Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“I feel books in general—and children’s books, in particular—should not only reflect a child’s experience, but also open other children to new worlds and perspectives. I believe we will ultimately create a more loving and humane world when we continue to expose our children at an early age to the experiences of others that may be different from them, while at the same time affirming those children who are experiencing difficult childhoods.”

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Hear, hear.

Over at Kirkus this morning, I chat with actor, singer and writer Daniel Beaty about KNOCK KNOCK: My Dad’s Dream for Me (Little, Brown), illustrated by Bryan Collier and released at the tail end of last year.

That is here.

Next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll have some of Bryan’s art from the book.

Until tomorrow …

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Photo of Mr. Beaty used with permission of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

 
Hi, dear Imps. Is everyone staying warm? I hope so.

Want to see some art that might warm you up? Over at BookPage, I’ve got a review of Amy Gibson’s Catching Kisses, illustrated by Maria van Lieshout and released by Feiwel and Friends on the very last day of last year.

That review is here, but I also asked Maria if she’d like to share some art from it, so I have that here today at 7-Imp.

And … since Maria has written and illustrated a second Hopper and Wilson book—Hopper and Wilson Fetch a Star, coming in April from Philomel—I asked if she could possibly share some spreads from that, too. (There are Hopper and Wilson, up left there, getting their plane ready for takeoff.) Do you remember 2011’s Hopper and Wilson, which I posted about here? (Now it’s evidently available in board book format, too.) Well, they’re back, and I’ve got an F&G of the book. This time the two best friends head way (and I mean, way) out to grab a star for a night-light (or a “lantern for nighttime adventures”). I won’t give the whole story away and ruin your reading adventures, but once they get near to a star they’d like to snag for their own, Wilson manages to get lost and in the end, when he’s found his friend, they decide to leave the star right where it is. Best let Mother Nature be, after all. (Plus, who needs a ginormous, burning ball of gas when you have Hopper? That’s what I say anyway.)

Maria created the art for Hopper and Wilson Fetch a Star with watercolors, ink, collage, colored pencil, crayons, a bit of acrylics, and “some technology to pull it all together.” The art for Catching Kisses is evidently all Adobe Illustrator, and again, you can read my thoughts on that book at the BookPage review.

Maria even sent along (without me asking) my favorite spread from Hopper and Wilson Fetch a Star — the nearly pitch-black one below, which constitutes Wilson’s darkest moment. I remember sometimes feeling like that as a child, especially if I thought of the vastness of outer space.

Enjoy the art. Read the rest of this entry »

Happy 2014, one and all!

It’s the first Sunday of the month, which means I invite a student or newly-graduated illustrator to visit 7-Imp and share artwork. Today, I welcome Tracy Subisak, who is (as noted at her site) a “goofy Midwestern girl living in the great Northwest.”

She’s here to share art, as well as tell us a bit about her work, so let’s get right to it …

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(Click image to see spread in its entirety)

 
Today at Kirkus, I write about Rukhsana Khan’s King for a Day, illustrated by Christiane Krömer. That link is here.

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Last week at Kirkus, I wrote here about Katherine Paterson’s Giving Thanks: Poems, Prayers, and Praise Songs of Thanksgiving (Chronicle Books, October 2013), illustrated by Pamela Dalton. Today I’ve got some spreads from the book for those of you who want to see some of the poetry and prose inside, as well as Dalton’s intricate Scherenschnitte.

Enjoy.

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“Look for colors. Is it time? Are they ripe? Scan up. Scan down. Paw and claw and pull. Find … huckleberries. Rake them with your teeth. Purple your snout.”

 
Last week over at Kirkus, I chatted with author April Pulley Sayre about her newest picture book, Eat Like a Bear (Henry Holt, October 2013), illustrated by Steve Jenkins. What a good book it is, and I really enjoyed hearing April’s thoughts on the writing of it. That Q & A is here.

Today I’m following up with some art from the book (without the text in the spreads), as well as some sketches from Steve.

[Please note: Some of the colors in these spreads are slightly off, as they appear here online.]

Enjoy!

