Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

A week ago today at Kirkus, I conducted a short Q & A with Jennifer Dasal, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the North Carolina Museum of Art, about their current exhibit of Ashley Bryan’s artwork, Rhythms of the Heart: The Illustration of Ashley Bryan, which runs until August 19 of this year.

As I wrote over there, Bryan (pictured right) has led a long and distinguished career in children’s literature and his work draws, in particular, upon African-American spirituals, poetry, and folklore.

That link is here. You can read more over there from Ms. Dasal about the pieces in the exhibit, and I thank her for taking the time to talk to me.

Today here at 7-Imp, I’ve got images from the exhibit, and I thank the museum for sharing.

Released in conjunction with this exhibit will be two volumes of spirituals from Ashley, Walk Together Children: Black American Spirituals, Volume One and I’m Going to Sing: Black American Spirituals, Volume Two, published by Alazar Press. Over at the Q & A, I also spoke briefly with Rosemarie Gulla of Alazar, and here is what she told me in her entirety, for those interested in Ashley’s work and, in particular, these new volumes: Read the rest of this entry »

I have a presence over in the hypo-hyper world of Facebook, primarily so that I can share children’s literature links — and keep up with children’s lit news and links from colleagues in the field. I already posted the above image over there at my profile page, but I post it again here this morning all in the name of a really wonderful children’s reading festival that I’d like to yawp about. (And it’s about time, since every year I come back from the festival intending to blog more about it.) You can imagine me doing both jazz hands and cheerleader spirit fingers on this one, ’cause it’s that great. (Even if you were standing in front of me right now, you’d still have to just imagine me doing this, since I can only manage to grunt monosyllabically before breakfast/coffee, much less engage in such enthusiastic hand gestures. Post-coffee, I’m good to go, though.)

Read the rest of this entry »

I may have said only about 7,000 times in 2011 that one of my favorite picture books of that year was Eileen and Marc Rosenthal’s I Must Have Bobo! (I featured it here at 7-Imp in January with illustrations from the book, and Marc also visited the blog here in October.) The book, as I wrote last January, was a straight up showdown between one young boy, Willy, and the family cat, Earl, the dilemma being that the object of their affection is one beloved sock monkey, named Bobo. Bobo, however, can only be with one creature at a time. I also wrote back then that, if I could play for you all the main theme song from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly when discussing the book, I would.

It’s a very funny book.

Well… Willy, Bobo, and Earl are back in 2012. Can someone give me a “WOO!”? Rather, they returned in early April in I’ll Save You Bobo! (brought to us once again by Atheneum Books), and I’m finally getting around to giving the three of them the 7-Imp spotlight. Marc sent some illustrations from the book, as well as some early sketches.

As Publishers Weekly wrote about this one, the “war rages on!” Indeed. Willy is trying to read all about giant dinosaurs, but Earl hasn’t given up on his quest for Bobo and keeps interrupting. When Willy decides to write his own book, a scary adventure in which he’ll save Bobo, his imagination goes into overdrive as he incorporates a jungle, fierce wild animals, tigers, a scary snake tree, and even more. As he’s writing and illustrating this tale in the fort he’s made for himself and Bobo, Earl wreaks his own havoc upon the tale in more ways than one. But, ah, the power of creativity (and catharsis and channeling your rage into your works of art): The snake in Willy’s own story could always eat Earl alive … Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been a busy bee. This week at Kirkus, I’ll have two columns over at their Book Blogger Network.

First up: This morning is my Q & A with Jennifer Dasal, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the North Carolina Museum of Art, about their current exhibit, Rhythms of the Heart: The Illustration of Ashley Bryan. (Oh how I wish I could see this exhibit in person right now, but I’ll settle for doing my part to yawp about it instead.) The Q & A is here this morning, so head over there if you’d like to learn more about the exhibit, as well as the two new volumes of spirituals from Ashley that Alazar Press is releasing to commemorate this exhibit.

And, as always, I’ll follow that up next week here at 7-Imp with lots of art from the exhibit, as well as a bit more about the exhibit and the folks behind it.

Secondly: Tomorrow morning, I’ll discuss a Spring picture book release from Lemniscaat, The Man in the Clouds, from Dutch author and illustrator Koos Meinderts and Annette Fieneig. I like this mysterious little tale. That link will be here first thing tomorrow morning.

Last week at Kirkus, I wrote about the latest from Tao Nyeu, Squid and Octopus: Friends for Always. That link is here, if you missed it and are so inclined to read it. I’m happy to feature some more illustrations from it today, as no one has a style quite like Nyeu.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sitting down at the breakfast table this morning with author/illustrator Jill McElmurry. Rather, I’m handing the 7-Imp mic over to her. And I’m happy to be doing so; I’ve enjoyed many of her picture books and her expressive, detailed gouache artwork over the years.

And, as you can see at her site, she has illustrated nearly twenty books in her career. This month, she sees the release of two new picture book titles — on the same day, actually, which she discusses below. She both wrote and illustrated Mario Makes a Move (Schwartz & Wade), which I haven’t read yet. The other, Pirate Princess (HarperCollins), was written by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and is an anti-princess (well, anti-traditional princess) tale of a young member of the royal family who “couldn’t face [a] life wed to some prince” and wants to be a pirate instead. When she finally makes it to a pirate’s boat, the men try to have her clean and cook, but neither works out too well. Turns out Princess Bea, the protagonist who puts the very “pluck” in plucky, has another talent — but I won’t ruin the read for you with spoilers.

Kirkus calls Pirate Princess a “winning combination of smart and silly,” and about Mario Makes a Move (which is evidently about a squirrel amazing to his doting parents, but not so much his less impressed friend) Publishers Weekly writes that McElmurry’s “text and watercolor artwork capture the exuberance of the creative spirit.” The squirrel appears to have amazing moves. (It looks very funny, and I’ll have to find a copy of this one soon.) “I’m doing a reading of Mario at the end of the month with a friend (former actress),” Jill told me, “who reads the part of Mario. It’s fun to read as a pair, and this book cries out for more than one. We’re doing moves and the whole bit. I can (in my feverish imagination) picture doing it with real dancers in a larger space, someday.”

I’m going to turn it right over to Jill, and I thank her for visiting and sharing words, early sketches, and finished illustrations today. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Mother’s Day, the day we celebrate all the mamas and mama-like people in our lives.

I thought the best way I could celebrate today here at 7-Imp would be to highlight the latest picture book from Gianna Marino, Meet Me at the Moon, released by Viking in late March. And Gianna is visiting today to share a collection of early dummies, early sketches, work-in-progress images, and final spreads from the book.

She also has the loveliest true tale about her own mother and the creation of this book.

The book, which Booklist describes as “[h]eartfelt and sincere, yet never cloying,” tells the story of a young elephant and his mother. Little One is worried, because his mother must leave to “climb the highest mountain to ask the skies for rain.” Telling Little One to listen for her song on the wind, know that the warmth of the sun means she loves him, and find the brightest star to see her, she leaves. “When the night sky is bright, Little One,” she adds, “meet me at the moon, where the sky touches the earth.”

In their starred review, Kirkus writes: “The textured mixed-media art paired with the flowing text elevates this title above most missing-mama fare. The full-bleed double-page spreads evoke the vastness of the plains and the night sky, while the finely detailed striping of the zebras and the intricate branches of the trees produce a striking contrast with the huge circles of the sun or moon that dominate most scenes. Radiating warmth and comfort, this distinguished title strikes home.”

This one also made it in the New York Times just the other day.

Here’s Gianna, and I thank her for visiting and sharing. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning at Kirkus, I take a look at the new picture book offering from the very talented author/illustrator Tao Nyeu, Squid and Octopus: Friends for Always. That link is here this morning.

Last week at Kirkus, I took a look at two new picture book titles from Tara Books, who—as I wrote over at Kirkus—are an independent publisher based in South India. I also mentioned some of their more recent (but not from 2012) titles, and so today I’ve got illustrations from those older picture books, as well as spreads from the two brand-new ones.

Enjoy the art. Read the rest of this entry »

I was hoping to wake up this morning and find that yesterday’s news about Sendak’s passing was only a dream.

Not surprisingly, some wonderful tributes have been written. Before I get to the beautiful and intriguing image above, I’ll note that below (at the bottom of this post) I share a few worthwhile tributes and links related to Sendak’s death — other than the three I mentioned yesterday morning at the New York Times, the Rosenbach Museum & Library, and Roger Sutton’s blog. (Roger’s post has been updated with a beautiful photo.)

Back to the image above (pictured right is a detail of it) … One of my favorite things about blogging about picture books—if not my very favorite—is having the opportunity to chat with picture book creators. Sure, dialogue happens here at 7-Imp, but off-blog it happens, too — often before books get released. Today’s featured illustrator, Aaron Becker, is a case-in-point. And I happen to know Aaron was very inspired by Sendak, so as we mourn the loss of the master, we also look ahead to those whose work has been shaped by the breath of Sendak’s creative vision and his honesty.

