Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

(Click to enlarge cover)

 
I’m doing something a little bit different today and sending you over to the Horn Book. I reviewed Grace Lin’s A Big Mooncake for Little Star (Little, Brown, August 2018), one of my very tip-top favorite picture books thus far this year. (I said that on Friday, too, about this book, but they are both top-five favorites for me.)

The review is up at their site here.

And how about that cover art up there?

Read the rest of this entry �

From “First Footing: Hogmanay (Scotland)” —
“Midnight! And the bells are ringing! …”
(Click to enlarge spread)

 
Here’s a new poetry collection, dear Imps, all about various holidays around the world that celebrate the mark of a new year — Every Month Is a New Year: Celebrations Around the World (Lee & Low Books, May 2018). Though in the U.S. we celebrate in January, many other countries don’t. Here, the acclaimed poet Marilyn Singer shares sixteen new year celebrations all over the globe, both religious and secular, and they are accompanied by Susan L. Roth’s eye-popping mixed-media collage illustrations.

Read the rest of this entry �

(Click to enlarge)

 
I got a neat surprise from illustrator Jamie Hogan recently, and I’m sharing it here today. (Fun Fact: Jamie first visited 7-Imp back here, over a decade ago, when the kicks tradition was only 17 weeks old. Whoa. And Eisha was blogging with me. AND images were tragically tiny and so poorly aligned that it makes my heart cry a little. Jamie also visited here in 2013.)

Anywhoozles. Jamie has created an illustration for a Portland (Maine) Public Library exhibit of panel art, and her illustration is inspired by 7-Imp. I mean, right?! The image is above, and in this post, you can read more about it (she references seven things happening at this library, which she describes as a “hub of activity”). You can also read more about the library art show at that link.

Thank you, Jamie! This is specialness.

Read the rest of this entry �

“Possum climbed down. A chipmunk hopped by. ‘Where’s your brush pile?’ she squeaked. ‘Gone,’ sighed Possum, ‘washed away.’ ‘Oh! Bad luck,’ the chipmunk sympathized.
‘I could help you dig a new home,’ she offered. ‘Dig?’ he asked. ‘Yes, you know,’ she said. ‘We’ll dig a bedroom, bathroom, larder …’ Possum’s eyes widened.
‘Yes,’ said Possum. ‘That sounds very nice.'”
(Click to enlarge spread, which is sans art)

 
Today, author-illustrator Anne Hunter visits 7-Imp again (she also visited early last year and, in fact, gave a sneak-peek at this book back then) to share some preliminary images and final art from Possum and the Summer Storm (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 2018). This is the story of Possum and his family, finding themselves homeless after a thunderstorm. There’s not a brush pile in sight after the heavy winds and rains. “Don’t worry, children,” Possum says. “We’ll find a new home.”

Read the rest of this entry �

“With Dad by my side,
there’s nothing we can’t do.”

 
In honor of Father’s Day, here’s a peek inside Dad By My Side (Little, Brown, May 2018), written and illustrated by Soosh. Soosh is a self-taught artist from Europe (from a “country that doesn’t exist anymore,” she writes in the book’s closing author’s note), and this is her debut picture book.

This is a series of illustrations of a young girl and her father, spending their days together — the girl noting the many ways in which her father makes her feel safe and comforted. Soosh creates the girl’s father as “deliberately big,” she writes in that same author’s note …

“… much bigger than the figure of the little girl, his daughter, because this is how she sees him — and this is how many of us see our heroes or parents (which, if we are lucky, are the same thing). His beard makes me think of something ancient, strong, solid. He is someone who is there just because: to love you without any reason, unconditionally and forever. …”

Read the rest of this entry �

 
I’m taking a Sunday to point 7-Imp readers to the Horn Book’s Calling Caldecott, where since March of this year, we’ve been checking in monthly to talk about some of the outstanding picture books we’ve seen this year, ones that maybe — perhaps and who knows and we can’t read minds, after all — the current Caldecott committee members are taking notice of.

Calling Caldecott is here. Pictured above is one of my favorite picture books this year, which we included in this week’s post (and which I reviewed for the Horn Book’s March/April 2018 issue).

In fall of this year, we’ll have more regular posts, discussing books individually as we look ahead to the 2019 award.

Read the rest of this entry �

It’s the first Sunday of the month, which means I’ve got the work of a student or debut illustrator here at 7-Imp. Today, it’s the latter, an illustrator and animator named Cat Min, who recently signed with an agent and is working on her debut picture book.

Cat is here to tell us a bit about herself, as well as share some artwork. I thank her for visiting. Let’s get right to it. (And if you want to see even more of her artwork, you can find her on Instagram at: thecatpark.)

Read the rest of this entry �

“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.”
(Click to enlarge)

 
I’ve a review over at BookPage of Elly MacKay’s Red Sky at Night (Tundra, May 2018). That is here.

Today at 7-Imp, I’ve got some of MacKay’s paper dioramas from the book.

Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry �

“Every evening, sitting in his armchair, Fox likes to leaf through old botany books,
looking for the next new plant to add to his collection.”

 
I wrote a review for BookPage of a picture book originally published in French last year — Benjamin Flouw’s The Golden Glow (Tundra, May 2018). That review is here.

I’m following up with some art from the book today. . . .

Read the rest of this entry �

“‘Sun,’ said Big Momma, ‘you take care of this day business for me.'”
(Click to enlarge)

 
I’m featuring one spread today from an older picture book, one of my very favorites of all-time — Phyllis Root’s Big Momma Makes the World, published in 2002 and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. This is in honor of Mother’s Day.

If you’ve never read the book, be sure to click on the image above to see the goodness inside — and be sure to find a copy and experience it. It is spectacular in many directions.

Read the rest of this entry �