Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

That’s one of my favorite picture book spreads from 2011. Yes, indeedy, it is.

This morning over at Kirkus I will be discussing the wonderful beginning reader series from TOON Books (a Candlewick imprint), which has been going strong since 2008. There are two new 2011 TOON titles, and this morning I briefly discuss the latest one. The link is here.

Last week, I talked about some new picture book biographies. The link is here, if you missed it. Today is when I show you some artwork from each of those titles here at 7-Imp, and I’m going to throw in, at the bottom, some spreads from a book I wanted to mention last week, yet didn’t have the room to mention: Marissa Moss’s Nurse, Soldier, Spy: The Story of Sarah Edmonds, a Civil War Hero (Abrams, March 2011), illustrated by John Hendrix. More on that in a moment.

But, first, here are some illustrations to pore over. Remember, to read about them, hit last week’s Kirkus column. Below is the artwork only. Oh! But also: Bonnie Christensen, who visited me for breakfast here in 2009, not only shares some artwork below from her picture book biography of Andy Warhol, but she talks a bit about it, as well as discusses her process for creating the art. Incidentally, Bonnie also had the opportunity years ago, while working in New York theatre, to perform with Warhol “superstars” Taylor Mead, Viva, and Ultra Violet in The Rites of Spring, written and directed by Taylor Mead, at the Actors Studio. Bonnie addresses that below, too. Bonus!

Enjoy.

Bonnie: The artwork was a complicated process. I wanted to create a sense of Warhol’s work, so I started with black and white photos which I collaged. As you can see, the figures are drawn, then cut out and collaged onto the photo backgrounds. Black and white photocopies of the collages were then made and transferred to canvas using an acrylic medium process that no one understands when I explain it. There are many steps and lots of blogs describing exactly how it’s done. The final step is washing/scrubbing the photocopy paper off the canvas to reveal the b&w ink. I then hung my paintings out to dry, and it struck me as odd, so I took a photo.

The final step is painting with oil and oil pastel.

It was a lot of fun, and I particularly loved making the ‘faux’ Warhols that you see throughout the book. The Dick Tracy painting on the jacket has a dialogue balloon that says, ‘Among other disguises she poses as a clarinet play. Goes by the name Emily and has a wicked sense of humor.’ This is a precise description of my daughter, just automatic writing to fill the balloon. Didn’t even notice it until a friend pointed it out. And it worked well, because I hide the name ‘Emily’ on the jackets of all my books.

{As for} the Warhol connection, I {once} worked at the New York Shakespeare Festival in New York and met Taylor Mead when he was in a show I was working. I also had an observership at the Actors Studio, and Taylor was putting together a play (as in, ‘let’s do a play’). Viva and Ultra Violet and Michael J. Pollard were in it, along with a son of ‘the’ Whitney family. My role was to impersonate both Katharine Hepburn and James Cagney before being carried off stage by the Whitney dressed as a body builder. I was in a flowing evening gown. The Studio was packed, and we all had a great time. Just wish I had a photo! I later ran into Taylor at Elaine’s, and he invited me to be in another play in which I was to be an outer space bird that swooped to earth and grabbed up garbage. For some strange reason, this show never seemed to materialize.

{Note: For more on this book, you really don’t want to miss Jama Rattigan’s excellent post.}

As mentioned above, here’s one more recent picture book biography, released in March by Abrams, Marissa Moss’s Nurse, Soldier, Spy: The Story of Sarah Edmonds, a Civil War Hero (Abrams, March 2011), illustrated by John Hendrix. Didn’t make it in my Kirkus column last week, but I can share some spreads from it here today at 7-Imp.

This biography tells the story of a Civil War heroine who assumes the identity of a man in order to fight. In fact, when Sarah was only nineteen years old, “she had already been dressing as a man for three years. Originally, she had cut her brown wavy hair and put on pants to escape a marriage arranged by her parents.” Damn skippy. That’s one way to do it! Moss continues:

She had run away, crossing the border from Canada into the United States, trading a bridal gown for trousers, trading countries, without one single regret. Once she discovered the freedom of taking big strides unhindered by heavy skirts, and the freedom to travel when and where she wanted, she couldn’t put a dress back on.

Going by “Frank Thompson,” she eventually joins the fighting, works as a nurse and soldier, and is sent, disguised as a free slave, to spy in a Confederate camp.

This book is a force of nature. “Hendrix’s…artwork is, as usual, a showstopper,” writes Publishers Weekly, “and his bold caricatures, dominated by midnight blues and sunset golds, convey Edmonds’s strength and determination; brief quotations in massive type streak across certain spreads, delivering emotional wallops… For her part, Moss…delivers a riveting narrative, making it clear that Edmonds was fighting for more than one kind of freedom.” As I’ve said before here at 7-Imp (he also visited here in ’09), it’s galvanic illustrations like John’s that make his career one I like to watch these days. He simply does not shy from drama, and I think PW‘s “showstopper” says it all.

And if only all picture book biographies could close with the source notes this one closes with: A truly informative and hardly indulgent (as they can sometimes be) Author’s Note and Artist’s Note; a glossary; the author’s bibliography; and the illustrator’s bibliography. (YES, the artist’s bibliography. Just so cool, that.) There are also photos of Sarah and an index. In Betsy Bird’s detailed review, she notes a basic timeline would make her even happier—yes, that would be ideal—but this is truly impressive closing matter in the book here.

Here are some spreads. Click each to enlarge. Enjoy.

THE QUITE CONTRARY MAN: A TRUE AMERICAN TALE. Copyright © 2011 by Patricia Rusch Hyatt. Illustrations copyright © 2011 by Kathryn Brown. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Abrams, New York, NY.

FABULOUS! A PORTRAIT OF ANDY WARHOL. Copyright © 2011 by Bonnie Christensen. Published by Christy Ottaviano Books/Henry Holt, New York, NY. Images reproduced by permission of Ms. Christensen.

WHEN BOB MET WOODY: THE STORY OF THE YOUNG BOB DYLAN. Copyright © 2011 by Gary Golio. Illustrations copyright © 2011 by Marc Burckhardt. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Little, Brown and Company, New York, NY.

NURSE, SOLDIER, SPY: THE STORY OF SARAH EDMONDS, A CIVIL WAR HERO. Copyright © 2011 by Marissa Moss. Illustrations copyright © 2011 by John Hendrix. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Abrams, New York, NY.