniewski is a Belgian illustrator, now living in France, and this is her first book in English. It was first published in France in 2018.

“The first time I saw him, it was springtime.” A girl in her mother’s arms spots a bison, and daily she returns to the place she first met him. She befriends him, even bringing him food. The bison regularly leaves the forest where they play — “How lonely it was without him,” we read in the gir’s tenderhearted, first-person voice — but returns in the winters.

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I’ve got a review over at the Horn Book of Antoinette Portis’s A New Green Day (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, April 2020). That review is here.

Below, I’ve some pages from the book. If you read the review, you’ll see that the recto of each spread presents a riddle and the verso, the answer. Three examples of that are presented here, though I highly recommend you find a copy of the book, if possible, to hold in your hands. The page turns are compelling.

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“Your big dark eyes take in the world.
Will you be curious, like your uncle …”
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Today, I’ve got some spreads from Andrea Pippins’s Who Will You Be?, released back in April by Schwartz & Wade, in which a parent wonders who her child will grow up to be.

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“Lightning gash! Windy lash!”
— From Susan Vaught’s Together We Grow, illustrated by Kelly Murphy
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“Where do you go when the sky turns gray —
When the grasses bend and the treetops sway?”
— From Linda Ashman’s When the Storm Comes, illustrated by Taeeun Yoo
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Today, BookPage has a piece I wrote about two new picture books all about sheltering from a storm — Susan Vaught’s Together We Grow (Simon & Schuster, May 2020), illustrated by Kelly Murphy, and Linda Ashman’s When the Storm Comes (Nancy Paulsen Books, May 2020), illustrated by Taeeun Yoo.

That is over here at BookPage’s site, and here today at 7-Imp are some spreads from each book.

Enjoy!

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If you are familiar with the book Saturday, written and illustrated by Oge Mora, you’ll recognize the characters in this image above. It’s Ava and her mother, the unforgettable duo of the story. Oge posted this image on Instagram recently, and she wrote: “Um…look what rockstar librarian @lizzeppelinii made!! Bout passed out when I saw it. SO COOL.” The librarian’s name is Liz Braithwaite, and she’s a children’s librarian in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She also sewed Pokko! I’m in love.

I’m sharing this, because on May 27 the winners of the 2020 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards were announced, and Saturday won in the Picture Book category. I always look forward every summer to the announcement of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winners, but I’m feeling especially celebratory this year, because I had the pleasure of chairing this year’s awards with fellow judges Sujei Lugo and Leo Landry. Last Sunday, I had wanted to do a bit of celebrating of the winners, but I posted something else instead. But here’s some celebrating at 7-Imp today — a short something about each book. Come October, they will all be celebrated at the Horn Book’s (online) awards ceremony. Details on that later. Read the rest of this entry �

“… It feels hard to explain, but Zura wants to try. She swallows and takes a deep breath. ‘What if someone at school laughs at you or acts mean?’ she asks quietly.”
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It’s Circle Time in Zura’s classroom when her teacher, Mr. Dawson, announces that soon the class will celebrate Grandparents Day, during which students’ grandparents will visit the classroom to share “what makes them special.” Zura is apprehensive, because though her Nana Akua is her “favorite person in the whole universe,” Nana Akua has facial markings that “never wash off and never go away.” Zura worries her beloved grandmother will be mocked when she visits the classroom.

The facial markings are an African tradition, designating Nana Akua’s tribal family. Having grown up in Ghana and as she explains to Zura’s classmates on the day she visits … Read the rest of this entry �