Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Today I’ve got the artwork of illustrator Theodore Taylor III. Taylor is an artist, designer, and photographer, who lives in Washington, D.C., and this is his picture book debut. It’s Laban Carrick Hill’s biography of Clive Campbell, When the Beat Was Born (Roaring Brook, August 2013). Campbell was also known as DJ Kool Herc and is the DJ (born in Jamaica but raised in the Bronx) considered the creator of hip hop.

Hill opens the biography with Clive as a young, music-loving child, dancing around the house to vinyl records. His childhood hero was a DJ, named King George, who threw large neighborhood house parties. Though Clive—who desperately wanted to be a DJ—was too young to attend, he’d watch King George set up for the parties. (“Clive had never seen so many records.”)

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Today at Kirkus, I’ve got the latest picture book from Canadian author/illustrator Anne Villeneuve, Loula is Leaving for Africa, which is all kinds of entertaining. That link is here.

Last week (here), I wrote about Yusuke Yonezu’s board book, We Love Each Other (Minedition, November 2013). Above is an illustration from this cleverly-designed book, and below are some spreads.

Enjoy.

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Last week at Kirkus, I chatted with William Joyce about his newest picture book, The Mischievians (Atheneum, October 2013). That is here, and today I’ve got a bit of art from the book.

Since this book is a catalog of everyday “things that make mischief, make mayhem, [and] make noise” (think: lost homework, missing keys, that kind of thing), Joyce has been inviting children on his recent book tour to create their own dastardly creatures of mayhem. He shared a few of those with me today (from Hunter’s Creek Elementary in Houston, Texas), and they are posted here as well. Here’s one, The Eye-Stealer. He—you guessed it—steals eyeballs (AIEE!), and he was discovered by a young scientist, named Blake. Keep your eyes peeled for The Eye-Stealer, I say.

 
Enjoy the rest. (There’s a bit more art from the book below, as well as three more child-created Mischievians.) Read the rest of this entry »

[Edited to Add, Tuesday morning — I meant to say one more thing, dear readers: I am PERPETUALLY behind on email. I get a lot of blog-related emails. I am months behind, but I am making chinks in the stone and slowly getting caught up. If you’ve emailed me about something and you’re thinking I’m rude and incommunicative … well, no, all my emails this morning, as I try to catch up, begin with “sorry it took me months to reply.” Is it weird to wish I had a 7-Imp Administrative Assistant? Anyway, I hope to get back to everyone soon.]

 
I don’t tend to do news’y-type posts here at 7-Imp, but it’s just time for a few announcements that I find worthwhile for one reason or another:

First, I just have to share this. My favorite musician, Sam Phillips, recently wrote this:

I’ve decided to make November “Art Month.” It seems like a more interesting way to kick off the holidays. Some say that food is the new rock n’ roll, so I say that art is the new food.

Amen.

Okay, the announcements. I decided to use rock-and-roll hands, instead of boring bullets:

I’m currently in the second year of my two-year term as a member of the ALSC Grant Administration Committee for the American Library Association. It’s truly inspiring to read about what many innovative and enthusiastic librarians across the country are doing. We were encouraged to remind librarians about these grants; as you’ll see, some deadlines have passed, but not all of them. Please spread the word, librarians, and consider applying (if eligible). There are some great opportunities here.

Speaking of ALSC/ALA, I’m honored to be on the ballot for the Newbery 2016 committee, posted here.

Voting for ALSC members isn’t till Spring, but no matter the results, I am, as I said, honored to even be named there.

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Guess what I did in October?

1. I bungee jumped from the skid of a helicopter into the caldera of a raging volcano, coming within over 500 feet of a pool of molten lava.
2. I decided to take the month off from blogging, and all the posts you saw here were really composed by my clone, ’cause I’m like THAT with a super smart clone scientist.
3. I completely forgot about my 7-Imp first-of-the-month student illustrator feature and just skipped October altogether.

Yep, it’s the third one, though I didn’t even make the first one up. (You can evidently pay over $10,000 to do that in Chilé.)

