Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Look, everyone, it’s Kate and Rosy and Dave and the whole family there for our
7 Kicks list this week! There’s Kate’s dad, who has relinquished — for Dave’s sake — his favorite, sunniest spot for sitting and reading. And there’s Dave, jumping up exuberantly for a kiss. We are able to bring you this Bob Graham illustration this week (*), thanks to Candlewick. This happens to be the title page spread from Graham’s sequel to “Let’s Get a Pup!” Said Kate, which is entitled “The Trouble with Dogs
. . .” Said Dad — just released by Candlewick in June and reviewed here a couple weeks ago by Jules. We are huge fans of Kate and her family and were excited to see them return. And there seems to be a lot of shared love out there in the kidlitosphere for Kate and Rosy and Dave, so we worked with Candlewick to get permission to share an image from Mr. Graham. We thank him (and Candlewick) kindly, and here’s what he had to say about the new book and some of his other titles, as well (for the record, we decided to link the book titles he mentioned here; it’s not that he instructed us to do so):

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Approximately one year ago we started this little ‘ol blog about seven imps — no, wait . . . That’d be seven impossible things before breakfast, but since then, we have been abbreviated to the delightfully mischievous and roguish “7-Imp,” which we love.

The real story is that during July of last year the two of us had decided to do this blog thing and were writing reviews/composing posts. WordPress would not make the categories we chose for our reviews (“Adult Fiction,” “Intermediate,” “Picture Books,” etc.) appear until we assigned at least one post to each. So, last July we were composing a post for each category in order to have all our categories appear when we first showed up in our little corner of cyberspace. That would be why our first post is dated August 1st, but we were really giving birth to 7-Imp (ew) in July. Yup, here was 7-Imp’s first post ever — a review of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love (whom Jules is still determined to interview one day, but she digresses). Ah, those were the days.

Plus, we’re celebrating the blogversary today anyway, ’cause 7/7/07 is more fitting for our somewhat numerological and rather sibilant blog . . .

We had these elaborate plans for our blogversary; primarily, we wanted to have this contest-for-illustrators in which we made a call for submissions for an image (think a logo, of sorts) fitting for our blog. We would then pick the most savagely creative and awesome one (not to replace Tenniel’s Alice image up there in our header, but just to tack on the right column of our blog’s template). We even talked about flat-out boldly asking some of our very favorite illustrators for a 7-Imp image to put forever-and-always on our blog’s template, but we decided not to. Jules, in particular, thought of how folks are always assuming that storytellers (and even performing arts sign language interpreters) are going to volunteer their talents and time when really they are supposed to get paid for what they studied and what they do, and . . . well, we didn’t want to seem as if we were doing the same for all of the obscenely talented illustrators out there who normally get paid for their work and talents and time (well, we were going to offer our undying love and adoration as payment, but still . . .).

So, we’re now, uh, doing nothing elaborate to celebrate! Just saying it’s our birthday and hoping you’ll party down in spirit with us. How about this, which is from Here’s a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry, a most-excellent anthology of children’s poetry, which Jules recently raved about here:

(A traditional British street rhyme, which we assume is in the public domain — and Jules’ daughters are currently obsessed with this wonderfully irreverent little ditty and look for every. possible. opportunity. to sing it loudly) . . .

Woo hoo! Happy birthday to this here blawg!

Thanks to everyone for reading our blog over the past year and for letting us become a part of such a vibrant, smart, fun, and impressive community of folks who care about children’s lit (and, uh, the handful of adult novels we’ve reviewed. Do you even know that we set out to review books for all ages, but I swear, we’re 99% children’s lit here at 7-Imp, aren’t we?). Anyway, we put that statement in big, bold letters, ’cause we really and truly are grateful and want to be sure you see that . . . We are honored to be in your cyber-presence, especially since we thought we would mostly be talking to ourselves when we started this blog. How exciting and fun this year has been!

Here’s to talking about literature, to one-year blogversaries, to all of our readers and fellow bloggers, and to whatever this year may have in store for us . . .

{Quick Note That We Just Have to Add: Don’t miss tomorrow’s or next week’s 7 Kicks lists, ’cause we’re excited about our featured illustrators!} . . .

I am particularly excited this Poetry Friday to be sharing some song lyrics with you. The Innocence Mission is one of my top-five favorite bands. I won’t get into the many reasons why, since this blog is about literature and not music, but suffice it to say they are true originals and a rarity in the music business, composing lyrics — a great deal of them written by lead singer, Karen Peris — that are the gorgeous, distilled stuff of poetry. Their CDs are not the ones you want to choose the day you want to rock out; this is solitary music of “muted majesty,” as this review puts it well: there is a “durable, slow-burn beauty {to} their work . . . {a} softness of touch– a light that rarely feels lite.” At first glance/first listen, their musical creations are spare, slight. But, like stumbling upon an Emily Dickinson poem and reading and re-reading it, you start to see that the songs have a great deal of beauty to offer on many, many rewarding levels. This review puts it nicely: “Intimate, quiet, poetic and wistful, Karen Peris’ songs very genuinely offer a glimpse into an earlier, more innocent and childlike time. Or maybe they just embody a world very different from the too very busy, wired and weird urban existence that I know all too well . . . the whole of the record {their latest one} . . . feels as though it is floating in another realm, one not too burdened with the daily challenges of modern existence, even as it reflects on an early morning flight.” I find myself turning to their music quite a bit; I need it to replenish me (and then there are other moods, and I need this sometimes, but I digress).

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“The fact that Lyn Gardner is a theatre critic and that Into the Woods is also the name of one of Stephen Sondheim’s best known pieces should act as an immediate prompt that here is a book with a magpie capacity for picking up shiny scraps from all over the place,” wrote Kathryn Hughes in a 2006 Guardian Unlimited review. And Hughes pretty much nailed it. Overall, what Gardner has done in this novel aimed at intermediate-aged readers is re-created the story of The Pied Piper. But, yes, she was evidently inspired by a whole heapin’ bunch of fairy tales (Perrault, The Brothers Grimm, Andersen, you-name-it), myths, and fantasies. “Add in references to Shrek, Narnia and even Touching the Void, and you have the kind of glorious mish-mash of ancient and modern that is sometimes achieved by a very good pantomime,” added Hughes about what she calls “a merry bubbling pot of a text.”

But, even if you are a reader whose hair isn’t exactly blown back by such reinvented, hodgepodge tales, you still might want to consider Gardner’s rollicking story of three sisters, Storm, Aurora, and Any (short for “Anything; when the sisters asked their checked-out father about naming the child, he responds, “‘Oh, call her anything . . . ‘”). The three sisters live in the woods at Eden End — near a village with an over-population of rats and a sinister man named Dr. DeWilde who has been called forth as Exterminator to solve the rodent problem — with their oh-so dainty-weak and inattentive mother (Zella, who “held the view that exercise was so harmful to health that she seldom moved”) and their absent-minded, equally-inattentive father (“{w}hen Reggie Eden was not laughing and whispering with Zella, he was either away on one of his expeditions or busy planning the next one with a large DO NO DISTURB sign pinned to his study door”). Storm’s sister, the beautiful Aurora, is the domestic genius and working head of the household. As the girls’ mother is dying, she gives bold, adventurous Storm a little musical tin pipe, telling her to “use it wisely and only if you have desperate need” and warning her of its “terrible power.” And, after she passes away, their grieving father eventually skips town, once again on an expedition, but he leaves a cryptic note, warning Aurora to be extra vigilant on her sixteenth birthday. Read the rest of this entry �

Just a quick note to say happy 4th of July to everyone and to direct you to this recent and wonderful Poetry Friday post at Liz Garton Scanlon’s LiveJournal. She shares a poem written by her good friend, poet and teacher
W. Joe Hoppe. Liz shares a poem (in its entirety) that he wrote in 1992, entitled “It’d be a Happy Ending.” And it’s not only a wonderful poem, but it’s fitting for the fourth. So, go experience it. It’ll be worth your time (and then you’ll understand why we titled this post the way we did).

His poem at Liz’s post might make you want to read his newest anthology of poetry, Galvanized (2006, Dalton Publishing). We know we want to. (And we just have to add that Liz — in her post about the poem — describes him as “remarkable for all sorts of reasons, including his lovin’ dad energy, his amazing full-back tattoo, his wise and talented wife, and his buddist-midwestern-hotrod-classics sensibility.” How great is that description?) . . .

Also, Nancy at Journey Woman had some great poetry choices for the holiday for her most recent Poetry Friday entry. We particularly loved this:

America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn’t standing still.

That would be E.E. Cummings for you on this July 4th. Go read the rest of Nancy’s poetry choices, including “I Hear America Singing” by Uncle Walt (pictured here). Happy 4th to all . . .

Thus begins Jeanette Winter’s latest picture book, an affectionate story about one immigrant girl’s acceptance of change and struggle to belong in a new country. The young girl and her mama have moved from Jamaica to New York, and she’s having trouble feeling like she is at home. Nightly, she dreams of her “island in the sun” and dreams that a plane takes her back to her Jamaica: “I don’t want to wake up and leave my sunny dreams.” Her persistent mother repeatedly tells her, “we are home, Angelina.” She continues, though, to long for her island food (mangos, breadfruit, ackee, salt fish, and much more); the warm sand at her feet and the blue sky, as opposed to the tall skyscrapers that cover the sun; the dust and dirt of the roads she walked in bare feet toward school, as opposed to the bus that now takes her to school down busy, congested roads; the brightly-colored birds of Jamaica; her grandma (“I talk to her in my dreams”); the games of Jamaica; and, perhaps best of all, dancing at Carnival with her friends. Read the rest of this entry �

Hi to all . . . It’s the first Monday of the month, and that means it’s time for a new Wicked Cool Overlooked Books entry (we’ll get back to a blogger interview next Monday; we promise). In case you still haven’t heard of it, this is the brain child of Colleen Mondor, in which any bloggers who want to participate can talk about books they consider outstanding yet did not get the attention they deserved. Last month was our first entry — sort of. We had this nice, long, lovely post, and Jules inadvertently deleted it, so you got the Cliffs Notes version instead. But this time her fingers are not as slippery.

I’m going to highlight one more Australian author for this month’s Wicked Cool Overlooked Book entry (there were quite a few Australian authors featured in the recent Summer Blog Blast Tour), and that would be Steven Herrick, an Australian poet who writes books of poetry for children, young adults, and adults. If you visit his site, you will see a complete listing of all his titles, but the book I want to tell you about is 2004’s By the River (the original cover is featured on the left, and the Front Street Books’ cover on the right). I reviewed it here at 7-Imp last September. I suppose it’s arguable that it’s overlooked, since it garnered many honors in Herrick’s home, including a Children’s Book of the Year Honor Book for Older Readers by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. Read the rest of this entry �

Hello, everybody! Welcome to this week’s edition of 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, our weekly tradition of listing Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week. We’re continuing our recent habit of featuring the work of a different illustrator each week as our post image, with two works from the delightful and talented Jamie Hogan.

You may remember Jamie as the illustrator of Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins, and the creator of the gorgeous portrait included in our interview with Mitali for the SBBT. She’s also not the person one should sit behind when one is attending a drawing lesson given by Ralph Masiello at the Charlesbridge Open House, even if she is very charming and kind in person.

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