Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Weeks ago, I mentioned (here) reading and loving this book, Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins, and Other Nasties: A Practical Guide by Miss Edythe McFate, as told to Lesley M.M. Blume and illustrated by David Foote, released by this month by Alfred A. Knopf. Well, I knew I wanted to tell you a bit more about it. One day. When my schedule gets less hectic. Ahem. (Not gonna happen.) Read the rest of this entry �

See above? Meet Bink. Meet Gollie. They are the stars of one of the best books I’ve seen in all of 2010, written, as noted above, by Alison McGhee and Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Tony Fucile, and soon to be on bookstore and library shelves from Candlewick (mid-September publication date, I believe). That above quote comes from a brief chat I had with Alison yesterday when I asked her about the creation of this little gem.

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Roll out the red carpet: Jon Scieszka is here—wait! That’s right. He’s no longer the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. That title has been handed to the honorable Katherine Paterson. But Jon, you may remember, was the inaugural ambassador, appointed such in 2008 by the Library of Congress. And I can’t help but still envision him with that lovely, stylish sash.

It’s a pleasure to have the acclaimed author and the very funny Jon visit again. (Surely, you all don’t need an introduction? If so, how about I do it simply this way: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs; The Time Warp Trio series; The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Fairy Tales, which got some Caldecott love; and Trucktown. ‘Nough said?) He’s here to talk about his new science fiction book/multimedia project, Spaceheadz, written with Francesco Sedita, but while I have him here, I’m also taking the opportunity to ask him about how Guys Read is faring, about the great and abiding Stinky himself, whether or not we’ll ever be treated to more stories with this dynamic duo, and a few other things. And several folks stopped by to contribute art, since I seem to be physically incapable of doing posts sans illustrations.

First off, Spaceheadz, since you may be scratching your head and thinking, SpaceWHAT? What in the what the?… Well, here’s how it all begins (the cover and interior artwork for the book created by Shane Prigmore):

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I have been doing my own writing lately, occasionally feeling a lot like the young girl featured here, and that has made 2010 Busier Than Normal. For that reason, my visitors to the 7-Imp bungalow this morning, authors Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter, deserve an award. And that would be because I contacted them a long while ago about their wonderful new handbook on writing for kids, Spilling Ink: A Young Writer’s Handbook (Roaring Brook, March 2010), told them I loved it, and asked them if they’d like to stop by 7-Imp to talk briefly about it. Sure! they said. LENGTHY TIME INTERLUDE. (All my fault.) Apologies sent to them. EVEN LENGTHIER TIME INTERLUDE. (Still my fault.) Finally, I said to them: I haven’t forgotten, but I’m so swamped. Would you accept an open invitation to say whatever you’d like about the book and I promise to work it up into a nice post? I gave them some basic guiding questions, mind you, but what they returned to me is what you see below. They took some of my questions and adapted them a bit, and then they came up with some questions of their own. Nice.

All of that is to say that, if you like the questions below, Anne and Ellen get big-time credit for essentially interviewing themselves. (And here’s hoping they don’t think I’m the lamest blogger in the history of Blogistan.) Read the rest of this entry �

I’m pleased to welcome author/illustrator and graphic novelist Mark Crilley to 7-Imp this morning. He’s stopped by to share some art, tell us a bit about where he’s been and what he’s up to next, and to give 7-Imp a gift!

Mark says he started drawing, growing up in Detroit, almost as soon as he could hold a pencil in his hand. After graduating from college (more on that below) in 1988, he taught English in Taiwan and Japan for nearly five years. His first comic series, Akiko, was published in 1995, leading Random House to invite him to adapt it as a series of chapter books. His latest graphic novel series, Miki Falls, was chosen by the American Library Association as one of the Great Graphic Novels for Teens for 2007 and has been optioned by Paramount Pictures and Brad Pitt’s Plan B Production Studio for development as a feature film. His newest project is a six-volume graphic novel series from Dark Horse Comics called Brody’s Ghost, which he tells us more about below.

