Hats Off to Brimsby …

Well, yesterday’s ALA Youth Media Awards announcements were exciting. Onwards and upwards to 2014, yes?
On Sunday (here) I posted about Patricia Hruby Powell’s Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker (Chronicle Books, January 2014), illustrated by Christian Robinson, which is a terrific book and one of the first this year that makes me want to cheer.
Another new 2014 picture book that really sends me is Andrew Prahin’s Brimsby’s Hats (Simon & Schuster, February 2014), which I recently reviewed for BookPage. I love this book more and more every time I read it, and that’s saying a lot, ’cause I immediately fell for it. It’s really wonderful in many different directions, but I’ll just send you to the BookPage review. (I’m even opening this post with the cover image, which I don’t normally do, because I love it so.)
And then, if you’re so inclined, you can come back here, because Andrew shares some early sketches and final art from the book here at 7-Imp today. See below. I thank him.
Enjoy!




It was quiet. Very quiet. Too quiet. One day the hat maker realized
he had become awfully lonely …”
(Click either image to see spread in its entirety, which you really MUST do!)
(Click either image to see spread in its entirety)
carried it through the snow.”
and he worked just a little bit more.”
(Click either image to see spread in its entirety, which you also MUST do!)

NOTE: The above quotes from the book come from an F&G and could always be subject to change.
BRIMSBY’S HATS. Copyright © 2014 by Andrew Prahin. Published by Simon & Schuster, New York. All images here reproduced by permission of Andrew Prahin.
Brimsby totally enchanted me. Thanks for sharing the sketches and art. Those small illustrations of his “quiet days” are perfect.
That looks good. I really like the 12 frames with the passing of time.
I was ready for something so gentle and so lovely after a crazy time recently. Thank you so much for sharing. Looking forward to the book.
Glad you like it, too, Laurina! …. LW, I love that spread. … Allison, if you read it, lemme know what you think!
j.