7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #200 (Yes, Two Hundred!):
Featuring Krina Patel and Adam Gudeon
January 2nd, 2011 by jules
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 . . .
As Krina’s web site states, she likes “creating texture in her images by painting on tissue paper with towels, old jeans, combs, rulers, and whatever else she can find around the house, and assembling it into collages.”
Here she is to tell us a bit more about the book she created . . .
Krina: My Fabulous Book of Food is an alphabetical, rhyming picture book about food. A lot of the items are quite unconventional, so not the usual “A is for apple.” Every two spreads rhyme with each other, i.e “T is for tomato, from vine or can. U is for unagi, sushi from Japan.”
After finishing the book I wrote Alphabetimals, a similar concept but, instead of food, the subject was animals and the rhyming element was on each page. The text for this project is complete; I just need to finish the illustrations.
I have also written a manuscript for a children’s picture book about empathy. The concept involves the main protagonist, Connie {pictured at the top of this post}, imagining herself in lots of different people’s shoes, literally and metaphorically. This book also has a fun rhyming element: “Grandpa George wears leather loafers, soft and light and comfy to the tread. It feels like he’s wearing two loaves of bread.”
Thanks to Krina for visiting. Best of luck in her career. I think ringing in the new year with food is good, too, and why yes, I’ll have some of that “irresistible ice cream,” thanks very much.
New Year illustration is copyright © 2010 Adam Gudeon. Reproduced by permission of the illustrator.
All other illustrations copyright © 2010 Krina Patel. Reproduced by permission of the illustrator.
1). My new year really did greet me with music, as it does for the wood critters in Adam’s sparkly-good illustration above. That’s to say I’ve been listening to some great new music, and this makes me happy. I am particularly wow’ed by Laura Marling’s CD, I Speak Because I Can, since every track is stellar and I can hardly believe she’s only something like twenty years old.
See what I mean? This is a perfect little folk song. And I mean to tell you the entire CD is impressive stuff.
Also, I love to watch Alain Johannes play. His latest CD is a tribute to his musician wife, who died of cancer in 2008, and it’s also good stuff. Watching his fingers here kinda makes my head spin, and also: Do you think I should get a tattoo that big on my arm, too? Maybe a mad tea party?
2). Finally read the very bizarre Nutcracker by E. T .A. Hoffman to my girls this Christmas. We read the Sendak-illustrated version OF COURSE, given my raging fan-dom for his work, and then we even fired up the ‘ol Netflix-stream-thingy to watch the 1986 feature-length film of the ballet, designed by The Great One himself.
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3). Narnia. Narnia. Narnia. I decided it’s time to read the series to my girls, and they are all wrapped up right now in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Have I ever mentioned that, hands down, My Favorite Thing Ever is reading to them? Right, I think I have maybe mentioned that just a few times here. (Cough, cough.) Anyway. This one is just magical, seeing as how they are totally. hanging. on. every. word.
You know it’s a good morning when you look up, it’s something like noon, and you realize you’ve been head-down in a novel all morning with your children, even if you were supposed to be busy doing something else all that time. (This, ahem, describes my yesterday and why I’m behind on stuff. I blame C.S. Lewis.)
4). January and February aren’t my favorite months. It’s not really the cold weather per se. I don’t know what it is, actually. I’ll have to give that some thought. But I will say that something about the new year does make one feel as if she or he can better face challenges / ambitious projects, yes? Wouldn’t you agree? There are days when writing a book, as I’ve mentioned previously, makes me want to hide my head under the covers, as it does for many authors (and illustrators, I’ve been told), but I feel sort of renewed and energized, what with 2011’s arrival. (We’ll see if that feeling lasts, once I get back to work on the writing and research.)
And, as a friend of mine said, all the ones in 1-1-11 must be lucky, right? (If I make it to age 105 and assuming blogs aren’t, I dunno, obsolete, I think we should really party down on 7-7-77.)
