Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

 
Here’s a post to showcase a couple of spreads from Jonah Winter’s Mother Jones and Her Army of Mill Children (Schwartz & Wade, February 2020), illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. Winter doesn’t approach this story in a traditional picture-book-bio kind of way. That is, we don’t start with the birth of Mary Harris, a.k.a. Mother Jones, and end with her death. Instead, Winter kicks things off with Mother Jones in the midst of her fervent anger: “My name is Mother Jones, and I’m MAD. And you’d be MAD, too, if you’d seen what I’ve seen.”

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It wasn’t that long ago that I was telling you all about a new picture book from Anne Hunter (in this February post). I do love her work, and she has illustrated another new book. This one, The Nest That Wren Built (Candlewick, March 2020), is by Randi Sonenshine. I reviewed it for BookPage, so if you’d like to read more about it, that is here.

And here at 7-Imp today are a few spreads from the book.

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It’s early morning in suburbia. Father and child wake, pack the jeep, and head to the mountains. They hike, explore nature, play, snack, mountain-climb, and even plant a tree. When they’re done, they record it all in the family photo album. This is the story of Pete Oswald’s Hike (Candlewick, March 2020), and it’s a (mostly) wordless ode to not only the outdoors but to the parent-child bond.

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Colin Meloy’s new picture book, Everyone’s Awake (Chronicle, March 2020), is a wild ride. To say the least. Illustrated by Shawn Harris, it’s an exhilarating and joyous and downright anarchic adventure.

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I read just this morning about a well-reviewed book about sex, aimed at children and written by a sex educator, causing all kinds of controversy at a Massachusetts school. To be clear, I haven’t read that particular book, but generally speaking these kinds of stories bum me out. Children deserve, for many reasons, straight-up talk about their changing bodies, sex, and gender identity, and at least here in the South, I find that many adults would just like to pretend students don’t have curiosity about these things all. (What passes for sex education here is pretty dismal.)

That’s one reason I was happy to read Tell Me: What Children Really Want to Know about Bodies, Sex and Emotions (Gecko), a German import (originally published in 2014 and translated by Shelley Tanaka) now on shelves here in the U.S. It is written by Katharina von der Gathen and illustrated by Anke Kuhl. And it is a breath of fresh air. Read the rest of this entry �

I reviewed this one for BookPage — that review is here, if you’d like to read about the book — and below are more peeks into Selina’s sketchbook, a look at some early sketches, and a couple of final spreads from the book. I thank Selina for sharing.

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That review is here, and pictured below is a bit more art from the book.

Enjoy!

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It’s the first Sunday of the month (happy March!), which means it’s time to feature a student or debut illustrator here at 7-Imp. Today, I welcome Hanna Cha, whose debut picture book — Tiny Feet Between the Mountains (Simon & Schuster) — was released last Fall. (Pictured above is the book’s title page illustration.)

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How about this beautiful cover? (You can click on it to see a larger version.)

I promise not to go on and on (and on) about the picture book I’m featuring today. It’s a wordless book, and if you can manage to find a copy, it’s best you experience it for yourself anyway. It’s from Geraldo Valério, born in Brazil and now living in Toronto. At the Pond (Groundwood) is a visual feast, as you can see from the three spreads below; find the nearest preschooler and make their day with this one. It should be on shelves next week.

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Julie Fogliano’s newest picture book, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, is coming to shelves in early March (Atheneum). It’s called My Best Friend, and I hate to even use those initial caps in the title there, because the book has nary a capital letter in it (including in the bios on the jacket flap). The use of all lowercase letters is but one of the ways you are ushered into the world of this book, one where small people rule. Though their exuberance is anything but tiny, they are. They are preschool-aged, it’s safe to say (though they could perhaps be older toddlers). Either way, it’s two young girls, who play outdoors near what appears to be a playground.

I may as well tell you about the book’s fabulous twist ending (picture-book spoiler alert ahead) so that I can talk about it …

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