Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Click the image below for some wise words from author-illustrator Sergio Ruzzier.

Thanks, Sergio and the Nerdy Book Club.

 

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Hello, dear kickers. I’ve got an alphabet book today, one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. It’s from Argentine author-illustrator Isol, who won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2013.

Daytime Visons: An Alphabet comes to readers this month by way of Enchanted Lion Books. Isol originally wrote it in Spanish. As she points out in the book’s closing note, “These images were first created using Spanish letters as Spanish is my mother tongue. Translating them into English involved a kind of reinvention. It was fun getting these scenes and characters to enter into a new conversation in English, where they found new ways to live together.” (She goes on to note that she had a lot of help from the wonderful Claudia Zoe Bedrick, as well as Elisa Amado.)

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— From Kuma-Kuma Chan’s Home:
“I walk into his home.
It smells slightly of bear.”
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— From Bear & Hare—Where’s Bear?:
“There!”
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— From Blocks:
Note: The text here is different than it appears in the book.
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Over at Kirkus today, I’ve got some new children’s lit novels on the mind. That link is here.

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Last week (here), I wrote about Kazue Takahashi’s Kuma-Kuma Chan’s Home (Museyon), originally released in 2001 in Japan but on U.S. shelves this month; Emily Gravett’s Bear & Hare—Where’s Bear? (Simon & Schuster), originally released two years ago but also on U.S. shelves, as of last month; and Irene Dickson’s Blocks (Candlewick, May 2016).

I’ve got some art from each book today. Enjoy!

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From Do You See What I See? —
“Up and down lines pull me up, up, up with them, until I feel as tall as a steeple and as taut as a stretched rubber band. I think of lofty trees, a lighthouse rising above the sea, a rocket soaring high into the sky, noble kings in flowing robes.”
(Click to enlarge spread)

 

From Do You Hear What I Hear? —
“I hear sounds everywhere around me. Sounds can do many different things. They can put me to sleep—like a lullaby. Or they can wake me up—like an alarm clock. They can take me by surprise—like a sneeze. Or they can follow me—like an echo.”
(Click to see spread in its entirety)

 
Isn’t that what the world of social media calls it? “Throwback Thursday”? I might have just gotten that all wrong.

Anyway. Last week, I chatted here at Kirkus with Helen Borten about the re-printing this year of picture books she created decades ago.

Today, I’m following up with art from Do You Hear What I Hear?, originally published in 1960, and Do You See What I See?, originally published in 1959 — which Flying Eye Books is giving new life.

Enjoy!

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One of my favorite picture books of 2016 thus far is Lane Smith’s There Is a Tribe of Kids (Roaring Brook, May 2016). I’ve got a review of it over at BookPage. That is here.

Today, Lane shares some early studies and sketches, as well as some final art from the book.

Enjoy!

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Several weeks ago at Kirkus, I wrote here about Brianne Farley’s new picture book, Secret Tree Fort, published by Candlewick just last month. When I write about picture books over at Kirkus, I always like to follow up with art about a week later here at 7-Imp. I can’t write about picture books without also sharing art; it’s a compulsion. But then I got to talking to Brianne, pictured above in her home state of Michigan, about visiting for a full-on breakfast interview, instead of just sharing a few spreads. And here we are today: She’s joining me for a cyber-breakfast — her choice, which is a small cup of strong coffee, yogurt, and granola with fruit. “Or sometimes Grape-Nuts instead of granola,” she told me. “I’m 100 years old.” I’m down with that. I’ll be 100 years old with her. Grape-Nuts it is.

The guy pictured just above here on the left, who makes me laugh, is from Secret Tree Fort. I’d tell you all about how entertaining that book is, but you can also just visit the aforementioned Kirkus link, where I went on about it. And I had a lot of fun with this interview. I like seeing Brianne’s art and can’t wait to see what she does next. She also makes me laugh, and I hope one day we have a very real, non-cyber breakfast in person.

Should I say something overreaching here about how you should join me in this treehouse of an interview? Climb up the ladder and I’ve got the s’mores inside? Nah, let’s just get right to it. Enjoy ALL THE ART!

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I joined a few other children’s lit folks over at Slate Magazine to discuss children’s books that celebrate motherhood. Click on the image above to see the gallery of titles.

Until tomorrow …

 
It’s the first Sunday of the month, which means that here in 7-Imp Land I take a look at the work of an up-and-coming illustrator. Today, instead of a student, I’ve got a debut author-illustrator. David Litchfield’s new book, The Bear and the Piano (Clarion), was evidently inspired (in part) by the White Stripes’ song “Little Room.” It was published in the U.K. last year but arrived on U.S. shelves at the beginning of this month.

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This morning over at Kirkus, I write about three new engaging picture books for the preschool set. That is here.

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Last week, I wrote here about Bethan Woollvin’s Little Red (Peachtree, April 2016), and I’m following up today with some spreads from the book.

Enjoy!

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“The renewed interest in work I did so long ago is both wonderful and disconcerting; it brings back a different person, a young artist juggling a career and motherhood, as passionately immersed in visual expression as I later became in sound production.”

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Over at Kirkus today, I talk to author-illustrator Helen Borten, pictured here, who left children’s literature in the early 1970s to launch an award-winning career in broadcast journalism and producing.

Thanks to Flying Eye Books, her picture books will be reprinted, the first in a series, next month.

That chat is here.

Until tomorrow …

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Photo of Helen Borten used by permission of Flying Eye Books.