5). I love year-end (and especially decade-end) retrospectives of all sorts, and this “Decade In Sound” at NPR is particularly neat.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. I’ll close with a sixth kick, that I’m finally watching Season One of Flight of the Conchords. (Maybe I should start asking you all if you’re present every Sunday, all Murray-style. His roll calls never fail to crack me up.) As I’ve been composing this post, I’ve been jumping over to Facebook, talking to a friend about how funny these guys are, and it reminded me of my favorite scene/song (at least thus far) from Season One. As if you need MORE VIDEOS from me, but this is just funny. This is after Jemaine’s girlfriend has broken up with him:
What are YOUR kicks this week? If it’s not really Sunday, you’re just going to humor me, right?
Happy New Year, Jules!
I’ll be drooling all day over Krina’s food alphabet :). Narnia — how exciting. Wish I could listen while you’re reading the books aloud.
Here are a few kicks, even though it’s not really Sunday:
Nice holiday season, NH relatives visited.
7-Imp year end retrospective.
“The King’s Speech.” Renewed love for Colin Firth.
New Year’s dumpling soup!
Cybils shortlist!
Wishing everyone all good things in 2011!
We decided not to go out of town. Instead, we went to movies and restaurants we’d always wanted to try. Each film was more fantastic than the one we saw the day before. And the restaurants each offered something unusual and yummy.
The Movies: Love Actually, True Grit (Old and new), Mega Mind, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The King’s Speech, Black Swan, The Fighter.
The Restaurants: La Sombra, El Arbol, East Side Showroom
It was a bit like a mini film festival..
Hey! Happy New Year! Whoa, is this really 7 Kicks # 200? That’s madness.
Jules, those first two videos are beautiful! And of course FotC is awesome. And Narnia! Your girls will measure time from this moment: everything will be “before Narnia” and “after Narnia.”
Jama, I want to see The King’s Speech so bad.
Lindsey, I want to see ALL the movies you saw, and I think a DIY film fest is a brilliant way to spend a holiday.
My Kicks:
1. Going home to TN to see the family. My nephew gets cuter and funnier every time I see him. And seeing the extended family is great too.
2. Seeing Jules and her family too!
3. Playing Wii with my brother and sister.
4. Reading The Time Traveler’s Wife.
5. Watched Kick-Ass last night, and it’s amazing. Chloe Grace Moretz is the best child actress I’ve seen since Natalie Portman in The Professional.
6. My mom’s chocolate pecan pie, and my aunt’s chocolate chess pie, and my cousin’s smoked gouda mac & cheese. I ate really, REALLY well down there.
7. I volunteered to get bumped off my overbooked flight back to Ithaca, in exchange for a $200 travel voucher. So maybe I can go home for my nephew’s b-day, or go see my sister in CA this summer!
Happy New Year. I missed last week cuz’ I was out of town. Didn’t want to miss this week for the same reason.
I love Narnia, Jules.
Jama, I so want to see The King’s Speech.
And Black Swan is another, Lindsey.
Eisha, so could to read you here. Chocolate pecanpie, yummy!
My kicks:
Coast on New Years.
Saw an eagle this morning.
CYBILS shortlist.
My CYBILS panel to decide NFBP.
Crab and clam chowder
The weather cold but clear.
7-IMP each week.
Have a great week.
Jama, of course I thought of you when I saw Krina’s book. Plus, the alphabet, too. Bonus for you. Wishing you good things in 2011, too, Jama.
Lindsey, that sounds like fun. Speaking of Dawn Treader, after each chunk of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I’m showing the girls the corresponding part of the film. So, book first, then movie. In chunks. Kind of a weird way to do it, but they like it so far. I did this with The Wizard of Oz, too.
I think you’re right about Narnia, eisha. I think it will be that way for Piper, for sure. And guess what? My mac and cheese has gouda in it, too. Your cousin and I must have the same recipe. That is the best way, in my book, to eat mac and cheese.
Jone, the coast on New Year’s Eve. Color me jealous. We rang it in with family films, but I have to say, they were both really funny (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and How to Train Your Dragon).
