Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

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It’s the first Sunday of the month, which means a student or just-starting-out illustrator here at 7-Imp. Today, I welcome Brooke Boynton Hughes, who has already illustrated one children’s book and is working on a handful of others now but is still relatively new to the field. It’s a pleasure to share some of her artwork today. Let’s get right to it, especially since Brooke gives us a few words of introduction.

Brooke: I’ve wanted to illustrate children’s books ever since I was little. When other kids my age were moving on to middle-grade books, I was still poring over picture books. I loved reading, but I was especially enthralled by visual storytelling. As a kid, I spent a lot of time drawing and becoming engrossed in whatever visual world I was into at the time. There were a couple of years where I drew almost nothing except for tree houses, and there was the year of underground rabbit houses. The imagined worlds that I created in my drawings felt really real to me. I guess I loved, and still love, residing in imagined worlds.

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Back cover character sketches from Bob Staake’s My Pet Book

 

“Read along. Read out loud.”
— From Rilla Alexander’s The Best Book in the World
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This morning over at Kirkus, since women’s rights (given the news this week) are heavy on my mind, I write about Amrita Das’ Hope is a Girl Selling Fruit, an April release from India’s Tara Books. That link is here.

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Last week, I wrote (here) about Rilla Alexander’s The Best Book in the World! (Flying Eye Books, July 2014) and Bob Staake’s My Pet Book (Random House, July 2014). Now, that column also included Jen Bryant’s The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus, illustrated by Melissa Sweet and coming to bookshelves in September from Eerdmans, but I will have some images (preliminary images, final art, and some words from Melissa) next week.

Today, I have some art from Rilla’s and Bob’s books — and Bob shares some early sketches as well.

Enjoy!

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“And then, one morning, their father announced he was taking them with him to work.”
— From Neil Gaiman’s Hansel & Gretel, illustrated by Lorenzo Mattotti
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From Yvan Pommaux’s Theseus and the Minotaur
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From Fred’s Cast Away on the Letter A: A Philemon Adventure
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Last week over at Kirkus, I chatted with designer and editor Françoise Mouly about TOON Graphics, the new imprint from TOON Books. That conversation is here, and today I follow up with some art from the imprint’s three debut titles — Neil Gaiman’s Hansel & Gretel, illustrated by Lorenzo Mattotti; Yvan Pommaux’s Theseus and the Minotaur; and Cast Away on the Letter A: A Philemon Adventure from Frédéric Othon Théodore Aristidès, who went simply by Fred.

Enjoy.

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“And nobody knew, as we ate a little, talked a little, and headed to the fields
as the sun was rising, that soon, it would be all different.”
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It would have been very fitting to post about this picture book in June, but I’m mostly disorganized. (I put this book in a Read Right Away stack, on account of my love for the illustrations of E.B. Lewis. But then I promptly misplaced this stack and couldn’t find it, for the very life of me.)

It’s July 1st, though, and clearly I found my Read Right Away stack. Better late than never.

If ever there were doubt that E.B. Lewis is one of the greatest living illustrators, Angela Johnson’s All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom (Simon & Schuster, May 2014) would put an end to that. This is the story of the first Juneteenth, the day freedom arrived to the last slaves in Texas in the year 1865. Read the rest of this entry »

” … the shadow of CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG
chased after them over the ground.”
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“Sylvie asked a little bear to come back with her.
He did and slept in her bed.”
(Click to see spread from which this illustration comes)

 
I’m keeping things incredibly brief today. There’s been a lot of moving of furniture in our home (made all the more complicated by the fact that our house is tiny), and it’s been a lot like moving, as well as a game of Tetris. I’m about to fall right over, and it’s a tiny miracle I’m even getting this post up.

John Burningham is one of my favorite illustrators of all time. Today’s post celebrates the fact that he has two new illustrated titles out — The Way to the Zoo (Candlewick, August 2014) and the 50th anniversary edition of Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, coming from Candlewick in August.

Burningham created the original illustrations for Chitty, the only children’s book Ian Fleming wrote. (Fleming, as the story goes, wrote it for his son.) Published in 1964, it was then adapted to film four years later (with a screenplay by Roald Dahl, no less), as well as a 2002 musical. This deluxe anniversary edition of the novel is beautifully-designed (ah, silver endpages), and Burningham’s dynamic illustrations are expertly reproduced in all their glory.

The Way to the Zoo is a brand-new picture book and includes many things I’ve come to love about Burningham’s books over the years — secret passageways, adventures, and intrepid, young protagonists in a (mostly) adult-free world, to name but a few. Read the rest of this entry »

— From Carter Goodrich’s Mister Bud Wears the Cone

 

— Early art from Kelly DiPucchio’s Gaston,
illustrated by Christian Robinson

 

— From Kathi Appelt’s Mogie: The Heart of the House,
illustrated by Marc Rosenthal

 

— From Chris Gall’s Dog vs. Cat

 
This morning over at Kirkus, I’m doing things very by the book. This involves Bob Staake’s My Pet Book, Rilla Alexander’s The Best Book in the World, and Jen Bryant’s The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus, illustrated by Melissa Sweet. That link is here.

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Last week (here) was all about the dogs of summer. I’m following up with art today.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

“In our increasingly visual culture we expect readers to respond to pictures. Yet when children approach third grade, there’s mounting pressure to narrow their reading to chapter books — books with no pictures at all. My mission with the new line of TOON Graphics is to make books for readers ages 8 and up that offer both rich text and captivating image — books that promote both verbal and visual literacy.”

This morning over at Kirkus, I chat with designer and editor Françoise Mouly about the launch of TOON Graphics, and I’ll follow up here at 7-Imp next week with some art from their three debut titles.

The Q&A is here.

Until tomorrow …

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Photo used with permission of Françoise Mouly.

Cover sketch

Over at BookPage, my review of Daniel Miyares’ Pardon Me! (Simon & Schuster, June 2014) is up. It’s here. This is a picture book with a delicious (in more ways than one) twist before breakfast. Or, more like as breakfast. Today I’m following up with a bit of art from the book, as well as some extra images from Miyares that show the book’s development — sketches from the book dummy, images that didn’t make the cut, and development art for the finishes.

Enjoy!

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Have any of you seen Kazuno Kohara’s newest picture book, The Midnight Library (Roaring Brook, June 2014)?

I’m taken with it, and I love to see her linocut illustrations.

I reviewed The Midnight Library here for BookPage. So, if you’d like to read more about the book, you can head over there.

Today I’m following up with some illustrations from the book. The one pictured here to the left is toward the end of the book when the little librarian and her owls head upstairs to read one last book before bedtime.

And below is a bit more art.

Enjoy … Read the rest of this entry »

Illustration from Bo R. Holmberg’s A Day with Dad (2008),
illustrated Eva Eriksson

 
This week over at Kirkus, I’ve got a pack of dogs — Mogie, Mister Bud, Zorro, and Gaston, as well a cat and dog showdown from Chris Gall. That link is here.

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Last week (here), I rounded up a few good Father’s Day picture books (both old and new), so today I follow up with a bit of art from each.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »