« What I’m Doing at Kirkus This Week,
Plus What I Did Last Week, Featuring Jessica Ahlberg
Seven Questions Over Breakfast with Debbie Ridpath Ohi »

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #466: Featuring Andrea D’Aquino

h1 January 17th, 2016 by jules


“Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea.
‘I don’t see any wine,’ she remarked.”
(Click to enlarge)


 

I’ve got the artwork today of art director, illustrator, and graphic designer Andrea D’Aquino. In this, her debut, she provides illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as part of a series from Rockport Publishers, called Classics Reimagined. D’Aquino’s interpretation of this story is bold, beautiful, and surreal; her watercolor, collaged artwork provides a modern, fresh look at a story many know so well. It’s a thoughtfully-bound book; go here and scroll down to see images of how the publisher worked quotes into the book’s exterior. (They put quotes on the page’s edges, a nice touch.)

Andrea shares quite a bit of art below from the book, so let’s get right to it so that you can see for yourself. I thank her for sharing!



 


“Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank,
and of having nothing to do ….”


 


“Poor Alice!”


 


“‘I wish I hadn’t cried so much!’ said Alice,
as she swam about, trying to find her way out.”
(Click to enlarge)


 



 


“However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again,
the Dodo suddenly called ‘The race is over!’ ….”


 



 


“Alice knew it was the Rabbit coming to look for her,
and she trembled till she shook the house ….”


 


“Alice noticed with some surprise that the pebbles were
all turning into little cakes as they lay on the floor ….”
(Click to enlarge)


 


“‘Who are you?’ said the Caterpillar.”


 


“‘…Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose …'”


 


“‘There’s certainly too much pepper in that soup!’ Alice said to herself ….”
(Click to enlarge)


 


“‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat. …”


 


“‘Then you should say what you mean,’ the March Hare went on.”


 


“‘Are their heads off?’ shouted the Queen.”


 


“Alice thought she had never seen
such a curious croquet-ground in all her life ….”


 


“‘I’d rather not,’ the Cat remarked.”


 


“The Queen’s argument was, that if something wasn’t done about it in less than no time, she’d have everybody executed all round.”


 



 


 


“‘What fun!’ said the Gryphon,
half to itself, half to Alice.”


 


“‘We called him Tortoise because he taught us,’ said the Mock Turtle angrily ….”


 



 


“‘I’m a poor man, your Majesty,’ he began.”


 


An unpublished piece from the book


 

 

ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. Copyright © 2015 by Rockport Publishers. Illustrations and cover art by Andrea D’Aquino. Published by Rockport Publishers, Beverly, Massachusetts. All illustrations reproduced by permission of Andrea D’Aquino.

* * *

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.

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *

1) Last week was my first visit to Austin, Texas.

2) At the MLA conference I attended in Austin, I may have been the lone librarian there, as well as one of the few non-full-time academics, but the children’s lit people I met there were awfully nice.

3) While in Austin, I saw Dave Rawlings Machine live, and it was incredible.

4) Also, I can’t get over how FLIPPIN’ good the new CD is.

5) While in Austin, I also met a lot of wonderful people, including Liz Garton Scanlon, Don Tate, and Chris Barton:

6) Unfortunately, I got some kind of flu after traveling but not until AFTER the ALA Youth Media Awards announcements on Monday, which were very fun.

7) I’m reading this to my girls (check out the beautiful anniversary-edition cover)—a book that was assigned reading for me in elementary school and, I think, one of the best children’s books ever—and it’s a pleasure to read this prose aloud.

 



 

What are YOUR kicks this week?





11 comments to “7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #466: Featuring Andrea D’Aquino”

  1. What a fresh take on this classic tale. Love it.
    Jules, Roll of Thunder is one of my favorites. So glad you had a good time in Austin. Hope you’re feeling better.
    My kicks:
    1. Intense professional development training all week.
    2. That my principal didn’t pull me to sub when there was a shortage. It would have been the easy solution.
    3. Book club tonight. Discussing The Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra.
    4. Family Library Night.
    5. Postcards.
    6. The Blacklist.
    7. Listening to a friend’s music Friday night with husband and friends.
    Have a great week.

         by jone January 17th, 2016 at 10:31 am

  2. Happy Sunday, Imps! Hope your week was full of good kicks.

    Yay for Alice art! Thank you, Andrea and Jules.

    Jules: I’m glad that you had fun. I’m sorry you were sick. I hope you feel better soon.

    Jone: Three cheers for music and friends.

    My kicks for the past week:
    1. Worth
    2. Enough
    3. Clearly
    4. Because
    5. All right
    6. Already
    7. Ready

         by Little Willow January 17th, 2016 at 11:03 am

  3. Thanks, you all. I’m ready to feel better too. Jone, yay for kick #2! LW: Kicks 4-6 read really quickly have an all-new meaning: Because allright already.

