Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

 
It’s the first Sunday of the month, dear Imps, which means I like to turn 7-Imp over to an illustration student. Today, I have Deena So’Oteh, who is originally from Russia and is a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Deena shares many pieces of artwork today and tells us a bit about herself. Let’s get to it. I thank her for visiting.

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Merry Christmas Eve Day, dear Imps!

Today’s image is from author-illustrator Daniel Miyares. Don’t you love it? We don’t have snow like that near Nashville. Not yet. We are just getting a whole lot of rain.

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Today’s illustration is for those of you who, this past week, celebrated the first night of Hanukkah. Also, I always like to see Phoebe Wahl’s artwork. (I was just about to send you all to Phoebe’s shop, which I frequent, but it looks like it’s closed for the holidays. You can always make a note for future shopping, though, because I’m telling you there is such good stuff there.)

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“We wander over to the pond and listen to the drip, drip of the water, the bloop, bloop
of the fish, and the ribbit, ribbit of the frogs.”
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I’ve a review over at BookPage of Christine Rousssey’s My Lazy Cat (Abrams, November 2017). This one is a French import, originally published in 2016.

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

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It’s a pleasure to have illustrator Yinfan Huang visiting today on the first Sunday of the month, when I tend to feature debut illustrators or those who have just graduated from illustration programs. Yinfan was born and raised in China but now lives and works in the U.S.

I am going to hand 7-Imp over to her briefly, because she talks below about her inspirations, work, and much more. Best of all, she shares some art.

I thank her for visiting.

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I’ve got some art today from Barbara McClintock’s The Five Forms (Farrar Straus Giroux), released in October. I had the chance to meet Barbara in person early last year, and I actually saw some original art from this book. I saw her working on it in her home studio, that is, so it’s lovely to hold the book in my hands now.

This is the story of a girl who finds a mysterious book, all about poses in martial arts, on top of a library book-return box on a sidewalk. She takes it home and proceeds to disregard the book’s warning about how the movements of Chinese martial arts which sometimes mimic the postures of animals, or forms, need not be attempted “without an experienced teacher!” She forges ahead anyway, first trying the crane, who starts to grab nearly everything in her room in its beak. Since leopard overpowers crane, she tries the leopard stance, which doesn’t go well either. The leopard and crane tussle. And so it goes, until the room also holds a snake and a dragon. Chaos reigns. Read the rest of this entry �

“Oh—it’s orange!
Red, be bold.”
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I’ve got some spreads today from April Pulley Sayre’s Full of Fall (Beach Lane Books, August 2017). It’s a beautiful book, very fitting for this time of year. I thought of it this week, as I drove down the tree-lined street to my daughters’ school. The fall leaves are pretty stunning at this time of year.

Perfectly paced and cadenced, Sayre’s flowing, rhyming text captures the wonders of autumn with a genuine, infectious wonder. She kicks off the book with a goodbye to summer and welcomes the surging colors of fall, with her focus on the leaves of fall trees. “The forest glows,” Sayre writes, as her detailed nature photos capture the season. The book closes with a welcome to winter, as well as some informational facts about the leaves of autumn. Visually, the book is eye-popping, as Sayre’s photography consistently is. Some spreads feature one photo, while others feature two or three, with unfussy white borders dividing them. All spreads are full-bleed — and glorious.

You won’t want to miss this one. Here are some more spreads. …

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It’s the first Sunday of the month, dear Imps, which means a student illustrator or newly-graduated illustrator here at 7-Imp.

Today, I welcome Yuko Okabe, a recent graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design, who is now pursuing life as an illustrator in Boston. She also works as an artist for Mighteor, and she describes that work below.

Yuko is also currently creating a picture book with a couple of people and is becoming increasingly interested in picture books and children’s books.

I thank her for visiting. Here she is, in her own words . …

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“… cuando conozco a alguien / me sonrojo tímido como / Marte en martes /
when I meet someone new / I turn red like Mars / on Tuesday …”
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If you’re having trouble waking up this morning, today’s illustrations from Maya Christina Gonzalez might just do the trick. I’ve got here today some of her bright, vivid artwork for Francisco X. Alarcón’s Family Poems for Every Day of the Week / Poemas familiares para cada dia de la semana (Children’s Book Press / Lee & Low Books, October 2017).

These are poems, published posthumously (the award-winning Alarcón died last year), celebrating family and community for each day of the week. Evidently, the entries are based on Alarcón’s own childhood experiences with his family. Each entry is published in both Spanish and English, including the fascinating opening author’s note about the days of the week and how their names came about. The book’s playful font and typography keep readers on their toes, and the poems strike various tones. “I can barely open / the shut oysters / of my sleep eyes” on Mondays, Alarcón writes, yet Saturdays are joyous: “I feel thrilled and free / like a hummingbird / in the Garden of Eden.”

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Today, I’ve an original, modern fairy tale for you, dear Imps. I’m featuring a story the creators, sisters Natalia and Lauren O’Hara, describe as “a dark fairy tale, inspired by the stories our Polish grandma told on snowy nights.” Hortense and the Shadow (Little, Brown) will be on shelves early next month.

The protagonist of this lyrical, atmospheric tale (which I think would make Florence Parry Heide proud) is a young girl named Hortense (I love this), and she lives “through the dark and wolfish woods” and “the white and silent snow.” Hortense is kind and brave, but she’s also sad and, to be precise about it, quite frustrated — because she would like to be sans shadow. Everywhere she goes, her shadow goes, “tall and dark and crooked,” and she’s weary of it. She even figures that her shadow hates her too. One day, she manages to cleave her shadow via slamming down the sash of a window. The shadow puts up a fight but eventually wanders off in the dusk. Read the rest of this entry �