Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Adam Rex is the best thing ever (to pick up Adrienne’s favorite phrase). At last week’s 7-Kicks list, Adam’s name came up and then several of us were discussing our big, big love for his books. So, Eisha asked what the possibility would be of getting an illustration for this week’s list, and Adam sent two, never-seen-before ones. Woo hoo! In his words, “I couldn’t see the fun in simply giving you permission to post something that already appears elsewhere on the web, so I’m sending two images that appear nowhere else I know of.” Thanks, Adam!

Meet J.Lo — to the left here. This illustration is . . . well, here’s what Adam said about it:

“This one is really more in keeping with the spirit of your ‘7 Kicks’ feature. I have an illustrated novel called The True Meaning of Smekday coming out this September . . . I painted the cover, which can also be found on my blog, and drew a lot of black and white illustrations for the interior. For the cover we went with a sort of typographical cityscape, and it always bothered me that I never painted either of my two main characters. So this week I made a portrait of my lead alien, J.Lo. The paint was literally just barely dry enough to scan him and send him to you, so that’s the exciting thing I did this week.”

If you go here, everyone, you can read a brief comic about the upcoming release of the novel (to be published by Hyperion in September 2007).

And then he sent us this illustration, too, page ten of his upcoming fall picture book, Pssst! (Harcourt). “I think if you know nothing of the book but the title and this page, you can still get a decent idea where the story’s heading,” he told us. The book cover, as well as some failed ideas for the book cover and other things, can be found on his blog, Editpus Rex.

Many, many thanks to Adam Rex for the great art work this week!

As usual, we look forward to reading everyone’s lists. We realize a lot of folks are at the ALA conference this weekend, but this will not deter those of us not seminar-hoppin’ in D.C. to share our lists (but, boy, do we wish we were there, too).

{Oh, and here’s our usual intro for any new people: It’s time for another installment of 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks. For those new to our series, this is where we all stop in every Sunday to report seven (more or less is fine) Good Things that happened to you (or that you read or saw or experienced or . . . well, you get the picture) this week. Absolutely anyone is welcome to contribute, and your lists don’t have to be book-related} . . . Read the rest of this entry �

Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there! It’s time for our 7 Kicks, but before we get to that, don’t forget the Summer Blog Blast Tour and its inaugural interview today. That would be an interview with Gene Yang over at Finding Wonderland. Don’t miss it, people. It’s really well-done. And we here at 7-Imp will have our interview with Brent Hartinger tomorrow and an exclusive interview with Sonya Hartnett the next day. For our other interviews this week, visit this link (and here’s the Grand Master Schedule).

Hey, look up there at our 7 Kicks illustration-of-the-week. It’s Hugo and Miles! Have you read Hugo & Miles in: I’ve Painted Everything (An Adventure in Paris)? (Jules reviewed it here, and here is a February review of Kara LaReau’s Ugly Fish, which Scott also illustrated). Author/illustrator Scott Magoon sent us this illustration for this week’s list; Hugo and Miles there are atop the Eiffel Tower, taking in a grand view of Paris. Thanks to Scott!

And, wait, there’s more . . . Look, it’s an illustration from his upcoming Fall picture book (Houghton Mifflin), called The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster: A Tale of Picky Eating by Alice Weaver Flaherty (a neurologist who teaches at Harvard no less, according to this link). Scott says it’ll be out this September, and we went and found the Houghton link to it. Looks like good stuff. We are fans of Scott’s work, and we thank him for not only the Hugo & Miles art work but the sneak peek Lochness illustration, too.

Okay, let’s get to the lists then. Here’s our usual intro for any new people: It’s time for another installment of 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks. For those new to our series, this is where we all stop in every Sunday to report seven (more or less is fine) Good Things that happened to you (or that you read or saw or experienced or . . . well, you get the picture) this week. Absolutely anyone is welcome to contribute, and your lists don’t have to be book-related. Read the rest of this entry �

Many, many thanks to Sean Qualls for our 7 Kicks illustration this week. This is “Dizzy on Stage” from the fabulous Dizzy by Jonah Winters, published last year (Arthur A. Levine Books). Finally reading this book was one of Jules’ 7 Kicks last week, and we wondered, hey, could we get an illustration from the honorable Mr. Qualls for next week’s list? And here it is! Make sure you don’t miss his site (we were torn between putting up a Dizzy photo or one of the other fabulous non-children’s-lit-related pieces of art work you’ll see there if you click on “illustrations”).

Scott Magoon’s already committed to the illustration for next week’s list! Excellent. Can’t wait to see that one . . .

