Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“It’s got bright, waving things attached to it like huge kites. It’s got colors.
It’s got sound. It’s got, it’s got—WHEELS!”
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I’ve got a review over at BookPage (here) of Linda Sarah’s Big Friends (Henry Holt, January 2016), illustrated by Benji Davies and first published in the UK in 2014 as On Sudden Hill. And you all know I get twitchy when writing about picture books but not sharing art from the insides of them, so here today are a few spreads from the book.

And here’s my March 2015 interview with Benji, if you want to see lots more art.

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“Jack reached a hill and climbed to the top. No perfect trees were there.
He climbed down the other side. Nothing.
The perfect tree was really very hard to find.”
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I’ve got a review here over at BookPage of Chloe Bonfield’s The Perfect Tree (Running Press, January 2016). This is the debut book for Bonfield, who lives in London. I’m following up that review today with two spreads from the book.

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I got a postcard in the mail this week with the image above on it. It was a happy surprise and a note from a RISD graduate, named Will Quinn, who told me he reads and enjoys my blog. I was taken with the image and then visited his website to see more of his artwork.

I’m pleased that today he’s visiting 7-Imp to talk about his work and share even more art. It’s not the first Sunday of the month, when I tend to feature student or brand-new illustrators, but since I’ll be out of town next weekend at the beginning of February, I’m switching things up and posting that this week. (I will be posting next Sunday, though, for the record. Would I ever leave my kickers down? Nope.)

I see good things, and even more potential, in his illustrations. And I wasn’t at all surprised to read about his influences and the artists who inspire him.

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

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“Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea.
‘I don’t see any wine,’ she remarked.”
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I’ve got the artwork today of art director, illustrator, and graphic designer Andrea D’Aquino. In this, her debut, she provides illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as part of a series from Rockport Publishers, called Classics Reimagined. D’Aquino’s interpretation of this story is bold, beautiful, and surreal; her watercolor, collaged artwork provides a modern, fresh look at a story many know so well. It’s a thoughtfully-bound book; go here and scroll down to see images of how the publisher worked quotes into the book’s exterior. (They put quotes on the page’s edges, a nice touch.)

Andrea shares quite a bit of art below from the book, so let’s get right to it so that you can see for yourself. I thank her for sharing!

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“… When the gavel slammed down to end court that day, it announced change all over the country. And in its echo, you could hear the sound of Sarah’s first steps
to school and her long road to justice.”
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Hi, dear kickers. I’ve got a review over at BookPage of Susan E. Goodman’s The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial, illustrated by E. B. Lewis (Bloomsbury, January 2016).

That review is here, if you’d like to learn more about the book. Since I always like to follow up with some art, I’ve got a few spreads from the book here today.

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It’s the first Sunday of the month, fellow kickers, and that means a student or debut illustrator. I’ve got the former today, a student from Montserrat College of Art. Erin McLaughlin is nearly done with her studies, tells us all about herself below, and also shares some of her art with its bright palettes and simple shapes. (It’s almost as if a child’s toys have come to life, her pieces below.) So, let’s get right to it. I’m handing it over to Erin now. …

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“All of the sudden an enormous whale came puffing up to him and cried out,
‘Who said you could catch the subjects of my realm and take them away with you?
This will cost you your life!'”
— Andrea Dezsö’s illustration for “The Three Sisters”

 

“Little Red Cap opened her eyes wide, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing back and forth as they shone through the trees, and all the lovely flowers growing in the forest, she thought: if I take Grandmother a bunch of fresh flowers
she’d like that, too.”
— From Little Red Riding Hood, illustrated by Sybille Schenker
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“The hedgehog shut the door behind him and took the path to the field. He had not gone very far from home, and was just rounding the blackthorn bush which stands at the edge of the field, when he spied the hare who had gone out on business
of the same kind—namely, to visit his cabbages.”
— From The Hare & the Hedgehog, illustrated by Jonas Lauströer
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Good morning, dear kickers. Last week over at Kirkus, I had fairy tales on the mind (that is here, if you’re so inclined to read it), and so today I’m following up that column with art from the books I wrote about. This means I have illustrations from the following books:

• The Brothers Grimm’s The Hare & the Hedgehog from German illustrator Jonas Lauströer (Minedition, October 2015);
• The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition, translated and edited by Jack Zipes with illustrations from Andrea Dezsö (Princeton University Press, 2014);
• Sybille Schenker’s Little Red Riding Hood, translated into English by Anthea Bell (Minedition, 2014).

In that column, I also mentioned Schenker’s Hansel and Gretel (2011), and I’ve got art from that here at 7-Imp.

Enjoy!

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The year is nearly over, and I want to be sure to highlight a beautiful nonfiction picture book from UK illustrator Anna Wright, called A Tower of Giraffes: Animals in Groups (Charlesbridge, September 2015). This book, as the sub-title tells you, explores the collective nouns for groups of animals — towers of giraffes, flamboyances of flamingos, parcels of penguins, parliaments of owls. Wright’s writing is accessible and spirited, but it’s the art that really stands out.

Wright—who studied at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland and who has a particular fondness (per her author bio) for fabrics and wallpaper—uses feathers and fabrics to bring her ink and watercolor animal drawings to life. Each spread includes a small handful of each animal, some looking right at the reader. The fabrics are all textured and appealing — you want to reach out and touch these spreads. The Kirkus review calls the art “spectacular.”

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“The snow had stopped. The sky was blue-black, and the stars looked close enough to pluck right out and put into your pocket if you wanted to,
but José decided to leave them just where they were.”
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This morning at 7-Imp, I’ve got some spreads from Sonia Manzano’s (otherwise known as MARIA FROM SESAME STREET!) Miracle on 133rd Street (Atheneum, September 2015), illustrated by Marjorie Priceman.

You can tell right away, after seeing the exuberant endpapers, that you’re in for a joyous treat with this one, the story of holiday cheer turning from sour to sweet. It’s Christmas Eve, and José has a frown on his face. The tree he’s trying to decorate is “practically a twig,” and his mother is unhappy that the oven is too small for her roast. “We never should have left Puerto Rico,” she tells her husband and son. “There we could have roasted it outside. Everything is too small here.”

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It’s the first Sunday of the month, which means a student or debut illustrator visits. Today, it’s artist and illustrator Kerry Dwyer, who studied at RISD and has a “newly minted website in children’s book illustration after years in a career in television animation and gaming.” Kerry shares some more artwork below and tells us all a bit more about herself.

Without further ado . . .

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