    Have a good week, you two!

         by jules January 17th, 2016 at 12:20 pm

  4. D’Aquino’s illustrations are so strange and wonderful! For me, nonsense/non-sense always has an out-of-control and eerie quality to it, like many nursery rhymes (Ashes, ashes, we all fall down = reference to the Plague) and these illustrations (that Queen of Hearts!) get me right to the same spot – fantastic. Thanks for featuring them, Jules.

         by Julie Larios January 17th, 2016 at 12:54 pm

  5. It is such fun seeing all the historical looks back and the looks forward for a book like Alice and Wonderland in this anniversary year! Thank you for sharing this latest one, Jules, I love them.

    My kicks:
    1. Turned 68 on Tuesday and took the day off which is rare for me, read older and newer children’s books almost all day, a true treat!
    2. RIF’s 50th anniversary Gala in May and the national children’s virtual party in the fall are coming along, more to come!
    3. Received my copy of FREEDOM IN CONGO SQUARE by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie…what a treat. For this child of the south who spent real time in New Orleans and continue to love to visit there it was a particularly special book to read over and over. Greg’s illustrations so evoke the spirit and feelings of New Orleans; I could hear the music, feel the rhythms…and the pain.
    4. Lots of football on TV this weekend, I love it!
    5. A friend made beef bourguignon for my dinner last night. Heavenly.
    6. A great Children’s Books section in the New York Times today with Leonard Marcus reviewing four books on friendship for young children, a middle-grade novel reviewed and a great Bookshelf of “oldies but goodies”, two novels about twins growing up and the first of Alexandra Bracken’s new series…what a section!
    7. Probably less than two weeks now and my third grandson arrives, I am so excited!

    Have a good week all!

         by Carol Hampton Rasco January 17th, 2016 at 1:42 pm

  6. Thanks for sharing this. Isn’t it lovely how Alice keeps inspiring artists–year after year after year.

         by Kathleen Krull January 17th, 2016 at 4:05 pm

  7. Beautiful artwork, I particularly love the Gryphon. The feel/mood of the illustrations put me in mind of the movie Dream Child (about the real Alice), very otherworldly and haunting.

    Jules – so glad you had such fun in Austin! And that you are feeling better.

    Jone – what a lovely week! Have fun at book club.

    LW – I’m with Jules, only for all your kicks read as a sentence. You are Clearly Worth Everything.

    Happy belated birthday Carol! I hope there was cake with that beef bourguignon. I’ll have to check out FREEDOM IN CONGO SQUARE.

    My kicks this week:
    1) Good work week.
    2) Connecting 2 friends, 1 is moving from overseas to the other’s city & needs a friendly face, which the other is happy to provide. I am lucky to know such good people.
    3) Read LAIR OF DREAMS, by Libba Bray.
    4) Read LIBRARY OF SOULS, by Ransom Riggs.
    5) Good news from a former client who is doing so very well.
    6) Friday night eating boiled crawfish at my favorite place for New Orleans food, with a friend who’d never had them before. He is now hooked.
    7) Working on improving my luck for the next 30 days. So far so good.
    7.5) Daisy in the rain – we got caught in a downpour & she really wanted to turn around for home, but we kept going, then home to showers/baths for dogs & people, & snuggling on the sofa afterwards.

    Have a wonderful week everyone!

         by Rachel January 17th, 2016 at 4:46 pm

  8. Happy belated birthday, Carol!

    Jules: Yep. Yep.

    Thanks for that, Rachel!

         by Little Willow January 17th, 2016 at 5:11 pm

  9. Andrea’s art for Alice in Wonderland is so FUN and fantastical…a breath of fresh air. I especially love the Mad Tea Party (Julie: are you looking for a page header to use this one for on 7-Imp??), the Cheshire Cat and the Gryphon. ♡

         by Susan Sorrell Hill January 17th, 2016 at 8:14 pm

  10. Thanks, Julie and Kathleen. Beguiling work, yes.

    Carol: Happy birthday again, and I didn’t realize you had a grandbaby coming so soon. That’s exciting! … I wrote about Freedom in Congo Square for my Kirkus column this week. I also really like it.

    Rachel, it must feel really good to hear happy news from former clients. I hope they realize how lucky they are to have worked with you. (At least that’s how I feel!) Hugs to Daisy.

    Susan: I did think about that for a mad tea party header, but I’m WAY behind in getting Steve Light’s up on my blog. I’m very behind on blog maintenance in general; it bums me out. I need one of Hermione’s Time-Turners to find time to do it all.

    Have a good week, all!

         by jules January 18th, 2016 at 5:00 pm

  11. I absolutely love these Alice illustrations. Will definitely show these to my students in my Oxford Fantasy Writers course.

         by Caroline McAlister January 20th, 2016 at 9:14 pm

Leave a Comment


Should you have trouble posting, please contact sevenimp_blaine@blaine.org. Thanks.