Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“We keep our fire safe in a playpen / where we feed it,
mostly leftovers from the woods …”
(Click illustration to read the poem, “Fireplace,” in its entirety)

 
Dear Imps, pull up your cyber-chairs (and bring your best coffee and favorite breakfast dishes) to read about this poetry collection from award-winning poets Ted Kooser (former U.S. Poet Laureate) and Connie Wanek. They joined forces for Marshmallow Clouds: Two Poets at Play among Figures of Speech (Candlewick, March 2022), illustrated by Richard Jones, and the results are immensely satisfying. “The poems in this book,” Kooser writes, “are about fooling around, about letting one’s imagination run free with whatever it comes upon.” Adds Wanek: “[I]t’s fun to listen for voices from unexpected places.”

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“WE WILL demand that everything we buy has a label that details its impact on Nature, People, and Planet. That way, we can choose to buy products
that help Nature, not hurt it.”
(Click image, illustrated by Musa Omusi, to enlarge)

 
Dear Imps, I’m typing this on Thursday, because my Friday and my weekend will be largely consumed with the 14th IBBY Regional 2022 conference in Nashville. IBBY is the Interational Board on Books for Young People, and I’m looking forward to the (masked and vaxxed!) gathering of people coming to this conference. (You can read more about it here.) I’m also looking forward to moderating Saturday’s panel discussion about international children’s books, a conversation with Angus Killick of Red Comet Press; Christopher Lloyd of What on Earth Books; John Mackey of the Publishing Task Force of the Italian Trade Agency; and Emma Radditz of Elsewhere Editions.

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“When she became an adult, Kip practiced the lessons
she learned in her grandmother’s kitchen. …”
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)

 
Growing up during the Great Depression, Kip Tiernan lived with her grandmother and watched as she gave food to whoever knocked on her kitchen door, despite having plenty of people to feed in her own home. “I don’t have to know them to know that they’re hungry,” she told Kip. “We’re a lot better off than the people who come to our door.” Kip, as an adult, carried these lessons with her and opened the first homeless shelter for women in the U.S., Rosie’s Place. Author Christine McDonell and illustrator Victoria Tentler-Krylov bring Kip’s story to life in Sanctuary: Kip Tiernan and Rosie’s Place, the Nation’s First Shelter for Women (Candlewick, March 2022).

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(Click spread to enlarge)

 
I’ve a review over at BookPage of Mac Barnett’s John’s Turn (Candlewick, March 2022), illustrated by Kate Berube. This one soars (bad pun not intended).

Here’s the review, and below are some spreads.

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Alain Serge Dzotap, the award-winning author of The Gift (Eerdmans, February 2022), is a Cameroonian children’s book author and poet with a publishing house called Les Bruits de l’encre. Born in Bafoussam, he regularly promotes literacy in Cameroon by visiting schools and conducting workshops. This book, originally published in France and illustrated by French illustrator and graphic designer Delphine Renon, is Dzotap’s first book published in English.

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“ONCE UPON A TIME … on the shortest street with the longest name
in the biggest palace with the HUGEST throne …”
(Click spread to enlarge)

 
Just look at this castle, which can only come from the singular paintbrush of Rowboat Watkins. It is the first spread of Sally Lloyd-Jones’s Tiny Cedric (Anne Schwartz Books, February 2022).

This palace is the home of the “tiniest king,” whose name is Cedric, King ME the First. It’s the biggest possible palace with the “HUGEST throne,” and it sits on “the shortest street with the longest name.” (And since it’s hard to see the name of this road, given the size of that image, it’s: Don’t Even Think of Turning Here Because You Are So Absolutely Not Invited Boulevard.)

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There are lots of picture books about death and lots about the death of a pet, but please make way for this one — Rodney Was a Tortoise (Tundra, February 2022), written by Nan Forler and illustrated by Yong Ling Kang. Because it is honest in every way and conveys tremendous respect for children.

“Day after day, year after year, Rodney was there, loyal and true.” Rodney is Bernadette’s very old pet tortoise. They play games together (even if Bernadette must regularly take Rodney’s turns); have staring contests; play dress-up together; have snacks together; and share stories. They always have fun together: Bernadette is just sure that she can sometimes catch Rodney smiling. (Mind you, he is never anthropomorphized, though Yong Ling Kang may give him a slight smile or two.) It is clear that Bernadette loves him very much.

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Want to see a beautiful new intergenerational picture book from Pura Belpré Award winner Ruth Behar and illustrator Devon Holzwarth? Tía Fortuna’s New Home: A Jewish Cuban Journey (Knopf) will be on shelves next week, and it tells the tender story of a girl named Estrella who learns about Sephardic Jewish culture from her aunt. Tía Fortuna — who, as a child, had to flee her home in Havana — must now leave her home near the sea in Miami; bulldozers are on their way to tear down the Seaway and construct a “fancy hotel.”

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Claire — the narrator of Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s Snow Angel, Sand Angel (Make Me a World, January 2022), illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky — lives in Hawai’i and is dismayed when, for a school project, she must make a diorama about winter. “I’ve never even seen real snow!” she thinks. This is a sore point for her; she longs to experience winter and play in the snow. So she’s delighted when her father tells her he’ll show her and her brother, Timbo, some snow up on Mauna Kea, “the top of the tallest mountain in the world, if you measure from seafloor to summit.”

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(Click cover to enlarge)

 
Look at that! 7-Imp is having it’s 777th week of 7 kicks! This week of special numbers snuck up on me.

I can’t let 2021 fade away without mentioning Phoebe Wahl’s Little Witch Hazel here at 7-Imp, which was released last fall (Tundra Books). I love this book fiercely. Over at Calling Caldecott last week, guest poster Lisa Meidl wrote about it, and I’ll send you there if you want to read more. It is such a magnificent book, and I hope we get to read even more one day about this character and her world. Read the rest of this entry �