7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #486: Featuring Lisa Brown
June 5th, 2016 by jules
You stand in lines to get your ticket. You stand in lines to check your bags.
There are lines for the restrooms. There are lines to go through security.”
(Click to enlarge spread)
Arriving just last month (is it already June?) on bookshelves was Lisa Brown’s newest picture book, The Airport Book (A Neal Porter Book/Roaring Brook Press). Have you seen it, dear Imps? It follows a family of four on a trip, who make their way through an airport. And it is, as the title tells you, all about the airport experience itself.
This makes me happy, because have I ever said that I love to people-watch in airports? I do. (The tearful goodbyes! The happy hellos! The relieved goodbyes! The resentful hellos!) And if you follow Lisa’s work, you know she does daily sketches, which are often of people. And I like her daily sketches very much. So, this book combines two very good things — that is, an airport with lots of Lisa Brown-rendered people in it.
The book’s text lays out in a second-person voice the airport, plane-riding, and departing-the-airport experience. It is detailed, even starting with the family’s trip to the airport. In fact, Lisa takes advantage of every part of the book to tell the family’s travel story and impart information about air travel; the title page spread shows the family packing. The spreads are detailed. This is one to pore over and take time with, and there’s a lot for observant eyes to take in. (For one thing, keep your eye on the beloved plush monkey that the little girl in the family has a difficult time parting with.) There’s also a good dose of very matter-of-fact, dry humor. (“A machine x-rays all the bags that you take on the plane. Sometimes another machine x-rays your body. You will also take that with you on the plane.”)
Lisa covers just about every aspect of travel on a modern jet aircraft — the “small beeping cars” driving through the airport; moving sidewalks; the folks who get the plane ready out on the tarmac; the jetway; the “clouds and clouds and clouds” you see on your flight; baggage carousels; and lots more. The book would be the perfect choice for a child about to fly for the first time — especially a child (or adult!) apprehensive about it. Even the endpapers are smart: The opening ones show the family (and their neighbors) looking out of the window on a rainy day, but in the end, readers see that the family’s destination is a sunny beach.
I’ve got some final spreads from the book here today, as well as some of Lisa’s early sketches.
Enjoy!
sketched from life at the airport, of course.”
(Click each to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge spread)
(Click to enlarge spread)
THE AIRPORT BOOK. Copyright © 2016 by Lisa Brown. Published by Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook Press, New York. All images used by permission of Lisa Brown.
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.
1) I think I completely forgot to kick last week about Knoxville’s wonderful Children’s Festival of Reading, which was about two or three weeks ago. It was great to see some old friends and make some new ones, and the picture book panel discussion (with Matthew Cordell, Jessica Young, Floyd Cooper, and David Soman) went swimmingly.
2) Lady Dynamite.
3) Contacting a realtor. Finally. Gulp.
4) Finishing a writing assignment I had been putting off for a long time and which I was making entirely too hard in my head. (I do this a lot.) Once I finally started it, I found I enjoyed writing it.
5) Dinner out at this great Nashville restaurant with good friends. (I did NOT try the octopus. I am a wuss.)
6) Reading nice things about 7-Imp. Here and here. And here!
7) Last but not least, the 2016 Boston Globe-Horn Books Awards were announced this week. The girls and I are now reading The Lie Tree, and so far it’s excellent. (We were in need of a great, new read-aloud.)
What are YOUR kicks this week?
Good morning, kickers! As I am currently a zombie of the been-up-for-20-hours-straight variety, I will officially post kicks later when I’ve actually gotten some sleep. Hi everyone, and yay, Jules, for finishing the writing assignment!!
Airports. People watching. The best combo.
Jules, need to check out The Lie Tree. Congrats on getting a realtor. It’s a big task. We did it last year. Hope it goes.as.smoothly as it can.
LW: Hope you had some peaceful sleep.
My kicks:
1. Time with a college friend.
2. Her daughter’s newborn.
3. Getting ready for the Used Book Sale in the library.
4. Fresh strawberries.
5. June. Summer breathing down its neck.
6. Trip.planning.
7. Sunshine.
Have a great week.
I LOVE this book. Lisa Brown is an incredible illustrator–beautiful stuff.
Hello again Imps and travelers and Lisa Brown!
Jone: Thanks!
My kicks from the past week:
1) Specific
2) Ready
3) Set
4) Go
5) Clear
6) Listen
7) Learn
Happy Sunday Imps!
Love this book and the illustrations. Travel is so mysterious & exciting when you are little, what a great way to help take away any fears.
Jules – congrats on getting your writing assignment done! (And I totally do that same thing of making things harder in my head.) I’ll have to put The Lie Tree on my list. Yay for good things said/written about 7 Imps – all well-deserved!
Jone – yay for sunshine, strawberries, friends & new babies. Hope you’re keeping cool in this heat.
LW – hope you got some sleep! Love your kicks, especially specific and clear and ready and go!
My kicks this week:
1) Yoga in the sunshine in the yard
2) Freshly bathed Daisy
3) A job well done
4) Cold brewed iced coffee from my kitchen
5) Spicy shrimp omelet. It didn’t look pretty but it sure tasted good!
6) This https://www.instagram.com/roof_topper/ reminds me of the Katherine Rundell book Rooftoppers.
7) Plans to meet friends for drinks by the water later during this heatwave.
7.5) Everything is blooming! I love summer!
Have a wonderful weekend Imps!
One more I forgot to add. While its certainly NOT a kick that Muhammad Ali, Greatest of All Time has passed away, seeing all the tributes, and learning more about him and that he was more amazing than I realized, certainly is. Some of the profound things he said I did not know originated from him, such as his quote on “Impossible is nothing.” What an amazing human being.
Little Willow: I WILL NAP FOR YOU! … Glad you had a good week.
Jone: Yes, getting the realtor is the fire we need to light under our butts so that we can move already. We talked today and will meet him tomorrow! Deep breaths. … Love your fifth kick.
Hi Steve!
Rachel (and everyone): Re The Lie Tree — it is an absolute pleasure to read this prose aloud. Ahhhhh! Hi to Daisy. Sounds like your week was a good one. And, yes, RIP, Ali.
Have a good week, everyone!