Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

On the Road with Barbara McClintock

October 31st, 2019 by jules

You all know I like to wax rhapsodic about picture books here at 7-Imp. Well, I also review for the Horn Book. And for them, this year, I reviewed Barbara McClintock’s playful and fast-paced (as in, zippy fast) Vroom! (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, July 2019), one of my favorites of 2019. Perhaps one day they will post that review online, but suffice it to say that this is the dynamic tale of Annie, a girl who loves race cars. She lives for speed, and she sets out one day in her race car to take a grand adventure — a journey mostly of the imagination (and it’s a big one), given that in a mighty short span of time she zips all across the country. It’s a spectacular page-turner of a story, featuring indelible images from McClintock (just look at Annie’s hair flying behind her), as well as a pitch-perfect text with not a wasted word.

Again, I’ve more thoughts in my review (and if it is ever posted online, I’ll come link to it here), but for now Barbara visits to share some preliminary images and final art — and to say a bit about what prompted this story. Hint: It has four wheels. (EDITED TO ADD: The review has since been posted online. It is here.)

I thank her for visiting today.

The Inspiration …

Barbara: The little toy car [pictured below] is a Schuco Grand Prix Racer that my dad gave me when I was maybe five or six-years-old. He knew I was a girl with a yen for speed! That little car was the seed for Vroom! I have photos of me holding a toy car, not dolls or Barbies, when I was little. I was definitely a tomboy. The closest I came to playing with Barbie was getting her sherbet orange sports car as a Christmas present, skipping the whole doll thing. I wasn’t a big Ken fan either.