« Blog Break
Because I Want Even More of Julia … »

Hey, my blog said it forgives me, and I’m back in
(just in time for a week-long blog break, though) …

h1 July 28th, 2014 by jules


“‘Children, stand up.’ Mother smiled. They pushed their chairs back and stood up.
‘This is your sister. … Loretta Mason Potts … but it’s not Potts any more.
She has come to live with us—at last.'”


 

Granted, I’m not so sure what I did to my blog, but it’d had enough of my nonsense and packed its bags last week and went to some remote island resort — and without leaving me the keys. As I noted in yesterday’s quickie post (it had to be brief, lest the blog kick me out again), I just couldn’t get in to edit a post without the blog hanging on me and kicking me out repeatedly, but my smart tech-support husband managed to figure it out. At least we think … we hope that it’s finally fixed.

BUT … I had planned on announcing a week-long blog break anyway (for other reasons), which I’m still going to do. I can leave you with this art below, though. It’s what I had intended on posting last Friday. A couple weeks back, I wrote about The New York Review Children’s Collection’s reissue of Mary Chase’s children’s novel Loretta Mason Potts (pictured above), originally published in 1958 and illustrated by Harold Berson. So, I have some art from that book today. Bonus: The folks over at the New York Review also sent some art from some of their other reissues, which makes me very happy. (This means there’s art below from the likes of Lillian Hoban, Marc Simont, and William Pène du Bois, to name a few. I embiggened their names here, just ’cause I like seeing their art and get excited.)

Also: Over at Kirkus on Friday, I wrote about Ben Hatke’s newest project, a picture book called Julia’s House for Lost Creatures. That link is here.

Next week I’ll have some art from Ben Hatke, as well as some from Bob Graham, since I chatted with him last Thursday.

Enjoy the art below … And I will be back here at 7-Imp in about a week.



 

Art from Mary Chase’s Loretta Mason Potts (1958), illustrated by Harold Berson


 


“The Countess threw back her head and laughed a silvery, tinkling laugh. ‘How very amusing!’ She waved her little fan. ‘How utterly, utterly refreshing!’ And all of them laughed gaily again as Loretta grinned and kicked her feet back and forth.”


 


“He got up and followed her into her room, watched her walk into the closet and push against the wall. There was the tunnel!”


 


“There it lay. A dollhouse of a mansion with the broad stone steps no bigger than the width of his hand. Why, he could step over and kick it with his foot
and it would tumble down.”


 



 

Art from Ruth Krauss’ The Backward Day (1950), illustrated by Marc Simont


 


“He put on his shoes. Over his shoes, he put on his socks.
Then he turned his head backward as far as he could, to see over his shoulder,
and he walked backward out of his room and backward down the stairs.”


 


“‘Time to go to bed,’ he said and got up from the table.
He turned his head backward as far as he could, to see over his shoulder,
and walked backward out the breakfast room.”


 



 

Art from Barbara Sleigh’s
The Kingdom of Carbonel (1961),
illustrated by Richard Kennedy


 


“The black cat had slipped from her and melted into the other shadows.”



 

Art from Barbara Sleigh’s Carbonel and Calidor (1978), illustrated by Charles Front


 




 

Art from Maria Gripe’s The Glassblower’s Children (1973), illustrated by Harald Gripe


 


“Klas sat still as a mouse in his corner and watched one glistening bubble after another swell up, conjured out of Albert’s long glassblowing pipe.”


 


“It is not known how she got hold of him—whether she caught him herself,
for instance—but she’d always had him, and he was a very remarkable creature.”


 



 

Art from Esther Averill’s Jenny and the Cat Club
(very first published in 1944)


 


“By evening the garden was entirely white. Jenny stole outdoors and hunted in the drifts. She found snowflakes shaped like flowers
and stars and spiderwebs—but no skates.”


 


“How proud she was to teach them how to dance the sailor’s hornpipe!”



 

Art from Rumer Godden’s The Mousewife (1967), illustrated by William Pène du Bois


 


“…[I]n winter they were bare until the snow came and they were white with snow.
The mousewife saw all these through the windowpane,
but she did not know what they were.”


 


“The dove kept his wings folded. The mousewife thought him large and strange and ugly with the speckles on his breast and his fine down.”


 


“He told her these things as a dove would see them, as it flew, and the mousewife, who was used to creeping, felt her head growing as dizzy as if she were spinning on her tail, but all she said was, ‘Tell me more.'”
(Click to enlarge illustration and see in more detail)



 

Art from Russell Hoban’s The Sorely Trying Day (1964), illustrated by Lillian Hoban


 


“Mother was saying, ‘Stop that!’
But the children would not stop.”


 


“‘Dora did not tell you everything. I did not strike her until she sat heavily on the ship model I was building. When I complained about that, she pulled my hair.'”


 



 

* * * * * * *

All art is posted by permission of The New York Review Children’s Collection.





8 comments to “Hey, my blog said it forgives me, and I’m back in
(just in time for a week-long blog break, though) …”

  1. The Countess threw back her head and laughed a silvery, tinkling laugh.

    Y’know, I almost always find it at least mildly amusing when somebody uses a construction like “BWA-HA-HA-HAHAHA!” in a Facebook post or comment to indicate sudden noisy laughter. But maybe the world (at least the online version) needs more silvery and tinkling laughter. Not sure how to indicate it, though, short of “Tee-hee-hee!” and such. *shudder*

    Enjoy your break, Jules — and get ready for the roller-coaster in just a few days!

         by JES July 28th, 2014 at 11:00 am

  2. Oh thank you for these drawings – love that cat looking up at the broomstick and passengers! I wonder if that is the firecat with Jenny? (I only remember the image – need to figure that out.) So glad you figured out blog recalcitrance – wishing you a really good week!

         by Katy Gilmore July 28th, 2014 at 4:52 pm

  3. Just to say–those Wild Things posts you and Elizabeth have been doing are so entertaining and informative and inspiring and fun and…you are forgiven any and all.

         by Tricia Springstubb July 29th, 2014 at 4:22 pm

  4. Amazing illustrations. So lucky to get to see them here. I only knew The Backward Day.

    Hope you have a good blog break (or are having it now…)

         by Allison July 30th, 2014 at 12:23 am

  5. I auditioned for a project yesterday that had something in common* with one of these stories. I’ll take that as a good sign.

    * Sadly, not the cats.

         by Little Willow August 3rd, 2014 at 9:23 am

  6. Hi Kickers,
    Fly by today…great art and great kicks. Am with my college pals this weekend. We go home today.

         by Jone August 3rd, 2014 at 10:02 am

  7. Is there some way I can follow this blog? Can’t seem to find any place to sign up. Just found it and it looks so fun, but I don’t trust my memory to go back to it at some future date.

         by Mary August 4th, 2014 at 4:21 pm

  8. Mary, I’m so sorry about that. The RSS feed needs to be fixed. I’ll ask my husband (my personal tech support) to do that as soon as he can! Hope that helps.

         by jules August 4th, 2014 at 8:59 pm

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