7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #422: Featuring Kristof Devos

This morning, I’ve got some spreads from Pimm van Hest’s Weatherboy, illustrated by Kristof Devos. The book was first published last year in Belgium and Holland and has been translated from the Dutch by Clavis Publishing. It is on shelves this month, and pictured above is the cover art.
It’s the story of a boy whose moods dictate the weather: “When he was happy, the sun shone, and when he was sad, the clouds cried too.” Everyone starts to call him “Weatherboy” and make terrible demands upon him. When folks want warm weather for the beach, they hope for illness to beset him so that he’ll have a fever. If their sunflowers need rain, they ask him to cry. This makes him sad, which casts his village into a dark fog.
Feeling alone, even among his family, he leaves town. He finds a small house in a tree and lives there, alone. A boy who loves frost and snow heads out onto the ice one day and later meets Weatherboy. His presence makes Weatherboy happy. They have so much fun that “they didn’t even notice that the world was slowly thawing.” Afraid that his friend might leave, Weatherboy opens the refrigerator door to let cold fill their small house again. In the end, Weatherboy comes to the conclusion that he must tell his friend—and, really, all the world—to accept him just as he is. “This is who I am!” he says triumphantly as he floats along “golden rays of sunshine.”
If he had an outburst of anger there was thunder and lightning, and when he sneezed suddenly the trees bent over and people were blown off their bikes.
Before long, everyone started calling him ‘Weatherboy.'”
(Click to enlarge)
And that’s the end of the story. It’s abrupt, and it remains to be seen how his friend will respond. But Weatherboy has done what he must do to find his own happiness. It’s a story that works on more than one level, and I’ve been thinking about it all week.
Below are some more of Kristof Devos’ beguiling spreads from the book (without the text). …
‘Does Weatherboy have a fever? It’ll be a perfect beach day!’ This made Weatherboy very sad and when that happened, the village disappeared into a dark and gloomy fog.”
(Click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge)

Farther and farther.”
(Click to enlarge)


(Click either image to see spread in its entirety)

ice skating! Every day! He was on the ice from early morning till late at night.
But soon that wasn’t enough. He wanted to skate farther. Farther and farther.”
(Click to enlarge)
WEATHERBOY. Text copyright © 2014 by Pimm van Hest. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Kristof Devos. Published by Clavis Publishing, New York. Illustrations reproduced by permission of Krisof Devos.
Note for any new readers: 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.
My big kick is that I’m in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina, right now to visit friends and talk about Wild Things at Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe. But do tell me …
What are YOUR kicks this week?
Thanks Jules,
for paying attention/reviewing our book.
Warm greetings from Eindhoven, the Netherlands from me, PiMM, a.k.a. ‘the real Weatherboy’ 🙂
PiMM
Weatherboy, wow, I can see how this book would stay with you. There is a poignancy about it.
Jules, enjoy your weekend.
Pimm, so glad your book has been brought to the U.S.
My kicks:
1. Going to the Owl Fest at Tryon Creek State Park. Saw a great horned owl and a northern spotted owl that are in the care of the Audobon Society.
2. Cat in the Hat Library Night.
3. Time with friends.
4. Reconnecting with someone I’ve know since second grade.
5. Writing.
6. Participating in the annual Slice of Life Story Challenge for March.
7. Sunshine.
Have a great week.
Good morning, Imps and Kristof!
Have fun, Jules! 🙂
Kicks from the past week:
1) Rehearsals
2) Auditions
3) Songs
4) Staying warm
5) Seeing is believing
6) Balancing
7) Control
Love the stark beauty of some of these spreads, the emotion of Weatherboy really comes through in a haunting way. Lovely.
Hope your talk at Malaprop went great Jules!
Jone – I love Tryon Creek, the Owl Festival sounds fun!
LW – yay for rehearsals, and your kick #5 makes me curious – what did you see?
My kicks this week:
1) More winter sunshine.
2) Very busy work week.
3) A special training class with Daisy – very proud of my smart girl.
4) This struck a chord with me – The Museum of 4 in the Morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0byYFXjRJM
5) A visit from a friend who lives far away. Daisy was kind enough to sleep with him in the guest room in case he missed his dog.
6) Dinner with same friend and another mutual friend – good food, good wine, and good company are some of my favorite things.
7) Spring! All the possibilities of the new!
Have a lovely bloom-filled week!
My kicks:
1. featured on 7imp 😉
2. sunshine and eyelashes on my cheek.
Rachel: As someone whose life is filled with synchronicity, I liked that TED Talk a lot. Thanks for sharing! 🙂 To answer your question, something I filmed.
Kristof: Make a wish! (on the eyelashes…)
My Kicks:
1. my boyfriend returning from Vienna after 6 days of not seeing each other
2. our daughter returning home from Amsterdam after a two-days-sleep-over with my brother, my sister-in-law and their 2-year-old daughter Zoë
3. being able to tell the whole world that we’ve been featured on 7imp
4. the first 20 degrees Celsius this winter/spring after a horrible ‘warm’ winter
5. seeing our hairdresser after 6 hopeless bay-hairday-weeks
6. seeing our 2 dogs, Splinter and Zorro, go out of their mind after being reunited with my boyfriend Eduard after 6 days (they haven’t eaten since he left)
7. making our own kitchen garden this week
🙂 Love from MMe, PiMM from The Netherlands
I’ll be back tomorrow! I got back from Asheville LATE. More soon.
Here I am.
Pimm, waving to you from Tennessee. Glad the whole family is reunited again.
Jone, I love the very idea of an OwlFest and so would my oldest daughter.
Little Willow, have you all actually had chilly weather? Or did you get to travel?
Rachel, I love kick #5. Thoughtful dog. Thanks for the link, which I”ll watch in a second here.
Hi, Kristof!
Have a good week, all …
I don’t have the time or stamina to think of 7 (it’s after 2am), but I’ll mention one!…
On Saturday I attended the Grand Re-Opening of the Bank Street Bookstore and had a fanTASTic time! I met some wonderful people (including Betsy Bird, your pal) and got to hear a friend read her debut book. What a day 😀
AND, this book is so fresh and imaginative, I can’t wait to see and hear all about Weatherboy 🙂 Thanks for the review, Julie 🙂
Hello. I love your site. I wish you had a subscribe by email feature. If you do. I couldn’t find it.
Your blog is wonderful, but I’m afraid it will get lost in my see of book marks if I don’t get an email. And my rss is unreliable at best.
Thanks anyway.
Lynetta
I can always ask about a subscribe feature, Constance. I’ll try to do that soon. Thanks!