Okay, let’s get to the lists then. Here’s our usual intro for any new people: It’s time for another installment of 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks. For those new to our series, this is where we all stop in every Sunday to report seven (more or less is fine) Good Things that happened to you (or that you read or saw or experienced or . . . well, you get the picture) this week. Absolutely anyone is welcome to contribute, and your lists don’t have to be book-related. Read the rest of this entry �

LOOK, EVERYBODY! IT’S GRUMPY BIRD! And he’s mustering his best smile for us! Yes, three 7-Imp cheers for Jeremy Tankard, who sent us this illustration for us to kick off our 7-Kicks lists this week. Remember how last week we experimented with a different image for the list (instead of the usual Alice-with-the-White-Queen image)? And then we thought we could use a different illustration every week, and Jules suggested Grumpy Bird (the star of her favorite picture book thus far this year)? And even Adrienne, who wasn’t so sure she could let go of last week’s illustration (which Nancy now owns!), said she’d totally go for Grumpy Bird? Well, just ask and you shall receive. Jeremy says that this illustration of Grumpy Bird is a piece he did for the cover of a French children’s book catalog (we asked for an image of Grumpy Bird actually smiling, if possible, since we’re listing happy things every week, though we would have gladly accepted a grumpy pic, too. Jeremy says, “He looks sort of happy here. He’s smiling at any rate”). Many thanks to Mr. Tankard!

{Speaking of grumpy, one of Jules’ favorite word fun facts — ’cause, yes, she’s a Super Nerd — is that “gruntle” is an actual verb (as in “disgruntled,” of course), meaning “to put in good humor.” Jeremy Tankard has left us gruntled with this illustration. And lordhamercy, go read Grumpy Bird right now if you haven’t already. It’s a fine, fine book} . . .

Okay, let’s get to the lists then. Here’s our usual intro for any new people: It’s time for another installment of 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks. For those new to our series, this is where we all stop in every Sunday to report seven (more or less is fine) Good Things that happened to you (or that you read or saw or experienced or . . . well, you get the picture) this week. Absolutely anyone is welcome to contribute, and your lists don’t have to be book-related. Read the rest of this entry �

New image this week! Thanks to Nancy at Journey Woman, I (Jules, that is) saw this illustration and was led to the illustrator’s site, artista blog. This is the blog of artist Irisz Agocs, who lives in Budapest. Go to her site to see more of her work, ’cause it’s good stuff. I love the feelings this illustration captures. I didn’t officially get Irisz’s permission to use this image, but I’m linking it to her site (thanks, Nancy, for taking us there), and I hope Ms. Agocs won’t mind.

Okay, let’s get to the lists then. Here’s our usual intro for any new people: It’s time for another installment of 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks. For those new to our series, this is where we all stop in every Sunday to report seven (more or less is fine) Good Things that happened to you (or that you read or saw or experienced or . . . well, you get the picture) this week. Absolutely anyone is welcome to contribute.

1). Usually my lists aren’t in any sort of order in terms of Most Impressive to Least Impressive. I just randomly number them. But, without question, number one this week (as in, THE BEST THING that happened to me) has to be: Having the undisputed honor of reading Billie Standish Was Here, Nancy Crocker’s new YA novel. It will be on the shelves in June, and I hope to talk about it here on the blog on Tuesday (since tomorrow will be our last Blue Rose Girls interview with Libby Koponen). This was one of the most beautiful novels I’ve read in a long, long time. When I put it down, I dunno, I felt like someone had blessed me. It’s utterly perfect and unforgettable. I say: Move over, all other YA titles published thus far this year. Or, really, any titles published thus far this year. Read the rest of this entry �

It’s time for another installment of 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks . . . For those new to our series, this is where we all stop in every Sunday to report seven (more or less is fine) Good Things that happened to you (or that you read or saw or experienced or . . . well, you get the picture) this week. Absolutely anyone is welcome to contribute.

Whew! It’s been a crazy busy weekend, and it’s still going on, so let me just give you the highlights.

1*  Friday night I saw an excellent event sponsored by my fave independent bookstore: Daniel Handler in conversation with Gregory Maguire. The idea was that they would talk about DH’s most recent adult novel, Adverbs. But of course, when you have two guys that funny and smart and literate up on a stage… well, they talked about Adverbs, and about how tall Meryl Streep really is, and about the drinking game DH made up based on Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide… Dudes. It was hilarious.

2*  And while they were signing books afterwards, we were treated to a performance by a really good local band, Chop! Chop! I’d never heard them before, but I enjoyed it a lot – I was sad there weren’t any CDs to buy. I thought it was an excellent idea to provide entertainment while we stood around in line. Hey, book signing event organizers, take note! Read the rest of this entry �

It’s time for another installment of 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks . . . For those new to our series, this is where we all stop in every Sunday to report seven (more or less is fine) Good Things that happened to you (or that you read or saw or experienced or . . . well, you get the picture) this week. Absolutely anyone is welcome to contribute.