Oh, good. It’s fairly quiet in the 7-Imp halls right now, so I can tiptoe back into the building after missing TWO FREAKING WEEKS OF KICKIN’ — without feeling that everybody’s staring at me with well-looky-who’s-here and nice-of-you-to-show-up-Mr.-Truant demeanors.
You’re right, Jules, that ice cream of Krina Patel’s looks mighty inviting. But I did very much like the talking jalapeño, who seems to be ogling his neighbor as he comments on her toothsomeness.
CONGRATULATIONS on your 200th! I mean, really beyond awesome — thousands upon thousands of Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things which you and others have taken time to record here since March 10, 2007…! Somebody could churn out a profitable heck of a lot of Happiness-Is-a-Warm-Puppy-type books just by plowing through all of that. The head swims.
I’m still bleary from the last couple of weeks, so who knows what I might have posted if I’d actually stopped by here. But for now, here are some recent kicks…:
* Paella for Christmas dinner, cooked on the grill. Ye gods was that good. (Especially factoring in that we’d never made it before.) We actually used it as an excuse to get a new grill — paella pan didn’t fit the old one — and so of course we just had to “break it in” so the paella wouldn’t be the first thing we cooked on it. Hence the hot dogs on Christmas Eve. Ha.
* Like you, Jules — now that I think about it, I could say thanks to you — 2010 introduced me to a heck of a lot of music I wouldn’t have discovered on my own. Sometimes my listening, in fact, threatened to swamp my reading, which is saying something. I now subscribe to four or five music-related blog feeds, vs. zero a year ago. In this last week I just discovered a country duo called Secret Sisters, whose first album came out a couple months ago — produced by T-Bone Burnett, no less. Here’s a video of them performing “The One I Love Is Gone.” More of that “How old did you say they were?!?” whiplash goin’ on.
* Speaking of sensory delights: The Missus totally rocked the fruitcake this year, with a recipe (adapted?) from Alton Brown. She stopped me from brushing or spritzing on one additional dose of booze during the, er, fermentation period. But d*mn, this was a good one.
* Identical Christmas gifts to my brother and sisters went over gratifyingly big this year. In brief, I’d (a) stumbled across some ooooold 78rpm records dear to all our hearts (featuring our dad, a drummer); (b) picked up a new, good, but inexpensive phonograph-to-USB thingum; (c) transcribed the records to digital form; and (d) went back through two of the recordings in microscopic detail, trying to remove as much of the hiss-pop-noise as I could. I put those two on CD, and created a second CD of purchased tracks featuring the same drum-and-bugle-corps group from the time that Dad was with them, and a little booklet of historical notes and such as I could find on the Web about the corps. Caught the sibs completely by surprise. That made me so happy.
* The Stepson seems to have found a job that will stick. He’s had to move about 2-1/2 hours west of here, and was around for Christmas for about 36 hours before he had to go back. So we miss him. But boy, fingers crossed and all that, boy did he need to find this job.
* Played a great board-type game yesterday over at The Stepdaughter’s house. Called “Loaded Questions,” it basically tests how well you know the other people you’re playing with. (I can see this would eliminate some groups/occasions, e.g. when somebody brings a new date who knows nobody — but a lot of fun otherwise.)
* Very much enjoyed watching The Pooch learn how to unwrap presents this year. We gave her one gift, which she “appreciated.” But she was going crazy watching all the humans continuing to open THEIR gifts. So we took some used giftwrap and wrapped up some of her existing toys, and gave them to her one at a time. It complicated cleanup, since we then had like a gazillion rice-sized scraps of paper to hoover up rather than one big sheet of paper per gift. Pretty entertaining nonetheless. 🙂
Have a great week and a wonderful New Year, everybody!
_____________________________
P.S. Rats. I just refreshed the page and saw that comments had, like, tripled while I dawdled over the above. Which means my shame at being away will triple as well. Curses. So much for doing a secretive ninja-style tiptoe around the halls.
Happy happy New Year Jules! And Happy happy 200th Kicks Day too!
Congratulations on making this such a fun, inviting, warm and wonderful place to share some appreciation for beautiful illustrations, as well as sharing simply good things!
