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What I’m Doing at Kirkus This Week,
Plus What I Did Last Week, Featuring
Jessixa Bagley, Marie-Louise Gay, and Lane Smith

h1 February 17th, 2017 by jules


“‘Well, how about building a fort?’ asked Ma Badger. ‘We already made one,’ said Tic. ‘Then we invaded it, and it fell apart,’ said Tac.”
— From Jessixa Bagley’s Laundry Day


 


“It WAS a perfect day for Squirrel.”
— From Lane Smith’s A Perfect Day
(Click to enlarge spread)


 


“Monster!”
— From Marie-Louise Gay’s Short Stories for Little Monsters
(Click to enlarge spread)


 

I’ve got poetry on the mind over at Kirkus. That is here this morning.

* * *

Last week, I wrote here about three entertaining picture books, where being up to no good is pretty great — Jessixa Bagley’s Laundry Day (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook, February 2017), Marie-Louise Gay’s Short Stories for Little Monsters (Groundwood, March 2017), and Lane Smith’s A Perfect Day (Roaring Brook, March 2017). I’m following up with art from each book today, and both Lane and Marie-Louise sent some sketches and other art as well. (Marie-Louise and Lane also share a little bit about what inspired their respective books.)

Enjoy!



 

From Jessixa Bagley’s
Laundry Day (sans text):


 


“‘Why don’t you two read a book? You love to read,’ said Ma Badger.
‘We read all our books,’ said Tic. ‘Then we read them backward,’ said Tac.”
(Click to enlarge spread)


 


“‘Laundry?’ Tick asked, looking surprised. ‘We haven’t done that yet,’ said Tac.
‘Okay!’ they chimed together.”
(Click to enlarge spread)


 


“‘We’re really good at this!’ said Tic proudly. ‘I’m pretty impressed myself!’ said Tac.
But just then … Ma came home from the market.”
(Click to enlarge spread)


From Marie-Louise Gay’s
Short Stories for Little Monsters:


 

Marie-Louise: This book was inspired by my love as a pre-teen and teenager of what we call in French bandes dessinées, like Tintin or Spirou or Le Concombre Masqué (The Masked Cucumber) or Little Nemo or Edward Gorey. And, actually, my first step to making picture-books was creating cartoon strips panel by panel which, as a college student, I sold to newspapers and magazines.

 





Sketches
(Click each to enlarge)


 


“Zombie Mom”
(Click to enlarge spread)


 


“The Secret Life of Snails”
(Click to enlarge spread)


 



 

From Lane Smith’s
A Perfect Day:


 

Lane: The genesis of this book was the convergence of two things. I am constantly visited by bears at my studio …

 



(Click each to enlarge)


 

… and in my spare time I’ve been doing large paintings on canvas in gesso and cold wax medium. Just personal stuff [below]. The technique of gesso and expressionistic brush stokes from my personal work managed to seep its way into my animal illustrations of A Perfect Day.

 





(Click each to enlarge)


 



Dummy images fromA Perfect Day
(Click each to enlarge)


 


A final spread: “It was a perfect day for Dog.”
(Click to enlarge spread)


 


A final spread: “Birdseed. Bert topped off the bird feeder with it.”
(Click to enlarge spread)


 


A final spread: “It WAS a perfect day for Chickadee.”
(Click to enlarge spread)


 



 

* * * * * * *

LAUNDRY DAY. Copyright © 2017 by Jessixa Bagley. Published by Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook Press, New York. Illustrations reproduced by permission of Jessixa Bagley.

A PERFECT DAY. Copyright © 2017 by Lane Smith. Published by Roaring Brook Press, New York. All images reproduced by permission of Lane Smith.

SHORT STORIES FOR LITTLE MONSTERS. Copyright © 2017 by Marie-Louise Gay. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, Groundwood Press, Toronto. Sketches reproduced by permission of Marie-Louise Gay.





One comment to “What I’m Doing at Kirkus This Week,
Plus What I Did Last Week, Featuring
Jessixa Bagley, Marie-Louise Gay, and Lane Smith”

  1. I love these! Jessixa’s work has always been a favorite, and now I have more new favorites. Thank you for sharing them.

         by Dow Phumiruk February 17th, 2017 at 9:39 am

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