Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“‘And wonderful!’ added their mother.
She wrapped Joey in a hug.”

 
Over at BookPage, I’ve got a review of Candace Fleming’s The Amazing Collection of Joey Cornell (Schwartz & Wade, February 2018), illustrated by Gérard DuBois. That is here, if you’re so inclined to read about it, and here at 7-Imp today, I’ve got some spreads from the book.

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Early sketch and final art
(Click each to enlarge)

 
Do you all remember, back in 2013, when Phoebe Wahl visited 7-Imp as an an “up-and-coming illustrator”? I’m happy to be writing here today about her second picture book, Backyard Fairies (Knopf, March 2018). I love to see her artwork, and this book is a delight.

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I may have said this a thousand times before here at 7-Imp, but I love the work of illustrator Charlotte Voake.

Her newest picture book is Chris Butterworth’s The Things That I Love About Trees (Candlewick, February 2018). Here, Butterworth pays tribute to trees through the seasons, beginning with Spring. We see a young girl leave her home (I love that it’s an apartment complex — she may not have her own yard, but one can always seek out trees) and head out with her cat — or at least a neighborhood cat — to explore.

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“Mamas call. Vini! Come!
We play on.”

 
It’s a pleasure to have a visit today from illustrator Jacqueline Alcántara, who lives and works in Chicago. Her first picture book, The Field (NorthSouth Books, March 2018) — written by Baptiste Paul (this is also his debut), who was born and raised in the West Indies — is about an exuberant game of futbol (soccer). Everyone splits into teams of “friends versus friends” to play, even powering through a tropical rainstorm. (Mud doesn’t stop them.) Baptiste bases the story on his experiences growing up in Saint Lucia and peppers the text with Creole words, as spoken in Saint Lucia.

Before illustrating, Jacqueline taught high school art and photography. She won the inaugural We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) Illustration Mentorhsip Award, as well as the WNDB Walter Grant. Below, she shares some process images, as well as a bit of final artwork, from the book and also talks about her other work in the field of illustration.

I thank her for visiting. Let’s get right to it.

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“These are the NESTLINGS, tufted and pink, that cracked the eggs, brittle and blue, that lay on the grass, fresh and sweet, that cushions the weeds, dotted with seeds, that bind the mud, soft not soupy, that plasters the straw, rough and tough, that covers the string, long and strong, that wraps round the twigs, not too big,
that anchor the nest that Robin built.”
(Click to enlarge spread)

 
I’ve some art today from Denise Fleming’s new picture book, This Is the Nest That Robin Built (Beach Lane, March 2018). This is what the Kirkus review calls an “avian revision of a classic rhyme,” and that would be “This Is the House That Jack Built,” the popular cumulative rhyme. Here we meet the animals — squirrel, dog, horse, pig, mouse, and more — who, in one way or another, contribute to a nest (made of twigs, string, straw, mud, weeds, and grass) that a robin builds for her fledglings. The narrative’s structure is a cumulative one, just like the classic rhyme upon which it’s based, and these full-bleed spreads, which includes a gatefold towards the end, put readers right in front of the action. We are up close with these creatures, all the better to see the bold colors and textures of Fleming’s artwork. “After 28 years of paper-making,” she told me, “I decided to try a new medium. I make monoprints (using a gelatin plate) with texture and color and then cut up the prints and collage the bits and pieces. … I also use foam printing in the illustrations.” She says she will soon make a process video, which I look forward to seeing. Read the rest of this entry �

“And she did.”
(Click to enlarge spread, which is sans text)

 
“Ruby’s mind was always full of ideas,” opens Brenda Maier’s The Little Red Fort (Scholastic), illustrated by Sonia Sánchez. In a story whose framework follows that of the classic folk tale The Little Red Hen, we read as Ruby asks for her brothers’ help to build a fort in their backyard. But when she’s met with a series of repeated rejections, she forges ahead, building it all by herself. She learns how to do it; she draws up her own plans; she gathers her supplies; she cuts the boards for the fort; and she hammers and builds. (She gets some help from her mother, who knows her own way around a set of tools, as well as her grandmother.) The result is a pretty rad fort.

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City Hidden Behind Clouds — Baucis
— From Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities
(Click to enlarge)

 
It’s a pleasure to have a visit today from New York-based illustrator Shreya Gupta. As you will read below, she is has done a great deal of editorial illustration but is also currently working on her first children’s book.

I’m going to hand 7-Imp over to her so that she can share more of her art and tell us more about herself.

I thank her for visiting. . . .

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“The word parade is about to begin ….”
(Click to enlarge)

 
Happy Sunday to all! I’ve got a review at BookPage of Judy Sierra’s The Great Dictionary Caper (Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster, January 2018), illustrated by Eric Comstock.

That is here at BookPage, and today at 7-Imp I’ve got some spreads from the book.

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Over at BookPage, I’ve got a review of Cynthia Grady’s Write to Me: Letters from Japanese American Children to the Librarian They Left Behind (Charlesbridge, January 2018), illustrated by Amiko Hirao.

That review is here, and today I’m following up with some spreads from the book.

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I’ve some spreads today from Kathleen Krull’s One Fun Day with Lewis Carroll: A Celebration of Wordplay and a Girl Named Alice (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, January 2018), illustrated by Júlia Sardà. In this book, which puts a fine-tune focus on Carroll’s creative abilities with language and his sense of adventure, we meet him as a young man, his ten brothers and sisters in tow. They adored him, Krull writes, and he led them on outings, played games with them, and made up stories for them. Krull emphasizes his sense of fun, even after he grew “into a prim and proper Victorian gentleman.”

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