Currently, Mark lives in Michigan with his wife, Miki, and children, Matthew and Mio. I thank him for stopping by and for sharing some of his art with us this morning. Read the rest of this entry �

Some of you may remember around this time last year when author/illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka stopped by to talk about how Lunch Lady, his highly-acclaimed graphic novel series for middle-grade readers, came to be. (And I mean “highly-acclaimed,” as in 2009’s Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute was nominated for a 2010 Eisner Award under the category of “Best Publication for Kids.” Woot!)

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I’m so pleased to be having some cyber-coffee this morning with author and blogger Andrea Beaty, who is being hypnotized here by murderous galaxy-hopping bunnies, as depicted by illustrator Dan Santat. I’m a super-big fan of Andrea’s picture books, in particular, many of which I’ve covered here previously at 7-Imp, including 2006’s When Giants Come to Play, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes; 2007’s Iggy Peck: Architect, illustrated by David Roberts; 2008’s Doctor Ted, followed by last year’s Firefighter Ted, both illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre; and last year’s Hush, Baby Ghostling, also illustrated by Lemaitre.

But Andrea’s written above and beyond picture books, too. She’s written for middle-grade readers as well. Here’s my 2008 review of Andrea’s Cicada Summer, a beautiful, poignant read. And she’s back this year with a rollickin’ good read for late-elementary/middle-grade readers, released by Amulet Books last month. It’s called Attack of the Fluffy Bunnies, and it’s illustrated by the one and only aforementioned Dan Santat (who might show up again here later this week, so things will be comin’ up very Santat here at 7-Imp, which is an altogether good thing). I love this book, which Booklist aptly describes as a “lighthearted, clever send-up of zany horror conventions” and Publishers Weekly as a “screwy, nonsensical thriller,” as well as a “wholly fun read.”

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I’m doing another quickie In-Appreciation post today. Okay, well: Doing an In-Appreciation post about British writer (though German-born) Judith Kerr after having only read two of her books kinda makes me a poseur. But I very much love the two books, and I’d like to explore her work further. As you can read here, she’s also known for her Mog series, as well as the children’s novel When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. She’s also well-known for this title…

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Yesterday, in an interview at Cynsations conducted by Jenny Desmond Walters for SCBWI Bologna 2010, children’s book historian, author, and critic Leonard Marcus, when asked what future historians might have to say about children’s literature today, said: “{They’ll} have a lot to say about comics and graphic novels and how and why they went from being vilified to being regarded as mainstream.” It’s in large part thanks to this morning’s visitors to 7-Imp that they went from panned to praised. Created by two-time Newbery Honor-winning Jennifer L. Holm and her brother Matthew Holm, 2005’s Babymouse #1: Queen of the World (all books in the series are published by Random House) was the first graphic novel to be named an ALA/ALSC Notable Children’s Book, and the subsequent books in the series have made it one of contemporary children’s literature’s most successful series (and “one of the best characters going,” wrote Kirkus in 2008). To boot, the series was not only this funny, exciting new introduction to the graphic novel format, but also that rare bird in the graphic-novel category at that time: A series for girls. As they’ve stated in a previous interview, Jennifer was unimpressed with most of the female characters that were featured in the comics she read as a kid; thus Babymouse was born (though, as they’ve also stated in interviews before, boys are pretty crazy about the series, too).

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{Note: This is Adam Rex’s caricature of Jon Scieszka, revived from my 2007 interview with Jon.}

Oh, I am Generally Not Prepared for this, but I must do this post today, which I am whipping up on the spot and so forgive any errors and my general lack of organization.

Today the kidlitosphere is thanking Jon Scieszka for his wonderful work for the past two years as the nation’s first National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. The position, as you can read there at that link, was created by the Library of Congress in 2008 to “raise national awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.”

Immediately after being given his sash, Jon said the following at this School Library Journal interview, which just went to prove how perfect a choice he was:

“A big part of my platform will be to reach reluctant readers and to put their parents at ease, especially those parents who are worried about testing or their kids not reading. I can be the official guy who says, ‘Take a deep breath; relax. Let’s not freak out about these tests. We know kids are having trouble reading. But we’ve got the answer for you. Let’s stop testing kids and beating them with a stick. Let’s try the carrot. Let’s let them read good books, because we’ve got a lot of them. Let’s let kids enjoy reading.'”

Oh thank you thank you, Jon. He also discussed the following things for the past two years, while touring the country:

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