Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

It’s been two years since my breakfast interview with author/illustrator Tricia Tusa, whose work I love so very much. She’s got a new illustrated title out, Once Upon a Baby Brother (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2010), written by Sarah Sullivan, so I thought I’d share some spreads from it today. Read the rest of this entry �

If you haven’t had your coffee or hot tea yet, the art work of Sonia Lynn Sadler just might wake you up instead. Sadler has illustrated the picture book debut—Seeds of Change from Lee & Low Books (April 2010)—of author Jen Cullerton Johnson, a biography of 2004 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental and political activist. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women’s rights. Johnson, as noted in the back of the book, relies upon Maathai’s autobiographical writing (indeed, her own memoir) to bring us the story of her life — from her childhood in Kenya to 2004, in which she was awarded the “prestigious peace prize.” Read the rest of this entry �

Here’s another quick international art stop today, featuring two 2010 picture book titles illustrated by Australian artist Nina Rycroft, who has been honored by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. I need this first title to help wake me up, as I haven’t had the sweet brown lifeblood that is coffee. Yet.

That first very joyous picture book comes from Australian author Phil Cummings. First published in ’08 in Australia, Boom Bah! was published here in the U.S. in March of this year. (Click on each image in this post to enlarge the spreads and see in more detail.) Read the rest of this entry �

Gianna Marino, my 7-Imp visitor this morning, debuted her picture-book work in 2005 in a book Kirkus called a “lively, engaging debut,” Zoopa: An Animal Alphabet (Chronicle Books 2005). Just when you think you’d seen every approach to alphabet books, along came Gianna with a fresh one in this wordless picture book, featuring a bowl of alphabet soup and a colorful menagerie of creatures surrounding it. In Spring of this year, Gianna followed the title up with One Too Many: A Seek & Find Counting Book, also released by Chronicle Books. This one features one flea, bouncing between farm animals, its path traced in a thin silver arc. Kirkus wrote, “Marino’s illlustrations are marvelously striking, positioning animals that are largely black and white, with a bit of sepia, against blue sky (that modulates to pink and then to night) and sandy barnyard,” adding that it’s “a rare counting book with wide appeal.” This nearly wordless title definitely holds some treasures for the eager, observant child reader.

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Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on 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. Whew. It’s already the first Sunday of August, and the first Sunday of each month is when I like to shine the spotlight on a student illustrator or someone otherwise brand-new to the field. Let’s get right to today’s featured illustrator, Ben Clanton, who—according to his site—has spent most of his time in Oregon and Montana classrooms. But he tells us a bit more below, so without further ado…Welcome to Ben:

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