1* Well, if you read last week’s 7 Kicks post you already know I was in TN meeting my nephew for the very first time. I got to spend almost a whole week in his company, not to mention my mom, my sister (who also flew in from the other coast to meet lil’ Miles), my sister-in-law, and a lot of extended family. My elusive brother even made a brief appearance. It was a great visit. And I am so in love with Miles I just cannot stand it. He is so utterly amazing. Every little thing he does just blows me away. I’m trying very hard not to include a photo here. Very, very hard.

2* But I will show you a picture of Ella Grace. She’s my cousin’s daughter, who was born the same week as Miles even though she wasn’t due until June. She finally got to come home from the hospital – she’s up to 5 lbs, and is doing amazingly well. I can’t even describe what a thing it is to see her. She’s so impossibly tiny, so fragile, but already such a survivor. I don’t use words like “miracle” a lot, but it’s the only word that seems to fit.

3* And, as Jules mentioned, I got to spend an afternoon with her and the girls, which is always a good time. Every time I see Miriam and Ada I am just amazed at how smart, funny, sassy, and beautiful they’re turning out to be. Just like their mom. Read the rest of this entry �

It’s time for another installment of 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks . . . For those new to our series, this is where we all stop in every Sunday to report seven (more or less is fine) Good Things that happened to you (or that you read or saw or experienced or . . . well, you get the picture) this week. Absolutely anyone is welcome to contribute.

Hi, everyone . . . Eisha is unable to contribute this week, ’cause she’s visiting family — including her stinkin’ cute punkin’ head brand-spankin’-new nephew, Miles. And, in fact, as I was typing my list here, I got some photos of Eisha and Miles in my email folder. I hope Eisha and her sister-in-law don’t mind me sharing one. If you follow our Sunday 7 Kicks lists, you know Eisha’s in love with him and this is the first time she’s met him! So, check out that photo at the bottom of my list. How beautiful is that? . . . And Eisha’s visit to Tennessee to meet Miles leads me to Numero Uno on my 7 Kicks list:

1) Eisha came to visit us this week! Here is a pic of us after a big, ‘ol wonderfully fattening and rather greasy meal of Southern food, which Eisha says she’s missed (many thanks to the nice waitress who took the photo and whose name we never got). Those are my kiddos; Ada looks like she’s hiding, and Miriam has lots of ketchup* residue on her face, but they’re stinkin’ cute, if I must say so myself. And I must. So, for those who have ever wondered if this is, indeed, one huge conspiracy and the blog is really being run by one person who likes to pretend she’s two, here’s yet another photo of us in the flesh . . . We really enjoyed Eisha’s visit, and my eldest, Miriam (age three), is in love with her. Yup, pretty much thinks the sun rises and sets in Eisha and wishes she didn’t live so far, far away. But we were all very grateful for her visit.

*How the blazes do you spell that word anyway? Is it “ketchup” if you’re Southern and “catsup” if you’re not?

Read the rest of this entry �

It’s time for another installment of 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks . . . For those new to our series, this is where we all stop in every Sunday to report seven (more or less is fine) Good Things that happened to you (or that you read or saw or experienced or . . . well, you get the picture) this week.

1* Last weekend, when we were househunting in Ithaca, the husband’s soon-to-be employer couldn’t get us a room at the usual hotel because of some festival that was going on… so they put us up in a spa resort! With a giant chess board outside! And I-swear-to-god the most amazing mattress I’ve ever slept on. Didn’t have time to try out the free-to-guests sauna, but I’ve never seen what the benefit of sitting around sweating is supposed to be anyway.

2* While staying at said resort, we saw a deer grazing on the lawn through our window Saturday night. And we saw four very brazen deer nonchalantly grazing right next to the highway as we drove home on Sunday afternoon.

Read the rest of this entry �

It’s time for another installment of 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks . . . For those new to our series, this is where we all stop in every Sunday to report seven (more or less is fine) Good Things that happened to you (or that you read or saw or experienced or . . . well, you get the picture) this week.

Well, it was kind of a weird week, wasn’t it? But we’re here to focus on the good, and that seems like a very good idea right now. So:

1* Since I live in MA, Monday was a state holiday (Patriot’s Day – they’ve got a couple of these weird Revolutionary War-related holidays that no one else celebrates up here). So I had a 3-day weekend, which is always a good thing. Read the rest of this entry �