Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Jules: Meet “Batgirl.” This is a commissioned piece by artist Zachary Baldus. Eisha and I are pleased to be featuring Zachary this week, who first came to my attention with his captivating cover for the new YA novel, The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher, which I reviewed here, complete with Zachary’s illustration (with and without the cover text). Zachary has done a slew of other book covers — see here (Scholastic), here (Puffin Books), here (Putnam Books), and here (Random House) for some examples. When I saw his web site, I knew I’d want to ask him to stop by here one Sunday. Fortunately for us, he said yes.

Zachary gave us free reign to choose our favorite images from his site. This proved difficult for me and Eisha. I mean, there’s this, this, this, and this. And then we also liked some of his weirder (that’s a compliment), darker stuff, such as this and this. And then there’s the eye-popping art work he’s done for comics, such as this and this (don’t click on the latter if you don’t wanna get freaked. right. out).

So, that’s one too many “this”es, but my point is that it was hard to pick a favorite. Nevertheless, we’re going to share some below, the first one being one that Zachary sent us that is not featured on his site, a panel from a page he did for an upcoming issue of American Splendor.

As a reminder, our weekly 7 Kicks list is the meeting ground for listing Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week — whether book-related or not — that happened to you (as well as featuring artists like Zachary). New people are more than welcome to leave their lists. We hope you’ll share your kick-worthy moments from the week.

Many thanks to Zachary for visiting and sharing some art work this week. Here are just a few more images from him: Read the rest of this entry �

Jules: WOOT! It’s the first Sunday of the month and time to feature a student currently studying illustration or someone who has recently graduated (or is otherwise new to the scene in some way). This week it’s Tiffany Laurencio. As her bio tells us, she lives in Boston; graduated from the Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts; and has always wanted to be an illustrator since getting over her dream of being a cowgirl (aw, shucks). She has a special place in my heart now, too, since her bio also states she got in trouble in high school for skipping class to go get coffee.

I also have a big ‘ol special spot in my heart now for this illustration, entitled “Bunny Foo Foo Bop Of Doom.” (It might technically be called “Bunny-Foo-Foo-Bop,” according to this page.) I would love to hear the wonderfully-warped story around this one. Look, he’s so defiant, but I somehow still wanna pinch his cheeks.

Here’s what Tiffany has to share with us on this first Sunday of March (can you believe that it’s already March? But I digress):

“Sarcastic, fluffy critters are my favorite things to paint but I have a soft, squishy spot for the moon. I’ve always loved and wanted to be a part of picture books. There were so many illustrators and writers that hypnotized me as a kid. I was very lucky to have such wonderful, crunchy teachers who encouraged me to take hold of life’s crayons.

Going to Montserrat College of Art really helped me to condition myself, not just as a picture maker, but also as a young professional. Currently, I’m promoting like mad and trying to get my work into as many hands as possible. It’s a crazy kind of love I have with promoting my work. I find myself obsessing over the print quality of my postcards just as much as the color schemes of my paintings. I haven’t started twitching yet, but I occasionally catch myself mumbling.”

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Jules: Eisha and I are featuring artist Jaime Zollars this week and are rather gaga over her style. Pictured here is “Little Red”, a silkscreen print. Isn’t that great? Jaime paints for galleries and commercial clients but has illustrated a picture book — intended for release this Fall with Tricycle Press — entitled Inside the Slidy Diner, written by Laurel Snyder (who has a nice-looking web site herself; you can read a bit more about the book here).

There’s a darker element to a lot of Jaime’s work (or “melancholy,” as she puts it), which Eisha and I both like, but since Sunday is for listing kicks, we’ll start with some illustrations that have a bit less gravity to them, such as “Tranquility” and — pictured below that — “Marmalade Sky”: Read the rest of this entry �

Jules: Anyone else remember when illustrator Sophie Blackall was featured by Jennifer at not your mother’s bookclub in October during the Blogging for a Cure/Robert’s Snow effort? And remember how severely kickin’ her snowflake was (“foxtacular elficide,” anyone?)? Well, ever since then we’ve wanted to feature some of her art work here at 7-Imp (and I recently reviewed the beautiful Red Butterfly, which made me want to have her stop by WAY WAY MORE). So, we up and asked, and here she is. WOOT!

She is sharing with us today some illustrations from her forthcoming new title, written by Meg Rosoff (whose Meet Wild Boars she illustrated in 2005) and published by Henry Holt, Jumpy Jack & Googily. I happen to have an ARC of this title — which will be released in April, I believe — and it’s wonderful and makes me laugh out loud in a rather snort-like manner. Pictured above are Jumpy Jack and Googily in the flesh. Jumpy Jack is a rather nervous snail who is terribly afraid of monsters. And, well . . . if you haven’t noticed yet, Googily is a monster himself. The story opens thusly:

“I’m nervous,” said Jumpy Jack to his best friend, Googily. “There could be a monster nearby and I’m scared of monsters.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Googily.

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Jules: These bedfellows here aren’t as strange as they seem. If you have read this year’s Cybils-
shortlisted Go to Bed, Monster! by Natasha Wing and illustrated by Sylvie Kantorovitz (Harcourt, 2007), then you know that is Lucy, who couldn’t sleep, and her late-night creation with an “oval body. A square head. Rectangle legs. And circle eyes. When she added triangles, the shape turned into a . . . MONSTER!” Move over, Harold. When her monster roars at her, the intrepid Lucy says, without missing a beat, “You don’t scare me . . . Let’s play!” And play they do until Lucy herself starts to get worn out and tries everything in the book to get him to sleep already, Wing cleverly turning the tables on the child/caregiver relationship and bed-time struggles. I reviewed this title back in November of last year. It’s a winner, I tell ya. And it’ll be up to the judges in the category of Fiction Picture Books to decide if they think it’s a Cybils winner this year (award winners are announced this week, so keep your eye on the Cybils site).

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Jules: Welcome to our weekly 7 Kicks list, the meeting ground for listing Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week (whether book-related or not) that happened to you.

Happy February to all! It’s the first Sunday of the month, which means we’re featuring another new grad or student of illustration. I’ve been looking forward to this. I think this feature is fun, if I may say so myself. If you missed our very first one ever on the first Sunday in January, go here to see the illustrations of new grad Ashley Smith.

This week we welcome Chris Eliopoulos, who goes by Elio. You’ll see there at his site that he is a Chicago-based illustrator and comic artist “who enjoys telling stories with my work. I reference mid century print, design and advertising; UFOs, donuts, and old cranky men.” Maybe he can tell us later if he’s ever done an illustration of an old, cranky man eating donuts on a UFO. Read the rest of this entry �

Jules: Welcome to our weekly 7 Kicks list, the meeting ground for listing Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week (whether book-related or not) that happened to you.

We’re so happy that Caldecott Honor-winning author/illustrator Steve Jenkins (whom School Library Journal last year called “a master illustrator”) has stopped by to share some new illustrations with us as well as some from current titles. The image here and above is from the Cybils-shortlisted Vulture View, written by April Pulley Sayre (Henry Holt, 2007), in which readers are introduced to the world of the majestic turkey vulture.

Steve also sent us two spreads from a book that he and Robin Page created (Robin is the talented co-author of many of Steve’s titles, as well as his wife) and which will be published this Spring by Houghton Mifflin. It’s called Sisters & Brothers. “It’s about sibling relationships in the animal world,” Steve told us, “a subject we were surprised to find not much information on, when we began to look . . .” Read the rest of this entry �

As many of you know, when we gather on Sundays to list our 7 Kicks for the week, we feature an illustration (or two or three or four) from some of our favorite illustrators, whether they have a new book coming out or not. And I’m such a fan of good picture book illustration that it’s become my favorite feature of all here at 7-Imp (here’s a list of whom we’ve featured thus far).

Author/Illustrator Anna Alter was lined up to be featured this Sunday but later re-scheduled for another Sunday. And when that Sunday didn’t work out for her after all (but after I had already lined up another illustrator for this weekend), I told her that 7-Imp would gladly feature her any ‘ol day of the week. Her illustrations have a way of brightening our days. As a result, I asked my Poetry Friday entry for today to scoot on over — shoo, shoo and skedaddle, I told it, and it obliged me — so that we could feature some art work from Anna’s new illustrated title, Priscilla and the Hollyhocks written by Anne Broyles (but, hey, I snuck in some poetry yesterday anyway). Read the rest of this entry �

Jules: Welcome to our weekly 7 Kicks list, the meeting ground for listing Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week (whether book-related or not) that happened to you.

This week we’re happy to be featuring the art work of illustrator Doug Chayka, whose critically-acclaimed illustrated books are listed here and whose most recent title is the Cybils-shortlisted Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2007). The above illustration is from this title, a poignant tale of courage about two girls in a Pakistani refugee camp who share a pair of sandals that begins a friendship. The book was inspired by a refugee girl who asked the authors why there were no books about children like her. Here’s another one of Mr. Chayka’s beautiful acrylic illustrations from this title, the final illustration in the book:

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Jules: Welcome to our weekly 7 Kicks list, the meeting ground for listing Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week (whether book-related or not) that happened to you.

We’re featuring Eric Rohmann today, which is quite a thrill. I’m a huge fan of his books and the beautiful art work he creates. If you’re not familiar with his books (well, you know you know the Caldecott winner, My Friend Rabbit), here’s one place you can begin, a link that includes another link to a bibliography. The above illustration is from his new picture book, A Kitten Tale (released this month by Knopf Books), which I raved about maniacally in this post (hey, 7-Imp is — mostly and for all intents and purposes — a fan site, and Eisha and I are geeky Rohmann fans. And he doesn’t disappoint with this title, which just adds to his already impressive track record). Summary if you don’t want to read the afore-linked review I wrote: A Kitten Tale is a wonder. It’s a splendid tale for the very young. Here are three more images (I hope the colors on these illustrations are right; they look slightly different than the ones in the ARC I have, but it could be an artifact of my computer). And p.s. these images are just for Little Willow.

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