(Makes me curious, I should go back and try to figure out when I went from being a lurker to joining in the fun.)
I love that the fox is playing/serenading while the squirrel dances through the snowfall…so lovely and so fun. There’s been none of that yet this winter in Portland, not really.
And those alphabet books by Krina look so vivid and fun – juicy jalapenos – yum!
Jules – you getting lost in reading Narnia to your girls makes me smile, and reminds me of when I first fell into that world. I’m with Eisha, they will use it as a benchmark.
Your music collection must be huge! Love the videos this week, and wow, what an old soul looks out from Laura Marling’s eyes as she stares into the camera!!
Jama- hooray for visiting relatives over the holidays and that New Year’s dumpling soup sounds so cozy.
Lindsey – that mini-film festival sounds so awesome! Every film you saw is on my list right now. (Except Love, Actually, that one’s an eternal favorite.)
Hi Eisha! Your holidays sounds like they were great! So glad you got to hang out with Jules, and so jealous of those chocolate pies!
Jone – the Coast and an eagle – what a great way to kick off the new year!
JES – puppy unwrapping presents sounds adorable.
My kicks this week:
1. An important compromise achieved.
2. A visit with my sweet Caloi.
3. Read and loved The Hunger Games. Off to get Catching Fire this week.
4. Got truffle oil as part of a gift. Cooked collard greens with it yesterday. Oh my, I think I may be in trouble, because they were the best collard greens EVER. I may try to put truffle oil on everything now.
5. Catching up and touching base with my core group of girlfriends. Phone calls full of laughter and tears, the best kind of catching up.
6.Watched both The Soloist and The Pickup Artist within days of each other. My love for RDJ and his ever-growing talent just grows.
7. Watched Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking and Ricky Gervais’ Out of England 2 – so damn funny.
Can’t wait to see Gervais on the Golden Globes.
Happy New Year everyone! And happy 200th kick day! Hope everyone has a wonderful first week of 2011!
Totally forgot my other kick. This video for Portlandia has been making the rounds here in Portland, but its silly and fun, and makes me think the series will be fun too.
Whoops! It didn’t embed – try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBt4HlcDUDw
Happy New Year all!
Jules, I love hearing about your family enjoying reading together, so lovely. And I’m listening to that first song as I type.
Jama, I got a film + dinner voucher for Christmas so maybe I should see the King’s Speech! Though you seem happy with your list too Lindsey, hmmm.
Chocolate pecan pie, Eisha? And a cute nephew? Perfect holiday.
JES, it’s so satisfying to give a surprise present that is perfect, well done!
Yum, truffle oil, Rachel! Will look out for it in the sales today!
My quick kicks as I’m about to head out (Monday here):
1. A lovely Christmas with our families. Relaxing and loving. Board games with ten people are mad though!
2. Remeber how I said I was enjoying all the rain a couple of weeks back? Well it is too much rain now. There are huge floods in my state of Queensland at the moment (apparently as much land as Germany and France combined) including water heading for my Dad’s town. However he will be fine, and there have been lots of great stories about people helping each other coming out of the flooded areas.
3. Moving hemispheres is the best thing to do if you like summer food – two seasons of stone fruit and asparagus and other yummy things in one year!
4. Spending days with my baby niece watching her seriously talk to us in her own language, and laugh a gorgeous belly laugh. She thinks lots of things in life are just hilarious.
Jules, Happy 200th!. Jes and Rachel, happy new year to you both. I can’t wait to see that Portlandia show.
Working today (boo), so flying by to wish everyone a fantastic, healthy, prosperous and happy new year! Happy 200 Kicking Sundays, Jules!
Happy 200th Sunday of Kicks, Jules, eisha, and the Imps! May 2011 bring each and every one of you joy and happiness.
The site wouldn’t load this morning or this afternoon, so I got worried. 🙂
Hello to Krina and Adam!
Jules: Listening to The Rambling Man as I type this. In the version of The Nutcracker your family read, is her name Marie or Clara? I think it’s neat that you’re reading tLtW&tW and viewing pieces of the film.