So, on the first Sunday of each month here at 7-Imp, I feature either student illustrators or illustrators brand-spankin’-new to the field, and I just completely blanked on the first Sunday of October — though, to be sure, it was a treat to see the work of Ingrid Godon.

But guess what else? I am more than making up for it today with the work of Dasha Tolstikova, who graduated just last year from the School of Visual Art’s Master’s program in illustration. Here she is — and with lots more of her art. I thank her for visiting.

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Yesterday at Kirkus, I chatted with Mr. Moonbot himself, William Joyce, pictured here. He is up to all kinds of mischief—or at least cataloging it—in his new picture book, The Mischievians.

And he is very serious about his work, as you will read.

That chat is here.

Today, I’ve got some thoughts on an exceptional new board book from designer and illustrator Yusuke Yonezu. It’s called We Love Each Other.

I don’t title my own columns over there, but the editor who did gave this one just the right name: Comfort and Warmth in Shapes.

That is here.

Next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll have art from both books.

Until Sunday …

Photo of William Joyce by Tony Reans and used with permission.

 
Last week at Kirkus, I wrote about Jonathan Bean’s newest picture book, Big Snow (Farrar Straus Giroux, September 2013). I love this book, which also makes me want to whip up some hot cocoa with marshmallows. Pronto.

That link is here.

And today I follow up with some images — some early storyboard sketches, color studies, cover designs, final art (including the illustration above), and such.

I thank Jonathan for sharing these images today. I like to look at his art so much that I even enjoy looking at his sketches. (Note: The images below that say “final art” have slightly brighter colors here on your screen than what appear in the book.)

Enjoy.

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I read just yesterday the book I’m featuring here today, what the Kirkus review (a starred one) calls “The Arrival for younger readers.” I’m lucky I’m able to show you some of the art from this book, since I asked for some spreads last-minute (this is how I roll), but spreads I have!

The book is Here I Am, published by Capstone Press in September. The story is by Patti Kim, and the art is by Sonia Sanchez. Now, I have an uncorrected proof of this, what I was calling a wordless picture book in my head. I see that the Publishers Weekly review (also starred) calls it one, too, yet the Kirkus review describes it as a “slender graphic novel.” Either way, it’s good stuff.

It tells the story of a young boy who leaves his home country—most likely, a country in Asia (in a closing author’s note, Kim notes her own childhood immigration to the U.S. from Korea)—for New York City. He and his family are making a new life in a (loud) new place. During the course of the story, the boy goes from great despondency, during which his only consolation is memories of home, spawned by a red seed he keeps with him at all times, to acceptance. Kim tells an emotionally powerful tale here, and Sanchez’s swirling art is spellbinding. She uses color to great effect to convey strong emotions, and she knows just when to let white space let the story breathe precisely where it needs to. The boy’s own imaginary visions of his former home, as prompted by his red seed, remind me of Kyo Maclear’s Virginia Wolf, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault, published by Kids Can Press in 2012. (For that reason and several others, I think this book would be so good paired with that one.)

It’s an intense story of the myriad complex emotions that come with immigration. Or, as Sarah Shun-lien Bynum wrote at the New York Times, “Kim and Sanchez bring to their lively pages the heightened perceptions of the recently arrived.”

I’ll just let the art speak for itself now.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning to all. I’m doing something similar this week (to what I did last week). I wrote a review for the fine folks at BookPage of Joan Holub’s Little Red Writing (Chronicle Books, September 2013), illustrated by Melissa Sweet. And since that review is up over at their site, I thought I’d link to it and share some art from the book. Melissa even sent some early sketches from the book, also posted below.

So, to read about this very fun book (special heads-up to teachers of writing in the elementary grades), head on over here. And the images are below.

I thank Melissa for sharing the art and sketches today.

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Last week, I weighed in on Eve Bunting’s newest picture book, Big Bear’s Big Boat, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. That link is here.

Below is some more art from that book.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »