7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #756: Featuring Bob Shea

h1 August 15th, 2021    by jules



 
It’s a good day to visit Chez Bob by Bob Shea.

Bob is a very hungry alligator, but he’s also lazy. His solution? He opens a birdseed restaurant on his nose in order to attract the birds he’d like to snack on. Birdseed may be the one and only thing on the menu, but Bob does attract a visitor at Chez Bob. After that first bird tells all his friends about the new place, Bob becomes “the talk of the trees. Birds flew in from all over the world to eat on Bob’s face.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Interviews, Picture Books | 6 Comments »

“Slow readers savor the story!”:
Hudson Talbott’s A Walk in the Words

h1 August 13th, 2021    by jules


“A whole page of text looked like a wall — keeping me out. By now, everyone in my class was reading book after book, except me. What if they found out that I couldn’t keep up?”
(Click spread to enlarge)


 
I’ve a review over at BookPage of Hudson Talbott’s A Walk in the Words (Nancy Paulsen Books, September 2021).

That review is here, and below are some more spreads from the book.

Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Picture Books | 2 Comments »

Some Cosmic Math Before Breakfast

h1 August 10th, 2021    by jules


“We’re moondust and star shine all circling the sun …”
(Click spread to enlarge)


 
“How the World Adds Up” is the subtitle of Susan Hood’s newest picture book, We Are One (Candlewick), illustrated by Linda Yan (her picture book debut) and coming to shelves next month. It is precisely because not a lot of our world today does seem to add up (in non-mathematical ways) that I find this book so comforting. It’s a primer on early math concepts, and it’s a reminder that we’re all connected to something larger than ourselves.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Picture Books | No Comments »

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #755: Featuring Aaron Becker

h1 August 8th, 2021    by jules


“A tree stood steel-straight and proud at the foot of the towers that filled its sky.
It grew, mostly unnoticed, silently marking the seasons.”
(Click spread to enlarge)


 
We will soon mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11. It’s hard to believe. Children’s literature will acknowledge this with more than one book (more soon here at 7-Imp about one such picture book from author-illustrator Sean Rubin, which was released in May), and today I have one from author Marcie Colleen and illustrator Aaron Becker. Survivor Tree (Little, Brown) will be on shelves this month.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Picture Books | 8 Comments »

Now That Night is Near

h1 August 5th, 2021    by jules


“Come now little one, it’s time to go to sleep.
All the little children are tucked up in bed.”
(Click spread to enlarge)


 
Today’s book was first published in Swedish in 2019 as Alla Ska Sova — Now That Night is Near, written by the great Astrid Lindgren and illustrated in gouache, ink, watercolors, colored pencils, pastels, and acrylics by Swedish-Dutch author-illustrator Marit Törnqvist. The English version is now on shelves (May 2021, Floris), and as you can see above in the book’s opening spread, it is an invitation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Picture Books | No Comments »

Teaching the Truth

h1 August 3rd, 2021    by jules



 

I’m taking a small break from sharing picture book art to signal-book this excellent opinion piece (from just yesterday) at the New York Times from Nashvillian Margaret Renkl, an essay that touches on children’s books too. Click on the image above to be taken to the piece, and if you can’t access it but you contact me, I’ll glady summarize it for you.

Posted in Etcetera, Intermediate, Picture Books | No Comments »

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #754: Featuring Kazue Takahashi

h1 August 1st, 2021    by jules


“That evening Mayu went to the forest mailbox with her letter.
Her heart beat faster as she put her letter into the box. Then she ran home.”


 
Those of you who still correspond with friends and family via letter-writing know that to receive a letter from a friend, sitting there in your mailbox amongst all the credit card applications, is to receive a gift. In fact, I received one such gift this week, which brightened my day. Kyoko Hara’s newest illustrated chapter book for children, The Mailbox in the Forest, is a tribute to letter-writing. Originally published in Japan in 2007, it will be on U.S. shelves in September and was illustrated by Kazue Takahashi. (Fans of the fabulous Kuma-Kuma Chan books will recognize that name.)

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 7-Imp's 7 Kicks, Intermediate, Picture Books | 8 Comments »

The Little Library: Seven Cheers for Librarian Beck

h1 July 29th, 2021    by jules


“Librarian Beck put a heavy book into Jake’s hands. It was old and worn. …”
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)


 
There’s so much to love about Margaret McNamara’s The Little Library (Schwartz & Wade, March 2021), illustrated by G. Brian Karas and a new entry in a series of picture books called Mr. Tiffin’s Classroom, that I’m not sure where to begin. But we’ll begin with Jake, one of the book’s main characters. “Jake was a slow and careful reader. Sometimes he read the same page more than once so he could figure everything out. When it came to Library Day, Jake felt behind.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Picture Books | 1 Comment »

Stephen Costanza’s King of Ragtime

h1 July 27th, 2021    by jules


“What could Scott do with all that music buzzing in his brain?”


 
Let me say right off the bat that this post is best read while simultaneously listening to “Gladiolus Rag” (or your Joplin ragtime of choice).

Coming to shelves in September is King of Ragtime: The Story of Scott Joplin (Atheneum) from Stephen Costanza, author-illustrator and one-time ragtime player himself. And it is a beauty.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Picture Books | 1 Comment »

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #753: Featuring Hadley Hooper

h1 July 25th, 2021    by jules


“Meanwhile, the elephants ride in a trailer, past sycamore figs and acacia trees,
beyond the Umfolozi swamp, and along the Nseleni River. They bump over
one … two … three railway tracks and then down a dirt path
where a sign points the way to Thula Thula.
The elephants COME.”
(Click spread to enlarge)


 
I’ve a review over at the Horn Book of Kim Tomsic’s The Elephants Come Home: A True Story of Seven Elephants, Two People, and One Extraordinary Friendship (Chronicle, May 2021), illustrated by Hadley Hooper.

That review is here, and below (and above) are some of the book’s spreads.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Picture Books | 4 Comments »

« Previous Page — « Previous Entries
Next Entries » — Next Page »