Jama: Kudos to Colin Firth. I’ve yet to see The King’s Speech, but I can say that I’ve liked every performance of his that I have seen.
Lindsey: Sounds like a fun run of films and food!
eisha: I’m glad that you had a fun and safe trip, and I know you’ll put that voucher to good use. I liked tTTWife. I have yet to see the film.
jone: Hello, morning. Hello, eagle.
JES: How fun, to treat your dog presents and the ripping open of said packages!
Rachel (rm): Hope the compromise was favorable and acceptable by all involved. BE good to yourself.
emmaco: Try to stay dry and warm!
My kicks from the past week:
1) Belief
2) Support
3) Trying ’til it works
4) Layers
5) Singing
6) Resting
7) Reading
P.S. I posted my picks for Best Books of 2010 at Bildungsroman if you care to check it out!
(Late, late, late. Up 6:30am this morning in London… 11 hour flight. Home in L.A. tonight. Whew.)
Jules and All, Happy New Year and Happy 200th 7-Imp 7-Kicks!
One of my “2010 inspirations” last was to come of out of the lurker closet and begin participating in 7-Imp’s Kicks; so, this is my personal 1-year anniversary. I’ve been enriched by the art and stories-behind-the-art featured by Jules and better informed about all sorts of kicker interests from food to music to film and of course, children’s books. So, glad to be a part.
I love the body language of Adam’s snow-dancing squirrel. And having just arrived back from a week in the U.K—I was particularly taken with Krina’s vinegar chips in their newspapery V basket.
Jules – I’m not sure about a whole big tea-party tattoo on your arm… but maybe a tiny teacup on your ankle? Ha! And your girls are so lucky to have a mom devoted to reading with them. Nothing beats ‘books-and-blankets’. Like your chapter/movie-segment approach.
jama – I’m with you on “The King’s Speech”; my renewed respect was for Geoffrey Rush. Will check out the Cybils shortlist; exciting.
Lindsey – going to steal your personal film festival idea. Too cool.
eisha – Chloe Moretz. yes. Look forward to watching her career. Going home to good food, friends/family sounds the perfect holiday.
jone – Eagle sighting (I wish.) Good luck with your NFPB Cyb delibs!
JES – We all SAW you sneak in Mr. Truant; but then your posts are so charming you write yourself right out of any demerits (right Jules?)
Your family gift sounds amazing – history on a CD. Kudos.
Rachel – your core-girlfriend joy prompts me to make some calls. Thx.
And just showed my son, home from college in Portland, the vid. : – )
emmaco – Sorry about the flooding. Baby hilarity is a wonderful thing.
Jill – hi! bye.
LW — Trying ‘til it works. (The story of my life.) Ha-ha!
And my own week-between-Christmas-to-New-Year’s kicks:
Every once-in-a-decade I completely luck into a fabulous experience – which somehow makes it all the more fabulous. This time I stumbled upon a four-day celebration in Scotland called “Hogmanay”. ???
My older son is interested, perhaps, in studying English Lit at Edinburgh University, so I planned a week’s visit there, which (to our surprise) just happened to coincide with one of the most impressive New Year’s celebrations on the planet: Edinburgh’s Hogmanay. Peek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYKjggdS-yY&feature=related
1. 6,000 Scotsmen carrying torches parade: A mile-long fiery snake reminiscent of scenes from movie “The 13th Warrior.” + bagpipes.
2. Candlelight concert in St. Giles cathedral (Bach & Mozart soared.)
3. Climbing to the top of Sir Walter Scott’s Monument; the city view!
(Ditto from the Edinburgh Castle.)
4. The Writer’s Museum (Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson) papers, photos, letters; a glimpse into their lives.
5.Tour beneath the city – of the medieval alleyways — “closes” — complete with stories of the plague, chimney sweeps and ghosts.
6. The Hogmanay New Year’s Eve Street Party with 80,000 friends.
7. Visiting “The Elephant Cafe” where J.K. Rowlings wrote the bulk of Harry Potter. Had a latte and just sat for a few minutes at one of the cozy wooden tables. Perfect.
