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What I’m Doing at Kirkus This Week,
Plus What I Did Last Week, Featuring
Peter Brown, Milan Pavlovic, and Jillian Tamaki

h1 May 13th, 2016 by jules


“There was only one place Brightbill could have gone. The robot gravesite.
So Roz galloped northward.”
— From Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot


 


“‘He’s here!’ she yelled, and ran outside. The moment her father stepped out,
Gertie threw her arms around him, and he
hugged her back so hard he lifted her off the ground.”
— From Kate Beasley’s Gertie’s Leap to Greatness,
illustrated by Jillian Tamaki


 


“While I was spying on them, kind of wondering what Kabungo would say next, Miss VeDore looked up and said in her whispery way, ‘Have a seat, dear. And … some tea?'”
— From Rolli’s Kabungo, illustrated by Milan Pavlovic


 

Over at Kirkus today, I write about Sergio Ruzzier’s new picture book, This Is Not a Picture Book! (Chronicle, May 2016). That is here. I’ll follow up next week with some art and preliminary images from the book.

* * *

Last week, I wrote here about four new novels, and since three of them are illustrated (Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot, published by Little, Brown in April; Kate Beasley’s Gertie’s Leap to Greatness, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki and coming by way of Farrar, Straus and Giroux in October; and Rolli’s Kabungo, illustrated by Milan Pavlovic and published by Groundwood Books in April), I’m sharing some art from them today. (Peter Brown threw in some early sketches, too.)

Enjoy!



 

From Rolli’s Kabungo,
illustrated by Milan Pavlovic:


 


“She sprang through the window like a wildcat. …
For a ten-year-old, Kabungo is mighty.”


 


“As I read the book, an amazing thing happened. Kabungo actually sat still. She paid attention. She listened. She was so excited to get to the next page and the next
that she sometimes flipped the page for me.”


 


“I’m not sure where she got the courage—it was thundering louder than ever—
but she suddenly let go of my legs, picked up her drumsticks and started drumming.”


 


“I didn’t recognize him at all,
but he was obviously the King of the Garbage Dump.”


 



 

From Kate Beasley’s
Gertie’s Leap to Greatness,
illustrated by Jillian Tamaki:


 


“‘This frog was completely and utterly dead,’ Gertie told the class. ‘And in the name of science, I rushed him to my aunt Rae’s kitchen. And using only everyday kitchen tools, I brought him back to life. That makes him’—she tore off the shoe box lid, grabbed the frog under his armpits, and raised him over hear head—‘a zombie frog.'”


 




“‘I can’t stand peas. I loathe peas. Peeeeas—ahhhh!’ she yelled in horror,
and pretended to be strangling.”


 


“…[E]very time she’d imagined this moment, the Rachel Collins in her head hadn’t been a real person. She’d been a half-formed idea of a person, pieced together with the bits of her mother Gertie had gathered over the years.”


 



 

From Peter Brown’s
The Wild Robot:


 



Early sketch and final art:
“The robot turned her head around and saw that the sky was filled with a swirling wall of darkness. Light flickered here and there. More deep rumbles.”
(Click each to enlarge)



Early sketch and final art:
“‘What do you have there?’ said Fink, looking up at Roz’s hands. ‘A goose egg.’
‘Oh! I love eggs! Can I eat it?'”


 


Early sketch for art opening this post


 



Early sketch and final art:
“There was an eerie glow in that part of the forest,
and a thick plume of smoke began rising up from the snowy treetops.”
(Click each to enlarge)


 



Early sketch and final art:
“‘Stay away from my mama!’ Brightbill swooped into the meadow and
started hopping around, ready to defend his mother.”


 



 

* * * * * * *

GERTIE’S LEAP TO GREATNESS. Copyright © 2016 by Kate Beasley. Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Jillian Tamaki. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, Farrar Straus Giroux, New York.

KABUNGO. Copyright © 2016 by Rolli. Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Milan Pavlovic. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, Groundwood Books, Canada.

THE WILD ROBOT. Copyright © 2016 by Peter Brown. Published by Little, Brown, New York. Illustrations and sketches reproduced by permission of Peter Brown.





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