Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Today, over at Kirkus, I weigh in on three new picture book offerings that are about or from India, including this beauty:

Here’s the link. Next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll have some art from each book.

Until Sunday …

I admit: Sometimes I wish I were the type of blogger who just posted art from books and then stepped away. Didn’t say a word. I always like to let the art speak for itself anyway.

But I figure that would make me a Lazy Pants; I at least gotta say something about the books I’m featuring. I owe people at least a word or two and my thoughts on the books.

Today, though … well, I’m featuring some illustrations from two books I wrote about at Kirkus last week. So, my thoughts about the books—Chris Raschka’s Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bicycle (Schwartz & Wade, April 2013) and Kashmira Sheth’s Tiger In My Soup (Peachtree, April 2013), illustrated by Jeffrey Ebbeler—are already there (here for Raschka’s book and here for Tiger in My Soup). Today, I really am letting the art speak for itself.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry �

Here’s something I’ve failed to say but have intended to say for nine days now: It’s National Poetry Month.

Know one way you can celebrate? You can grab a copy of J. Patrick Lewis’ World Rat Day (Candlewick, March 2013) and read it to your favorite child. Sub-titled Poems About Real Holidays You’ve Never Heard Of, it’s an entertaining collection of weird holidays you won’t exactly see on your favorite kitty cat or Dilbert calendar.

The book was illustrated by Anna Raff, children’s book and editorial illustrator who was once, as you’ll read below, a children’s book designer. Anna’s joining me for breakfast today, giving me and my Imp readers a look at lots of her art, rats and beyond. And what a treat it is. At turns playful, mischievous, and sweet (but never cloyingly), her dry-humored art entertains. (Case-in-point, for one: The Wild Turkey you’ll see below.) Read the rest of this entry �

I’m cheating today.

Normally, on the first Sunday of each month, I feature a student illustrator or someone debuting a picture book. Today’s illustrations are from the acclaimed illustrator Gennady Spirin, who is hardly new to children’s lit. In fact, he’s received five gold medals from the Society of Illustrators; he has been awarded First Prize for Illustration at the Barcelona International Children’s Book Fair, as well as the Premio Grafico at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair; he received the Golden Apple of the Bratislava International Biennale of children’s book illustration; and on four different occasions his work has been placed on the New York Times Best Illustrated Books list.

But last Sunday, I featured a debut artist, the talented Eliza Wheeler. And today I can’t help but show Spirin’s illustrations from Brenda Z. Guiberson’s Frog Song (Henry Holt, February 2013). Know why? The book is, as Pamela Paul wrote at the New York Times, “nothing less than a springtime reverie.” And I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but Spring has finally sprung here—warm temps and all—and I feel like celebrating today. Read the rest of this entry �

It’s alphabet soup like you’ve never quite seen it over at my Kirkus column this morning, where I write about Kashmira Sheth’s Tiger in My Soup (Peachtree, April 2013), illustrated by Jeffrey Ebbeler. That link is here today.

See the illustration above from Lemony Snicket’s The Dark, illustrated by Jon Klassen (Little, Brown, April 2013)? It’s, hands down, my favorite picture book illustration from 2013 thus far.

As a follow-up to the Kirkus Q&A (here) I conducted last week with the book’s editor, Susan Rich, I have more art from the book below.

Enjoy. (Oh, and don’t miss this recent Kirkus Q&A by Jenny Brown with Snicket and Klassen.) Read the rest of this entry �

This morning at Kirkus, I share my thoughts on Chris Raschka’s latest picture book, Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bicycle.

You’d maybe think a book about learning to ride a bicycle would be boring? Not at the hands of Raschka.

That link is here today.

Until tomorrow …