7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #688: Featuring Marie Caudry
April 26th, 2020 by jules
close to the hole where I dozed off. …”
(Click image to see spread — and read text — in its entirety)
I’m greeting this Sunday with a Belgian import, Gauthier David’s Letters from Bear (Eerdmans, March 2020), illustrated by Marie Caudry. This is the sweet epistolary tale of one bear’s strange and slightly surreal journey to find a beloved friend — and the adventures had along the way.
Bear writes lovingly to Bird: “Have you arrived safely in the south, to your island in the sun?” Bear decides to go find Bird, braving goosebumps in spooky forests (“It feels as if I’m being watched”) at the start of the journey. Bear also manages to survive a sailor’s fishing net, thanks to a friendly mermaid; get past bewildering clouds of dust; trek successfully across the very hot desert; and cross the sea on a hollowed-out tree trunk that serves as a boat. Bear also makes friends with a cat, other forest creatures (there’s a joyous party to be had), and (most notably) another bear. “I don’t feel as frightened now that there are two of us,” Bear writes to Bird, though the two eventually have to part ways. Bear never fails to document the adventures in ongoing letters: “I’m … going to write to you every day.”
After traveling the world to find Bird, Bear finally arrives to the island only to find Bird gone. Bird had headed north, back to Bear, with equal devotion, and they had passed one another. The birds on the island fashion a clever way to get Bear more quickly across the sea, back to Bird, whom Bear loves, as made clear in the affectionate letters penned throughout the story: “I’m so excited at the idea of being near you,” says one letter. “It fills me with courage.”
A note on the book’s copyright pages states that the illustrator had begun a series of paintings about “globe-trotting bears,” and it’s these very paintings that inspired her partner, Gauthier, to write this story. It was originally published in Belgium in 2012 as Les lettres de l’ourse, and this English edition was translated by Sarah Ardizzone. Caudry’s illustrations possess an offbeat, understated humor, and the final spread is wordless, devoted expressly to the Bird and Bear’s reunion with a tender hug. Though readers will be happy for the pairing, they may start right back at the beginning to once again take in this quirky, touching story. Here are a couple more spreads. …
(Click spread to enlarge)
(Click spread to enlarge)
LETTERS FROM BEAR. Originally published in Belgium by Gauthier David and Marie Caudry. © Autrement 2012 for the first edition. First published in the United States in 2020 by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Illustrations reproduced by permission their permission.
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 love today’s featured book. I love to see picture book imports, especially ones unlike what we tend to see here in the States.
2) Still reading reading reading …
3) Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s new book, Fighting Words.
4) Reading Julia Drake’s The Last True Poets of the Sea. It made me miss my brother even more than I already do, but it was good to read.
5) Realizing my husband and I are about to start the last season of The Americans, which we’ve been watching for a long while now. (I hadn’t realized we were that close to the end.)
6) Good friends.
7) Chocolate pie.
What are YOUR kicks this week?
Oh bear, what a journey. The art work is beautiful. Thank Gauthier David for writing this book.
Jules, yum, chocolate pie. I order The Last of the True Poets of the Sea from the library. Bradley’s book will be bought and then shares with one of the grands as it’s not in the library.
My kicks:
1. Organizing.
2. Writing.
3. Sunshine.
4. Writing class via online starts again this week.
5. Highlights Foundation free 30 minute seminars.
6. Friends on Zoom.
7. Homemade Sourdough Cinnamon Swirl bread.
Have a great week.
Hello, Kickers!
Boy howdy, that is some lovely artwork you’ve shown us from Letters from Bear, Jules! Love the contrast between the more or less flat planes of single colors, and the more fully 3D cross-hatched-and-shadowed critters and other objects. That, and the story itself, does indeed say “surreal” — that’s one of my favorite things generally about stories from overseas: the oddly skewed unfamiliar can’t help creeping in around the edges of what I recognize firsthand.
The Americans is one of those series for The Missus and me like giant fish that were securely on the hook and then somehow wriggled off. We must have gotten distracted by something shiny, who knows what… we left off in Season 2 or 3, I think, and never got back to it even though we LOVED it. It’s been on various watchlists (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu) for years. And I think we need to take advantage of the sheltering-in-place guidelines finally to renew our relationship with it!
Hi Jone! We’ve done a couple of Zoom sessions so far (as well as various Skype, Hangouts, Facetime, and Duo variations of it). It’s been really interesting seeing how quickly we’ve acclimated to something so inherently unnatural. The first Zoom we did was with about a half-dozen “inner circle” family and friends: it was a MADHOUSE. No one was in charge, and everyone was talking over everyone else, etc. Next time out were just my 3 sibs and I, and probably within 2 minutes it had lapsed into familiar conversational rhythms: a combination of wait-your-turn and spontaneous digressions and jokes and such. Both very comfortable and very exciting (and emotionally rewarding).
Some kicks:
1. Reading: just finished a collection of hardboiled crime-with-a-heart novellas, Broken, by Don Winslow (excellent). And just started something called Made Things, by Adrian Tchaikovsky — a Brit. This one’s a fantasy about a girl, a half-mage/thief/puppeteer in a sort of medieval city. This portion of the publisher’s description hooked me from the start: “she has something other thieves don’t… tiny puppet-like companions: some made of wood, some of metal. They don’t entirely trust her, and she doesn’t entirely understand them, but their partnership mostly works.” THEY DON’T ENTIRELY TRUST HER. (Something tells me I first heard about this book here on 7-Imp, maybe from Little Willow? But if I didn’t, it sure feels like I should have, haha.)
2. I’ve been watching a Great Courses Plus series on the Black Death. (I know, I know…) Best tidbit so far: the possible/likely connection between the bubonic plague and… GERBILS. Not rats. GERBILS.
3. I’m taking more photographs now than I’ll ever be able to do anything with. That’s probably a good thing, although it’s also a bit of a frustration!
4. My first shipment of “face masks I can comfortably wear with my hearing aids” arrived this week.
5. Just this morning learned about illustrator Wendy MacNaughton (Instagram). I knew OF her already, from her work in the NYT and other publications. But I did NOT know about the series of drawing-with-kids YouTube lessons she’s running now, which seem terrific (but whadda I know). I also did not know she is (per her YouTube “About” description) “widely known for being a tireless goofball,” which makes me like her even more.
6. Looong walks.
7. My sputtering blog turned 12 this past Monday. *feeble tin horns tooting* 😉
Have a great week, everyone!
What a wonderful story of a unique friendship. Love these illustrations especially the costume party and Bear drinking at the river.
Jules – Chocolate pie -Yum! Oh, I loved The Americans, you will have to let me know what you think of the final season and last episode. I felt it was done really well and and kept true to the series. Putting Julia Drake’s The Last True Poets of the Sea on my TBR list.
Jone – that sourdough cinnamon swirl bread sounds amazing. Yay for sunshine and zoom visits with friends.
John – Made Things sounds like a great read. Thanks for the link to Wendy McNaughton and that Great Courses Series on the Black Death sounds interesting and was a great reminder to me to check out Harvard’s free online classes. (I signed up for 1 for fun and 1 for work.)
My kicks this week:
1) Productive telephone court appearances that also went smoothly.
2) Started watching Cheers from the beginning and forgot how much physical humor was n it – it provides some good laughs.
3) The US Supreme Court opinion in Ramos v Louisiana was a high point of the week and cause for much celebration. Oregon finally has to catch up with the rest of the country and require unanimous jury verdicts for convictions.
4) Trevor Noah’s interview with Governor Cuomo was a good watch, informative and calming.
5) Watching a live online interview with arctic explorer Inge Solheim this morning as part of the Armchair Adventure Festival.
6) Got my poetry postcard!
7) Baked lemon cupcakes and made small goodie bags for a couple of friends and delivered them Friday and Saturday. One delivery turned into a social distancing HH visit and catch up, which was super fun and a nice change from being home all the time.
7.5) My silly Daisy.
Have a great week Imps!
Good afternoon, Imps! Good afternoon, Gauthier and Bear!
Jules: I read the first sentence of your post as “Belgian airport” and was wondering why you were traveling today! Three cheers for chocolate.
Jone: That bread sounds delicious.
JES: I haven’t read that one! Have fun with photography.
Rachel: That’s so nice of you to share your baked treats!
My kicks from the past week:
1) Sleep
2) Successful attempts
3) Snacks
4) Silly
5) Sighted
6) Sounds
7) Science
Jone, are you taking or teaching online writing classes?
John, happy birthday to your wonderful site! I’m laughing about your dramatic gerbils declaration. I’m glad you found good face masks for your hearing aids. That must be a relief.
Rachel, love that first kick. I started rewatching Cheers recently and should pick it back up. Thanks for the reminder. Hugs to Daisy.
Little Willow, love these sibilant kix. (Band name)
Have a good week, you all!