Aaron will visit 7-Imp later. His debut picture book won’t be released till next year (Candlewick), but he and I have chatted a bit, and once I saw his site at storybreathing.com, I fell for his artwork. Don’t you agree, dear readers? I think he is one to keep an eye on. The image above is a sneak-peek at that upcoming picture book, which will be wordless, called Journey. It was rendered in ink, watercolor, and gouache.

Aaron is also a film designer and, he tells me, is slowly making the transition to doing children’s books full-time. I very much look forward to discovering the story swirling around that magical image. Is it Fall 2013 yet? I am eager to see this book.

At this link, you can see even more of Aaron’s artwork. Enjoy.

As promised, some Sendak tributes/links, in no particular order (and hardly comprehensive): Read the rest of this entry »

I am so sad to hear about the passing of Maurice Sendak. What a loss for us all. I have been sitting in shock for a while, while I sit back and watch the news explode at places like Twitter and Facebook. I wish right about now I were a poet.

But the New York Times did well with this:

In book after book, Mr. Sendak upended the staid, centuries-old tradition of American children’s literature, in which young heroes and heroines were typically well scrubbed and even better behaved; nothing really bad ever happened for very long; and everything was tied up at the end in a neat, moralistic bow. … A largely self-taught illustrator, Mr. Sendak was at his finest a shtetl Blake, portraying a luminous world, at once lovely and dreadful, suspended between wakefulness and dreaming. In so doing, he was able to convey both the propulsive abandon and the pervasive melancholy of children’s interior lives.

I still remember Roger Sutton’s 2003 Horn Book interview with Maurice. (Note: Roger has a brief tribute to his friend at his blog today, the best part being where he describes Sendak as “an omnivorous and eloquent consumer of art in all forms, and a wicked mimic who had the most impressive command of obscene language that I have ever heard.”) In that 2003 Horn Book interview, they discussed death. Sendak said,

[D]eath is a comfort because that’s what saves you. Suffering, cancer, some horrible disease, I’m terrified of pain. Death will just take you away from that. So what’s to be afraid of? It’s a cessation of pain. What more could you ask? It’s like the good nurse. … I think the most graceful thing offered us is sleep without dreams. That is so sensible.

He also said in that same interview, “you come on a wisp of air and you go on a wisp of air.”

I just didn’t think it’d be so soon.

Here’s hoping he gets his dreamless sleep.

Note: Don’t miss these words from the Rosenbach Museum & Library. They include an art gallery.

Anyone else seen Frank W. Dormer’s newest picture book, The Obstinate Pen (Henry Holt, April 2010)? It’s funny stuff, and I’ve been meaning to post about it for a while now. Fortunately, Frank is visiting today, and also, as you can see here, the Pen got hold of an illustration Frank did of me and … well … whaddya know, it’s my first moustache. (That pen. You gotta keep your eye on it.)

But let me back up first and summarize this one for you — before Frank tells us a bit, via images, how this book came to be.

Horace’s Uncle Flood — band name! I call it … Uh, sorry. Where was I? Right. … A young boy, named Horace, watches as his Uncle Flood revels in his new pen, which he has just unwrapped with glee and laid on his desk. Clearly, Uncle Flood gets really excited about his writing utensils.

Problem is, though, that every time Uncle Flood tries to write with the pen, which the Horn Book review describes as “insulting, subversive, and anarchic,” it won’t record his actual thoughts — but instead disses him. “You have a BIG nose” is the pen’s first notation.

Uncle Flood will have none of that and chucks the pen out the window. Officer Wonkle tries to write a ticket to Miss Glenda Weeble with the pen, which has landed near his feet, and the pen tells him to kiss her already. Mrs. Norkham Pigeon-Smythe eventually gets a hold of it and has a blast, as the pen calls her “Mrs. Floofy Pants” while she tries to write her memoir. After she puts it under a glass in a room of her house no one ever visits, the pen escapes and eventually makes its way back to Horace, for whom the pen draws exactly the pictures he has in mind. “At last,” wrote Nell Casey in an early April New York Times write-up about new picture books that harness creativity (calling Dormer’s book “the most original” of the bunch), “when the opinionated pen meets its match — a child who, unlike the adults before him, both knows and is not afraid of his true creative impulses — it surrenders with grace.”

As I said, Frank’s here today to tell us how the story came to be, and I thank him. Without further ado, I turn it over to him (as I wrestle the blog back from the Pen) for…

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