Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“In the murk . . . an eye!”
— From Candace Fleming’s Giant Squid, illustrated by Eric Rohmann
(Click to enlarge spread)

 


“If you lean close you might hear Sophie say, ‘Oh.’ And eventually you might hear her say, ‘There!’ ‘Good,’ says Grandpa. ‘Thanks, honey.'”
— From Richard Jackson’s In Plain Sight, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
(Click to enlarge)

 


“Now all the animals wondered what had become of Mr. Bobbin. …”
— From Roger Duvoisin’s The Happy Hunter
(Click to see spread in its entirety)

 


“At age twenty, Antonio came to Canada by boat. He was HUGE and very, very strong. He was six foot three.”
— From Elise Gravel’s The Great Antonio
(Click to enlarge)

 


“I take my stuff to my room, dump my papers out of my backpack, and that’s when I see it: The zipper that was closed is open, just enough.
And the money that was there is gone. …”
— From Maribeth Boelts’ A Bike Like Sergio’s,
illustrated by Noah Z. Jones
(Click to enlarge)

 

This morning over at Kirkus, I’ve got a small handful of new picture books about refugees. That is here.

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Last week, I wrote here about Candace Fleming’s Giant Squid, illustrated by Eric Rohmann (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook, September 2016); Elise Gravel’s The Great Antonio (TOON Books, October 2016); the reprint of Roger Duvoisin’s The Happy Hunter (Enchanted Lion, October 2016); Maribeth Boelts’s A Bike Like Sergio’s, illustrated by Noah Z. Jones (Candlewick, October 2016); and Richard Jackson’s In Plain Sight, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook, September 2016).

I’ve got some art from each book today, and Eric Rohmann also shares some preliminary images (one even going as far back as childhood).

Enjoy!

 

From Giant Squid:

 


Eric: “[This is] the original first idea for the book, written on a napkin over lunch.”
(Click to enlarge slightly)

 


Eric: “The cover of a comic I made in 1972 with clear evidence that
I’ve always had a thing for cephalopods …”

 


Eric: “A watercolor made to think about what a squid book might look like. Some may notice that this beast has too many arms (two tentacles on a squid — eight arms). This treatment never made it into the book but was an inspiration to keep going.”

 


Eric: “Early ink sketches …”

 


Eric: “Early ink studies of squid eyes …”
(Click to enlarge slightly)

 


Eric: “This is the sepia ink storyboard I gave to Candy. The white lines suggest the places that her text would land. At this time, there was no text. In a sort of backward way, I made the storyboard first and then handed it to Candy. She wrote and handed it back. I made some changes and sent it back to her.
After many passes, we had a book.”
(Click to enlarge slightly)

 


Eric: “Thumbnail storyboard just before I made a final dummy …”

 


Eric: “Cover concept watercolor sketch.”
(Click to enlarge slightly)

 


Eric: “Cover image. Notice that we flipped the entire image for the final cover.”
(Click to enlarge slightly)

 


A final spread: “The beak. Bone-hard and parrot-like, it sits in the center of those eight, slithering arms, protruding from the creature’s mouth,
rotating from side to side, ripping apart prey. …”
(Click to enlarge spread)

 


A final spread: “Watch out for that barracuda! Quick!”
(Click to enlarge spread)

 


The book’s glorious gatefold
(Click to enlarge)

 



 

From The Great Antonio:

 


(Click to enlarge)

 


(Click to enlarge)

 


“The Great Antonio loved to pull buses so much
that he sometimes pulled them with his HAIR …”
(Click to enlarge)

 



 

From In Plain Sight:

 


Opening endpapers
(Click to enlarge)

 


“‘Here I am,’ says Sophie on Tuesday. ‘Ah, Sophie,’ he says, ‘how was school?'”
(Click to enlarge)

 


“‘I can try,’ says Sophie. And eventually, in plain sight …”
(Click to enlarge)

 


Closing endpapers
(Click to enlarge)

 



 

From The Happy Hunter:

 


“Mr. Bobbin was happier than ever when he went home that night. …”
(Click to see spread in its entirety)

 


“When the frost was in the air next year, Mr. Bobbin went hunting again. …”
(Click to see spread in its entirety)

 


“… So, the years were still fully of happy days for Mr. Bobbin.”
(Click to see spread in its entirety)

 



 

From A Bike Like Sergio’s:

 


“… But I know if I ride home on a bike like that,
I’ll have to tell my parents where I got the money. …”
(Click to enlarge)

 



 

* * * * * * *

A BIKE LIKE SERGIO’S. Text copyright © 2016 by Maribeth Boelts. Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Noah Z. Jones. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

GIANT SQUID. Text copyright © 2016 by Candace Fleming. Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Eric Rohmann. Final art reproduced by permission of the publisher, Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook Press, New York. All other images reproduced by permission of Eric Rohmann.

THE GREAT ANTONIO. Original text and illustrations from LE GRAND ANTONIO © 2014 Elise Gravel and Les Éditions de la Pastèque. Translation, ancillary material and TOON Books adaptation © 2016 RAW Junior, LLC. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, TOON Books, New York.

THE HAPPY HUNTER. First reprint edition published in 2016 by Enchanted Lion Books, Brooklyn. Copyright © 1961, copyright renewed 1989 by Louise Fatio Duvoisin. Illustrations reproduced by permission of Enchanted Lion Books, Brooklyn.

IN PLAIN SIGHT. Text copyright © 2016 by Richard Jackson. Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Jerry Pinkney. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook Press, New York.