Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“A giant the size of a palm tree lumbered in. His teeth were boar tusks, his blubbery lips flopped against his chest, his eyes burned like torches, his nails curled into lion claws. He picked me up and felt me like a butcher feels a lamb. …”

 
Last week, I chatted here with Donna Jo Napoli about her new book, Tales From the Arabian Nights (National Geographic, October 2016), illustrated by Christina Balit. Here today is a bit of art from the book.

Enjoy!

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Illustration for The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, 1903
(Click to enlarge)

 
Here’s a quick post to remind you that it’s still a good time to be a Beatrix Potter fan, as the world celebrates her 150th birthday this year. One of the best ways to celebrate it, I’ve found, is by reading The Art of Beatrix Potter: Sketches, Paintings, and Illustrations, released by Chronicle last month.

What a treat this book is! It features a whole heapin’ lot (to be precise) of her artwork—per the publisher, there are over 200 pieces of artwork here—and includes rare pieces, such as sketches from her notebooks, watercolors, unpublished works (even greeting cards), illustrated letters she sent, handwritten notes/drafts, pen-and-ink studies, and much more. Organized geographically (London and the South Coast; Scotland; The Lake District; Wales and Beyond), it is packed with information and art — information about her life and her inspirations. The text is from author, editor, and image researcher Emily Zach. There’s a foreword by Steven Heller, who teaches at the School of Visual Arts. Linda Lear, who previously wrote a biography of Potter, writes the introduction. And Scottish illustrator and painter Eleanor Taylor writes a reverent afterword. Her words stick with me: Read the rest of this entry �

“The river’s soil nurtured a garden where Louise and her family grew geraniums, peonies, asparagus, and cherry trees; apples and pears, purple tamarisk,
pink hawthorn, and sweet-smelling honeysuckle.
Along its banks, her father planted poplars.”
(Click to enlarge spread)

 
I’ve got some spreads today from Amy Novesky’s superb March picture book, Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois (Abrams), illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault. This is an exquisite biography of Bourgeois, the French-American artist known for her sculpture and installation art.

The book opens with Louise as a young girl and places a particular emphasis on her close relationship with her mother, who restored tapestries and actively taught young Louise about the repair of fabrics and about “form and color and the various styles of textiles.” Novesky likens Louise’s mother to a spider, quoting Bourgeois who once said about her mother: “Deliberate … patient, soothing … subtle, indispensable … and as useful as an araignée.” The author also uses the river near Louise’s chilhood home as a theme in the book as well: “The river provided flowers and fruit, a lullaby, and a livelihood.” Read the rest of this entry �

 
Today over at Kirkus, I’ve got resistance on the mind. That is here.

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Last week, I wrote here about Otto and the Secret Light of Christmas (Floris, September 2016), written by Nora Surojegin and illustrated by Pirkko-Liisa Surojegin. Today, I have a few illustrations here from the book.

Enjoy.

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“The tales come in so many different forms, and they deal with so many different topics. It was exceedingly difficult to choose just a few and still do justice to the sources. I wanted to give the reader a sense of the intricate and decorative nature of the structure of the whole, as well as an appreciation of the breadth of genres. But even more important than that was to select stories by the nature of what they would mean to Shah Rayar and how they could help him and Scheherazade expose their souls to one another.”

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Today over at Kirkus I talk with the one, the only Donna Jo Napoli, where we discuss her new book, Tales From the Arabian Nights (National Geographic, October 2016), illustrated by Christina Balit.

That Q&A is here today. Next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll have some illustrations from the book.

(P.S. One of my favorite parts of this Q&A? “David Wiesner and I have made a graphic novel, a first for both of us, called Fish Girl.”)

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Photo of Donna Jo used by her permission.

 
It’s the first Sunday of the month, which means the work of a student or debut illustrator here at 7-Imp. Today, I have some spreads from British illustrator Sophie Ambrose’s debut picture book, The Lonely Giant (Candlewick, December 2016). In fact, the book may not even be out quite yet; I think it publishes in mid-December.

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“The light gets reflected on freshly fallen snow.”
(Click to enlarge spread)

 
Today over at Kirkus, I’ve got a holiday Finnish import on the mind. That is here.

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Last week, I wrote here about Hawksley Workman’s Almost a Full Moon (Tundra, September 2016), illustrated by debut picture book artist Jensine Eckwall. Below are some more spreads from the book.

Enjoy!

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Because my family and I moved to a new house in the middle of this year and since moving is so time-consuming, it left a huge dent in my 2016 novel-reading. I’m trying to get caught up now on what I’ve read are some of the best middle-grade and YA novels of the year. However, one book I did read-aloud to my children, even in the midst of our move, was Adam Gidwitz’s The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog (Dutton, September 2016), illuminated by Hatem Aly. And we all three enjoyed this tale of . . . well, I like best how it’s described at the New York Times, Soman Chainani calling it “equal parts swashbuckling epic, medieval morality play, religious polemic and bawdy burlesque.”

As you read above, the book is illuminated. That’s right. Illuminated, as medieval texts are. These images are from Hatem Aly, who visits 7-Imp today to share sketches and images and talk about this book. As Gidwitz says in the book’s opening: Read the rest of this entry �

“With the axe, they smashed the carriage wheels.”
— From The Three Robbers, originally published in German in 1963
(Click to enlarge)

 
After it arrived in my mailbox, I may have walked around my living room hugging the book I’m featuring in today’s post. I did. I hugged it hard.

But it’s that good. It is Tomi Ungerer: A Treasury of 8 Books, released last month from Phaidon Press. Included here, as the title tells you, are eight of his previously-released picture books, nestled inside a slipcase, including three well-known titles (The Three Robbers, Moon Man, and Otto); Fog Island, released as recently as 2013 (originally released in 2012 in Germany); and what the publisher calls “lost gems,” which includes some stories being published in this collection for the first time in 50 years — Zeralda’s Ogre, Flix, The Hat, and Emile. All of the stories in this tall collection, which range in publication from 1963 (The Three Robbers) to 2012 (Fog Island), are gloriously reproduced here. Read the rest of this entry �

 
This morning over at Kirkus, I’ve got a picture book about family and friends (and one magic girl) gathering around the table to give thanks — and I bet politics never once comes up. That is here.

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Last week, I wrote here about Emily Dickinson (MoonDance Press, December 2016), edited by Susan Snively and illustrated by Christine Davenier. Here at 7-Imp today are some illustrations from the book.

Enjoy!

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