Archive for the '7-Imp’s 7 Kicks' Category

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #797: Featuring Ellen Heck

h1 Sunday, June 5th, 2022


(Click image to see spread in its entirety)


 
There’s no shortage of alphabet picture books, but be sure to make way for the distinctive and dynamic A is for Bee: An Alphabet Book in Translation (Levine Querido, June 2022) from Ellen Heck. It’s a book that (per the author’s bio) was inspired by Heck reading Lithuanian alphabet books to her son.

Read the rest of this entry �

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #796: Featuring Juana Medina

h1 Sunday, May 29th, 2022



 
I have sat here a long time, trying to figure out how to start this post. I had planned on writing about a book, as usual, but I decided instead to share this image from author-illustrator Juana Medinashared earlier this week on Instagram with the note: “Enough.”

Read the rest of this entry �

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #795: Featuring Wanda Gág

h1 Sunday, May 22nd, 2022


(Click to enlarge)


 
The great and groundbreaking picture book artist Wanda Gág published The ABC Bunny in 1933, and it went on to win a Newbery Honor the following year. It’s an alphabet book, and it includes hand-lettering by Gág’s brother. Also, music for the text (“ABC Song”) is included in the back of the book in the form of a score. This was composed by Gág’s sister. Clearly, it was a family affair.

Last month, the University of Minnesota Press — Gág was a Minnesotan from an immigrant family — released a board book edition of the book. Though many picture books don’t translate well to board book form, I think this one works.

Read the rest of this entry �

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #794: Featuring Matthew Cordell

h1 Sunday, May 15th, 2022



 
I’m sending you to the Horn Book today to read, if you’re so inclined, my review of Philip Stead’s Every Dog in the Neighborhood (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House), illustrated by Matthew Cordell and arriving on shelves in June. Here’s the review. This is, hands down, one of my favorite picture books thus far this year.

And then, if you’re so inclined again, you can look below to see some spreads.

Read the rest of this entry �

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #793: Featuring
The Art of Alice & Martin Provensen
and The Provensen Book of Fairy Tales

h1 Sunday, May 8th, 2022


Martin and Alice Provensen
(Click image to enlarge)


 
I’m goin’ vintage today, you all. If you are fond of reading about picture books, illustration, the history of children’s literature, and (especially) the work of illustrators Alice and Martin Provensen (pictured above), I have two books here at 7-Imp today that will certainly pique your interest — each superb, spectacularly detailed, and lovingly designed.

Read the rest of this entry �

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #792: Featuring Laura Dronzek

h1 Sunday, April 24th, 2022


“I’d like to know what a pelican thinks of a sandpiper …”


 
“When I visit my grandparents at the beach, we stay in a little house. It is so close to the water, you can hear the waves.” This is the voice of the protagonist of Kevin Henkes’s Little Houses (Greenwillow, May 2022), illustrated by Laura Dronzek. She runs up and down the shore, explores shells, and wonders about the ocean — its surface (“how it can be blue and gray and green and silver and white and black, all at the same time”) and what’s underneath (“fish as big as cars”). She’s particularly fascinated by the shells, what her grandmother describes as “little houses.”

Read the rest of this entry �

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #791: Featuring Paloma Valdivia

h1 Sunday, April 17th, 2022


“What do you call a flower that flits from bird to bird?
Cómo se llama una flor que vuela de pájaro en pájaro?”

(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)


 
Today, let’s enter the world of Pablo Neruda, as brought to us by illustrator Paloma Valdivia, translator Sara Lissa Paulson, and the team at Enchanted Lion Books. Book of Questions: Selections/Libro de las preguntas: Selecciones, on shelves this month, is presented in both English and Spanish.

Read the rest of this entry �

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #790: Featuring Doug Salati

h1 Sunday, April 10th, 2022


Doug Salati’s Hot Dog (Knopf), his first book as an author-illustrator, will be on shelves in May. And you’ll really want to find a copy of this brilliantly constructed story of one dog’s (and human’s) escape to the sea.

Read the rest of this entry �

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #789: Featuring Yevgenia Nayberg

h1 Sunday, April 3rd, 2022


(Click spread to enlarge)


 
“In Ukraine,” writes Yevgenia Nayberg in her new picture book I Hate Borsch!! (Eerdmans, April 2022), “you were supposed to love borsch from the first moment you picked up the vegetables.” But as a child, Yevgenia hated borsch. In this very funny — and ultimately touching — story, she learns to appreciate it after she discovers that “there was something missing” in American food.

Read the rest of this entry �

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #787: Featuring Barbara Chotiner

h1 Sunday, March 20th, 2022


“Spring arrived. The snow melted. …”
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)


 
This past week, the Horn Book posted “Picture books for National Poetry Month 2022” at their site. It’s a great round-up, and in that list is a book I reviewed for them — the playful Moving Words About a Flower (Charlesbridge, March 2022), written by K.C. Hayes and illustrated by Barbara Chotiner. If you’d like to read about it, that review is here (along with some other wonderful picture books). Here today at 7-Imp are some spreads.

Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry �