Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Happy Saturday, dear readers. I’m going to get right to it today: Here is my attempt to catch up on some book reviews, both titles from last year. I’m, uh, really slooooooooow sometimes, but better late than never.

If dark humor is your thing — and I mean moments of incredible pathos that rattle your heart in your chest a bit while, somehow, also make you laugh simultaneously — here’s a new title for you, Gone and Back Again (Soft Skull Press, 2007) by Jonathon Scott Fuqua (based loosely on “the author’s own strange childhood,” according to his site). Fuqua is the award-winning author of four YA novels, a graphic novel (also geared at adults), and one book for young children. This is his first novel for adults, though I say it has tremendous cross-over appeal to teens.

Middle-schooler Caley; his brother, Fulton; and his sister, Louise, are being dragged from town to town by his mother, who has “changed after the divorce. It was like her goodness and affectionateness seemed to be hibernating or were gone.” Caley, whose father is capable of moments of undeniable cruelty and a master of the fine art of guilt-tripping, must acclimate himself to life with his mother’s new boyfriend, Henrico, “who was a total jerk to us kids.” His mother occasionally attempts to convey affection but mostly fails (“I wanted my mom to be like a mom instad of just a woman we sometimes saw”). “For me,” Caley tells the reader, “life was like a train passing into a tunnel just before an avalanche falls and blocks the way out.” Thus, Caley starts his “days of badness,” drinking and stealing: “I was the kind of kid who, even if you wanted to, you didn’t care about.”

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Hellooooooooooooooooo, spring!

This morning, on my way to work, I finally saw some crocuses starting to bloom, and I think until that moment I hadn’t realized just how bad I needed to see something green. I almost cried with relief.

I really, really like winter. And snow. No, serious, I do! What I don’t like, weather-wise, is too many days in a row of the same thing. This winter felt like one long five-month stretch of 30-degree-highs, grey skies, and fitful snow flurries, punctuated by an occasional serious snowstorm that would coat everything in prettyness for a few hours, but ultimately just add another layer to those icy piles of crud that build up along the edges of the sidewalks.

Yeah, I needed a little green already.

This week I got it. Not just the crocuses – there’s grass! Buds on tree branches! There’s even little spiky blades of stuff that might be daffodils and tulips soon! (I know, people, we don’t even have daffodils yet – see how bad it is?)

We can’t get too cocky about it yet, though. It’s still cold. Sure, it’s sunny, but there’s a fierce wind out there that does not permit the shedding of coats and scarves. Not just yet. But that’s okay by me – the sun and the green are enough for now. They’ve shaken me out of my winter huddle-under-a-blanket-drinking-cocoa doldrums. It feels like change out there, like newness, like possibility, like the start of something… and it makes me want to start something too. It makes me want to stand up, toss that blanket on the couch, stretch, look around, and… I dunno, misspend whatever’s left of my youth?

It’s the kind of weather that makes you wonder where the past year has gone – for that matter, where the past 34 years have gone. It makes you wonder if you’re wasting your life away; wonder if you could be doing more, living more. Maybe it’s time to figure out what you really want to do with the rest of your life, and just go do it already.

I love it when I find a poem that perfectly expresses what I’m feeling right at that moment. Today it’s “Cold Spring” by Lawrence Raab:

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I promise to talk about books-longer-than-32-pages relatively soon, but today I’m sharing a few more picture book titles in honor of National Poetry Month. Let’s get right to it.

The pebble made rough music,
Humming past a tiny
Island in the Blanco
River.
Touch tone, touch stone.
You could count the beats more or less

Evenly.
It was easy—
Guess
How many times
The pebble dimpled the water.

That is a poem from the latest poetry anthology from the prolific children’s poet, J. Patrick Lewis (and many thanks to him for permission to post it in its entirety here). Entitled The World’s Greatest: Poems (Chronicle Books; January ’08) and illustrated by Keith Graves, it’s the title for that student / child you know who gets inordinately excited over record books, such as Guinness, and who likely has an affinity for hyperbole (and possesses excessive spastic energy, to boot). It’s a lot of fun, this book is. And Graves’ light-hearted illustrations are a fitting match, everything a bit embellished, impossibly preposterous, utterly absurd, and wonderfully hammy.

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I’m unveiling today a new interview-series idea here at 7-Imp. Eisha and I love doing interviews, but they take a lot of time. And I mean a lot, especially considering that — in my case and I’m sure for Eisha’s, too — I only have little windows of time in which to read and blog (translated: after my children are asleep). And we’re not going to give up our usual interview format, I promise. But this series idea I have had a-churnin’ in my brain is to interview illustrators — but with a format which will make it a little more efficient in terms of time. And that means I / we will be able to do more interviews altogether — whether our traditional ones or illustrator interviews via this new format. And that is a good thing, I think.

Why illustrators? It’s no surprise that I love my picture books. If I had one little shred of talent-with-art-supplies whatsoever — or if a genie popped out of a magic bottle — I’d opt to be an illustrator in this life. Neither thing is likely to happen, so I’ll settle for grilling some of my favorites and appreciating their work and their talents.

Jeremy Tankard bravely agreed to be my guinea pig with this new interview format. I was thrilled to pieces he agreed, since I’m a fan of his work, as I’ve made clear several times at 7-Imp, and I’ve been wanting to interview him for a while. So, let’s get right to it then. And I’ll gladly accept any feedback on this new format, should any one want to pipe up.

So, yes, Jeremy’s joining me for breakfast, and his morning meal of choice is granola over fresh homemade apple sauce with a glass of water and hot ginger tea. Mmmm. Of course, I have to throw in some coffee, too (and if it’s going to be the cup pictured here, oh heavens, someone add some cream and sugar!) But, first let’s set the table with some introductory information from Jeremy (you didn’t really think I’d be able to stick to just seven questions, did you?) Remember: This is the proposed format for the new seven-questions-over-breakfast illustrator-interview series (yeah, it’s altogether way more than seven questions, but just humor me here and indulge my love of Q & As.)

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No foolin’! It’s April 1st, and that means it’s National Poetry Month. This makes April one of the best months in the year, in my book, no matter what T.S. Eliot said. I’m here to celebrate today with the new picture book poetry anthology from Julie Larios and Julie Paschkis, Imaginary Menagerie: A Book of Curious Creatures, published by Harcourt this month.

Just check out this swirling, visual delight from Paschkis (used with permission), an illustration which comes straight from this title:

That’s part of “Mermaid,” one of Larios’ many poems celebrating a handful of creatures from a mythological world. You’ll meet a dragon, a centaur, the firebird, a sea serpent, a gargoyle, the naga of seven heads, and much more. Below is Paschkis’ depiction of a cockatrice, whom Larios describes as “a snake-tailed rooster . . . a rooster-headed snake,” who isn’t quite sure if he should crow or he should hiss:

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