What I’m Up To at Kirkus This Week,
Plus What I Did Last Week, Featuring
JoAnn E. Kitchel, James Ransome, & Øyvind Torseter

then pulled it along, singing quack, quack, quack.”
— From Jacqueline Woodson’s This Is the Rope: A Story from
the Great Migration, illustrated by James Ransome
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Six million skeletons rest peacefully in this underground cemetery.
Bones of every shape and size line the damp, stone walls.”
— From Anna Harwell Celenza’s Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre,
illustrated by JoAnn E. Kitchel
(Click to enlarge)
This morning over at Kirkus, I write about Stephen Davies’ Don’t Spill the Milk!, illustrated by Christopher Corr. That link is here.
Last week, I wrote here about three new picture books (simply ’cause I couldn’t decide on just one) — Anna Harwell Celenza’s Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre, illustrated by JoAnn E. Kitchel and released by Charlesbridge this month; Øyvind Torseter’s The Hole, released by Enchanted Lion this month and originally published in Norwegian; and Jacqueline Woodson’s This Is the Rope: A Story from the Great Migration, illustrated by James Ransome and to be released by Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin later this month.
Below are some illustrations from each book. (For the illustrations in Øyvind Torseter’s The Hole, the tiny, hollow circle outlined in a reddish color that you see on each spread represents the small, die-cut hole that works its way through the book’s center, so you’ll have to imagine that part.)
Enjoy.
a long time ago back home in South Carolina.
This is the rope my grandmother skipped under the shade of a sweet-smelling pine.”
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he visited Henri and asked for a copy of his poem.”
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Augusta sang Camille’s composition with great passion and emotion. …”
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a lilting melody floated up from the orchestra.”
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SAINT-SAENS’S DANSE MACABRE. Copyright © 2013 by Anna Harwell Celenza. Illustrations copyright © 2013 by JoAnn E. Kitchel. Published by Charlesbridge, Watertown, MA. Illustrations used with permission of the publisher.
THE HOLE. First American edition copyright © 2013 by Enchanted Lion Books, Brooklyn, NY. Translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson. Illustrations used with permission of the publisher.
THIS IS THE ROPE: A STORY FROM THE GREAT MIGRATION. Copyright © 2013 by Jacqueline Woodson. Illustrations copyright © 2013 by James Ransome. Published by Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin, New York. Illustrations used with permission of the publisher.