Archive for January, 2011

YES!

h1 Monday, January 10th, 2011


“Hooray! My good friends are here!”
(Click to enlarge.)

YES!

I can hardly contain my excitement, you all! The ALA Youth Media Awards were just announced, and I was particularly excited about the Caldecott. Read the rest of this entry �

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #201: Featuring David Wiesner

h1 Sunday, January 9th, 2011

In honor of tomorrow morning’s big award announcements from the American Library Association—I am inordinately excited to hear who the Caldecott winner and Honor winners will be—I am featuring the illustrator who is very familiar with the Caldecott, to put it mildly, and who, some argue, has a chance at winning it yet again this year, author/illustrator David Wiesner. (David has been awarded three Caldecott Medals and two Caldecott Honors.)

David had planned last year to come over to 7-Imp for an interview—and might still make it for a visit when his schedule slows down—but I decided to go ahead today and show some art from this 2010 title anyway, though I had been holding out for that Wiesner-visit. I had my best coffee mugs out, y’all. But, really, he’s welcome any time, so let us carry on…

The title I’m speaking of is … well, see here to the left? That’s Max, holding the very line an illustrator uses to tell us a story. Art & Max, released by Clarion in October, is a marvel. One of my favorite bloggers, Travis Jonker at 100 Scope Notes, described it as “one of the more uniquely beautiful books of the year” and a “wonderful pick for introducing artistic media, styles, technique, and freedom in a classroom setting.” (Or, in the words of The Horn Book, it’s a “visual meditation on the effects of illustrative style.”) This is true on all accounts, particularly the latter, as what Wiesner does in this title is … well, again, as Travis put it, he deconstructs the the idea of illustration itself. Read the rest of this entry �

Because I Love Me Some Remy Charlip Books…

h1 Thursday, January 6th, 2011

A fly-by post today in the category of Here’s Another Straggler from 2010 I Want to Mention, I bring you the 2010 re-print of Remy Charlip’s Arm in Arm: A Collection of Connections, Endless Tales, Reiterations, and Other Echolalia. Originally published in 1969, it was re-printed in 1997, and last September saw another iteration of the book (paperback from Tricycle Press).

You know you’re gonna love a book with a sub-title like that. The New York Times praised this one decades ago, when it first arrived in the world, for its “verbal and visual witticisms…as joyfully illustrated as it is absurd.” What you have here, for those who aren’t already familiar with it, is concrete (and circular) poetry (not to mention songs), puns, absurdity, anything-goes philosophical ponderings, a page with no pictures, some dialogue and a bit of theatre, lots of cats, an octopuss, a play of manners, some optical illusions of a sort, altogether illogical delights, and general ridiculousness from the great artist, writer, dancer, teacher, theater director, and choreographer Remy Charlip.

Read the rest of this entry �

One Dreamy Author & Illustrator Pairing

h1 Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

And now we come to that odd time of year, blogging-wise, when I won’t necessarily be talking about 2011 titles. I will soon. Fear not. But I’m still not done with some 2010 stragglers I wanted to mention. And There’s Going to Be a Baby (Candlewick, September 2010)—the story of a young boy trying to adjust to his sibling’s impending arrival by imagining possibilities for the baby’s future with his mother, written by John Burningham and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury—is one of them.

I may have mentioned a few times before here at 7-Imp (translated: a billion times) that I am a huge fan of Burningham (in particular — it’s not as if Oxenbury isn’t a major talent, too). This Q & A with them over at Publishers Weekly from October was damn near one of the most exciting things to come out of 2010 for picture book nerds such as myself. Yes, I might engage in hyperbole, but there’s no denying it. Can you say living legends? Read the rest of this entry �

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #200 (Yes, Two Hundred!):
Featuring Krina Patel and Adam Gudeon

h1 Sunday, January 2nd, 2011

Is it Sunday? The holiday-days are still running together for me, but at least I think I have the right day. I take my chances. If it’s really, say, Monday and I’m posting this, just lie to me and list your kicks anyway. Deal? Deal.

The girl greeting us here comes from British illustrator Krina Patel, a graphic design graduate of the London College of Communication. It’s the first Sunday of the month, when I feature students or those new to children’s books, and Krina has recently completed her first children’s book (yet to be published) and is here to tell us a bit about it.

But, first. Look up there at that number, dear readers. Two hundred weeks of kickin’. Two hundred weeks of taking some time here at 7-Imp to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. I love the timing, that it’s this milestone of sorts on the first Sunday of a new year. The first Sunday of a new decade, in fact. Very neat.

On that note, I must present you with this illustration from author/illustrator Adam Gudeon, who you may remember visited me in April. As I said then, he is brand-spankin’-new to children’s literature, his first book scheduled for release this Fall from HarperCollins. I like this illustration a whole heapin’ lot, because I hope that 2011 greets you with music, as it is greeting squirrel here, thanks to his guitar-strumming crooner of a friend, fox. (Or, okay, I’m assuming he’s a crooner, but his mouth’s not moving, so maybe it’s a lovely instrumental piece.)

Big thanks to Adam, and now back to Krina . . . Read the rest of this entry �

Happy New Year from 7-Imp!

h1 Saturday, January 1st, 2011

This festive new-year illustration comes from David Ezra Stein. If he got a certain award or honor award in a couple of weeks that has to do with the best illustrated children’s books of the year, I’d not be at all surprised. I could get behind that.

Happy 2011 to all . . .

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Image copyright © 2010 by David Ezra Stein. Reproduced by permission of the illustrator.