Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“ONCE UPON A TIME … on the shortest street with the longest name
in the biggest palace with the HUGEST throne …”
(Click spread to enlarge)

 
Just look at this castle, which can only come from the singular paintbrush of Rowboat Watkins. It is the first spread of Sally Lloyd-Jones’s Tiny Cedric (Anne Schwartz Books, February 2022).

This palace is the home of the “tiniest king,” whose name is Cedric, King ME the First. It’s the biggest possible palace with the “HUGEST throne,” and it sits on “the shortest street with the longest name.” (And since it’s hard to see the name of this road, given the size of that image, it’s: Don’t Even Think of Turning Here Because You Are So Absolutely Not Invited Boulevard.)

Read the rest of this entry »

 
If you’re introverted like me — that is, big gatherings (especially with people you don’t know) bring you a very real anxiety and zap you of all your energy — then you will feel seen by Mike Curato’s newest picture book, Where Is Bina Bear? (Henry Holt, January 2022).

Read the rest of this entry »

Before fully giving in to 2022 (if I must), I want to take one more peek back to last year. Here’s a mesmerizing book released last fall by Enchanted Lion — The Wordy Book by Julie Paschkis.

Read the rest of this entry »

Look at that beautiful seal above!

The Robin Smith Picture Book Prize was created in honor of my late friend Robin Smith. Her husband, Dean, annually chooses a picture book for this award, a picture book that he thinks Robin would have loved reading aloud to her second-grade students. And he chooses a book that he thinks exemplifies what she looked for in picture books (excellent writing and outstanding illustrations) as the incredible teacher, reviewer, parent and picture book expert she was.

Over at the Horn Book today, Dean announces this year’s winner (!) and shows off this beautiful sticker, created by his daughter, Julie Schneider, and her friend Cristina Gomez. The award is five years old now, but the seal is new!

You can read more here.

 
There are lots of picture books about death and lots about the death of a pet, but please make way for this one — Rodney Was a Tortoise (Tundra, February 2022), written by Nan Forler and illustrated by Yong Ling Kang. Because it is honest in every way and conveys tremendous respect for children.

“Day after day, year after year, Rodney was there, loyal and true.” Rodney is Bernadette’s very old pet tortoise. They play games together (even if Bernadette must regularly take Rodney’s turns); have staring contests; play dress-up together; have snacks together; and share stories. They always have fun together: Bernadette is just sure that she can sometimes catch Rodney smiling. (Mind you, he is never anthropomorphized, though Yong Ling Kang may give him a slight smile or two.) It is clear that Bernadette loves him very much.

Read the rest of this entry »

Be sure to check out Martha Parravano’s beautiful post over at the Horn Book about Floyd Cooper and Unspeakable, which won many awards this week, including a Caldecott Honor. (You saw the Caldecott winner and other Honor books, right? Wonderful choices. Here is a complete list of all ALA Youth Media Award winners.)

Martha’s post is here.

More soon …

Over at Tennessee’s Chapter 16, I talk to Kathlyn J. Kirkwood about her new middle-grade memoir in verse.

In Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round: My Story Of The Making Of Martin Luther King Day (Versify, January 2022) with illustrations by Steffi Walthall, Kirkwood shares memories of her growing civic awareness and activism as a teenager in Memphis as well as her decades-long struggle to turn Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday into a national holiday.

Our chat is here.

Photo of Dr. Kirkwood is © Padrion Scott, Sr. / P. Scott Photography.

Want to see a beautiful new intergenerational picture book from Pura Belpré Award winner Ruth Behar and illustrator Devon Holzwarth? Tía Fortuna’s New Home: A Jewish Cuban Journey (Knopf) will be on shelves next week, and it tells the tender story of a girl named Estrella who learns about Sephardic Jewish culture from her aunt. Tía Fortuna — who, as a child, had to flee her home in Havana — must now leave her home near the sea in Miami; bulldozers are on their way to tear down the Seaway and construct a “fancy hotel.”

Read the rest of this entry »

 
I’ve a review over at BookPage of the mighty entertaining Kat Hats (Abrams, February 2022), written by Daniel Pinkwater and illustrated by Aaron Renier.

That review is here, and below are some of Renier’s gouache illustrations.

Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry »

(Click spread to enlarge)

 
Forgive me for posting about a book months in advance (I try not to do that), but I hope 7-Imp readers will see this post as a treat (and not a tease). I’ve some spreads to show you today from Kim Jihyun’s The Depth of the Lake and the Height of the Sky (Floris), coming to U.S. shelves in April. This is the picture book debut for Jihyun, who lives in Seoul, and it originally published in South Korea as Last Summer in 2017 and then in Scotland last year. (I’m fascinated by this change in title and would love to know who was behind that. The publisher? Jihyun? The translator, even though this is a wordless book? Whoever decided this, it’s beautiful.)

Read the rest of this entry »