Is it just me, or do there seem to be an inordinate number of extremely wonderful/exciting/festive kicks to start out this year? Dumplings, THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE, THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, eagle-spotting, 6,000 torch-bearing Scotsmen, and some good family fun… 2011 is looking good!
My Kicks:
1. Boogie-ing down with my five and seven-year-olds and some good friends at a potluck New Year’s Eve celebration and watching them strutting their stuff and absolutely loving it. (As one friend said, “Those kids have some mean dancing skills!”)
2. Witnessing the kids’ bliss at eating third helpings of homemade yeast rolls. (I never bake bread, but found a recipe you can keep in the fridge for two weeks, so we’ve had them three times since Christmas.)
3. Going ice skating with them, one on each arm, seeing them smile as they went from flopping around to being able to skate by themselves. They loved it so much they went round and round the rink until they got blisters on their feet and had to quit.
4. Watching David Byrne videos and rediscovering his genius as my boy laughed at his “crazy dancing.”
5. Working furiously on a new picture book text for two days until it was done (first of 200 drafts, of course!).
6. Re-reading poems by Poe, Coleridge, Carroll and others for the first time in a long time, in particular THE QUANGLE WANGLE’S HAT by Edward Lear, which I remembered from being a kid. Love “the Pobble who has no toes” and “the Dong with the luminous nose.”
7. Thinking about all of the new friends, new experiences, new places, and new ideas of 2010 and looking forward to 2011.
Happy New Year to all!
I’m not crying. (I’m really not.)
John, many wonderful kicks! And I heard the Secret Sisters this year, too. That T-Bone knows good talent when he sees it. I have one of their songs on my iPod. Is the rest of their CD really good? And, wow, that was a really, really thoughtful gift to your siblings.
Rachel, yes, “old soul” is what I thought, too, when I first heard Laura Marling. I just…just…really cannot get over how great every track is.
Truffle oil. MUST try and experience in my life. (We finished the first Narnia book today, and my six-year-old thinks Edmund’s obsession over Turkish Delight is hysterical. Must find her some.)…Haven’t seen The Pickup Artist, but I’ll go add it to the ‘ol queueueueue, since you all always recommend good movies (and I love RDJ, too). Oh, and thanks for the compliment on the kicks-posts!
That video is great (“Portland is where the young people go to retire”), and I love me some Fred Armisen.
Emmaco, yikes to the flooding, but glad to hear your dad is okay. …
…and I love board games. I’m kinda dangerous around them. And I’m so glad you get to see your niece so often now.
Thanks, Jill, and hi!
Little Willow, why, to answer your question, it’s Marie, but her doll is Clara. Why do you ask? Thanks for the list. Will check it out in the morning. My eyes are crossing now from fatigue, but I realized I hadn’t commented here.
Denise, Scotland! Jealous. Man, what a great trip you had. Congrats! Will watch the video in the a.m. And what did your son decide about studying there? … Happy one-year-commenting anniversary to you! I’m glad you participate, ever-so glad. Yes to what you said about John. OF COURSE.
Jessica, nope. Not just you. The year is starting off well for folks, it seems, especially what with your boogie-ing and ice skating and re-discovering great poetry and David Byrne. Woot!
Thanks for visiting, you all! I mean y’all.
Having just welcomed a new baby into the world, my 7 kicks for this first week of the year are definitely those 6 great kiddos of mine plus their 1 sweet mama.
Happy new year Jules!
– AZ
Denise: Trying is so important.
Jules: Because I think it’s interesting that it’s Marie (with Clara being her doll) in the original story E.T.A. Hoffmann, but Clara in other versions. 🙂
Hi again, Aaron! And congrats (which I also said over in the comments of my recap post, so I’m just being redundant, but congrats never get old, yes?)
Little Willow, I don’t remember the girl’s name in the film adaptation we watched (designed by Sendak), but, yes, it was definitely Marie in the book.