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Author/illustrator Lori Nichols isn’t new to 7-Imp (she visited back in 2010), but at this 2013 visit she’s well on her way with an agent and a picture book scheduled to be released in February of next year by Nancy Paulsen Books. I’ve seen this book, called Maple, which Kirkus has already given a starred review. It’s charming, just like Kirkus says, and I hope to cover it here soon at 7-Imp when it hits bookshelves. So, more on that later (but the cover is pictured below).

Today, I’m sharing images which Lori created last Fall and which I really like. Lori is working on some ideas for Nancy Paulsen using some of these characters, but I secured her permission to share a small handful of them today.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

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Yesterday at Kirkus, I chatted with author April Pulley Sayre about her newest picture book, Eat Like a Bear (Henry Holt, October 2013), illustrated by Steve Jenkins. It’s so good, this book. April talks about the writing of it (“Language to me is visceral,” she says), as well as what it was like to see Steve’s artwork for the book.

That Q&A is here, and next week I’ll have some follow-up images from Steve.

Today, since I knew Kirkus deadlines wouldn’t stop for the holidays, I thought about what would be a good book to feature during the week of Christmas. And Katherine Paterson’s Giving Thanks: Poems, Prayers, and Praise Songs of Thanksgiving (Chronicle Books, October 2013) came to mind immediately. My thoughts on that book are here this morning.

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Last week, I wrote here about some 2013 titles that got away from me, and today I follow up with some art from each book.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

“The crowds at the Hartford jail were even greater than those in New Haven.
Evidently Africans like ourselves were a novelty, and so people streamed into the jail, often traveling long distances, to see what we looked like.”
(Click image to see spread in its entirety, including the text)

 
Just the other day at Kirkus, I wrote about some 2013 Picture Books That Got Away — that is, those books that during the year I had planned to write about here at 7-Imp or over at Kirkus, yet for one reason or another I didn’t get to them.

One book I wanted to include in that list, yet I knew I’d be writing about it today, is Monica Edinger’s Africa Is My Home: A Child of the Amistad (Candlewick, October 2013), illustrated by Robert Byrd. This is a lengthier picture book, geared (if you heed such labels) at slightly older readers. (“10 to 14 years old” is how the publisher thinks of it.) This is the fictionalized story of the real-life child named Margru, who later became known as Sarah Kinson, taken from her home by slave traders in Mendeland, West Africa, “one of the greenest places on earth,” in 1839. At the age of nine, Margru’s father decided she would go as a pawn to work for the family of a man in her village. This would occur in exchange for rice, given that the village in which Margru and her family lived was suffering greatly from drought and famine. “At the next harvest,” her father told her, “I will return what I owe and you will come home.” Margru did as she was told, only to find soon after that she was “in a line of captives headed for the coast.” Slave traders transported Margru and many other West Africans, including three other children, to Cuba and later to the U.S. on the Spanish slave ship called the Amistad.

Read the rest of this entry »

Renata: “When I was little, I used to enjoy looking up at the ceiling and imagine living up there. We had a small apartment and it was full with us and our stuff.
The ceiling was so nice and uncluttered!”

Final spread from the book and its early sketch
(Click each image to enlarge)

 
This morning over at Kirkus, I write about some 2013 books that got away. That link is here.

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Last week, I wrote about Once Upon a Memory, written by Nina Laden (who chatted with me a bit about writing the book) and illustrated by Renata Liwska. That link is here.

Today, I’m following up with some sketches and final art from Renata.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

Early dummy image for the cover of Little Santa
(Click to enlarge)

Final art: “And you know the rest of the story.”
(Click to enlarge)

Last week at Kirkus, I chatted here with author-illustrator Jon Agee about a few things, including his newest picture book, Little Santa (Dial, October 2013). Today, I’m following up with some art from the book, as well as some dummy images Jon sent along (which he explains in the Q&A, but I’ll be sure to put captions below each of those images).

Jon also talked in one response about picture book publishing in the early ’80s “when publishing was a quieter, slower, leaner business, and the editorial staff still held reign over sales and marketing. I was a complete unknown, and yet I could meet face-to-face with editors, like Frances Foster and Margaret McElderry. Or receive inspiring rejection letters from Walter Lorraine and Gordon Lish.” He shares below one of those rejection letters. It’s from Walter Lorraine.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »