Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

I know that tomorrow we celebrate President’s Day and that Martin Luther King, Jr. Day has already passed, so forgive my blatant disregard of the calendar here. But I wanted to show a few illustrations from a book I meant to highlight in January. (Not to mention we should celebrate King any day of the year. For a more presidential post, should that be your desire today, see my Kirkus column from yesterday.)

Shane W. Evans’ We March, released last month by Neal Porter/Roaring Brook, is the simple and elegantly-told account of one family’s march in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Filled with just nine short sentences (and I mean some as short as “We sing”), Evans lets the focus here be on the people involved, shining a spotlight on their determination and spirit. I love what Evans does with lines (what the Publishers Weekly review calls his “angular characters”) and how you can see his very brushstrokes on the characters’ faces — and even in the textured backgrounds. (The art I’ve got here today, though not a lot and not full spreads, speaks way better than I, so be sure to take a look.)

With a palette getting progressively warmer as the story unfolds, it culminates in a luminescent spread of King himself giving his historic speech, the sun rising in shimmering yellows behind his head. It’s lovely. Read the rest of this entry »

For this week’s Kirkus column, which will be here tomorrow, I take a look at Maira Kalman’s latest picture book, Looking at Lincoln. (You can also head over here to Jama Rattigan’s side to read about it.)

If you missed last week’s column, I wrote about Marilyn Singer’s latest poetry collection, A Stick Is an Excellent Thing, to be released by Clarion at the end of the month and illustrated by LeUyen Pham. That link is here.

Today I feature some spreads and early thumbnails from the book, courtesy of Ms. Pham. Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

I had the great pleasure of jurying the 2012 BolognaRagazzi Award for the 2012 Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy. I’m now back from my visit to Bologna—needless to say, I slept like a log last night—after having looked at nearly a thousand illustrated books from all over the world with fellow jury member and French book designer Raymond Stoffel, as well as Professor Antonio Faeti, chair of the jury and all-around brilliant human being.

To say that I am grateful and thrilled to have seen so much beautiful international children’s book art would be a serious understatement.

Here I am pictured in front of Giannino Stoppani, the world’s most perfect children’s bookshop. One day I am going to go back to Italy with my pillow and sleeping bag to just MOVE IN to this shop and sleep there amongst the books.

Later, I will share more pictures from the inside, and I’ll tell you more about it then, too. I am waving now to Grazia Gotti, who owns the shop and reads 7-Imp daily. (And I say “ciao!” in my best Italian accent, though it will probably sound a bit twangy, no matter how hard I try.) I was flattered to learn she and her colleagues read 7-Imp on the other side of the world, and it was great to meet them and to spend the day in their shop.

I also finally got to meet in person the dear, sweet Cristiana Clerici. More on that soon, too.

The 2012 BolognaRagazzi Award winners will be announced soon. Exciting! Until then, I set off to get caught up on everything else.

Back soon …

I’m just back from being out of town, and jet lag is my enemy.

Okay, so maybe I lined this post up before I left, and I suspect that jet lag will be my nemesis today, but I wanted to share this art with you. This will be short and sweet.

I like to see the illustrations of painter and illustrator Laura Dronzek. There is a soft, dream-like quality to her work that draws me in. Helen V. Griffith’s latest book, Moonlight (Greenwillow, February 2012), illustrated by Dronzek, is about a rabbit waiting for the moon, as you can see above: “Rabbit hides in shadow /under cloudy skies / waiting for the moonlight / blinking sleepy eyes.” When the moon comes out, it covers Dronzek’s night-time scenes in luminescent rays. “Moonlight slides like butter,” Griffith’s write, taking the butter analogy all the way to the book’s end. A “butter trace” is left in the sky, it covers the mountainside, it covers the trees, it “sucks at twigs and branches / like a butter bee,” and more. Indeed, the light “butters Rabbit’s dreams” till he wakes.

It’s a poem of a picture book, though I suspect the butter motif may not be for everyone. For me, it works, and Dronzek’s rich, graceful illustrations shimmer with color, particularly the buttery light. The artwork, bordered with those thick, yellow lines (see below) and rendered in acrylics, are soothing and warm, even given the darker, night-time palette.

And I have trouble imagining how Griffiths’ final line, with the accompanying joyful spread, wouldn’t put a huge smile on the face of a young child: “Rabbit dances in the field / butter on his head!”

Here are two more spreads (without the text). Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the Valentine’s Day 2012 edition of the 7-Kicks list.

One of my favorite things in all of PictureBook-dom is when Kara LaReau and Scott Magoon join forces and make books together. Today, both Scott and Kara are visiting to share images and early sketches from the two most recent books on which they collaborated, and they’re also here to say a bit about these books, their work together, and what’s next for each of them.

Their very most recent picture book, Mr. Prickles (pictured here)—what Publishers Weekly called a “tale of misfits” (aw, I have a soft spot for misfits)—was released at the tail end of last year (from Roaring Brook), and it’s the “quill-fated love story” of two porcupines. Porcupines are “very hard to get close to,” so poor Mr. Prickles has a difficult time making friends. He tries, he fails, he gets lonely, and he even gets prickly-angry. (The other woodland creatures are downright mean to him.) That is, till he meets Miss Pointypants. And then (just in time for your Valentine’s-Day read), love is in the air.

As you are wont to get with a LaReau/Magoon collaboration, there’s humor, emotion, and lots of style. It’s also got a pulsing heart at its center without being overly schmaltzy about it.

And, if you missed it last summer, don’t forget to take a look at their other collaboration, Otto: The Boy Who Loved Cars, also released by Roaring Brook (but in June of last year). Read the rest of this entry »

I’m getting ready to head out of town for a bit, but I can’t leave my 7-Imp readers hanging. This means that today I’ve got a bit of art for you; tomorrow, my Kirkus column will be up (over in Kirkus-land, of course); and Sunday, I’ll have the kicks post up, even though I won’t be around to respond. (How could I leave my kickers hanging? I’ve not once done that! Only wild aliens will keep me from posting on Sundays, I tell you.)

Tomorrow morning over at Kirkus, I shine the spotlight on Marilyn Singer’s upcoming picture book poetry collection, A Stick is an Excellent Thing, illustrated by LeUyen Pham. That link will be here first thing in the morning.

Last week at Kirkus, I discussed Kevin Henkes’ upcoming book, which is actually his debut as a beginning-reader author/illustrator. It’s called Penny and Her Song and will be released by Greenwillow at the end of February. That column is here, if you missed it. Pictured here today are three interior illustrations from the book. Enjoy …

Read the rest of this entry »

Picture books with really successful bah-dum-ching, final-page punchlines are hard to pull off, but here’s one that does it well.

Toni Buzzeo’s One Cool Friend, illustrated by Caldecott medalist David Small, was released by Dial in early January. I am loathe to ruin the ending for you before you read it yourself, so this post may seem kind of vague if you haven’t read it yet. But I enjoyed it and want to feature it, not to mention David is here to share some early sketches (and final images) from the book, and Toni is visiting as well. I’ve got my coffee cups all set out, don’t you know.

First things first, though: A brief summary. Meet Elliot, pictured left. Yes, he’s dapper, isn’t he? He is a “very proper young man.” One day, as you’ll see in a below spread, his father asks him if he’d like to attend Family Fun Day at the aquarium. Despite Elliot’s reservations (“Kids, masses of noisy kids”), he agrees to join his father.

The young boy falls for the penguins: “In their tidy black feather tuxedos with their proper posture, they reminded Elliot of himself.” His father, who appears to be clueless and altogether absent-minded, hands Elliot a twenty-dollar bill for a penguin, and Elliot picks out the smallest one he sees (an actual live, breathing one, not a plush one) and pops it inside his backpack. Magellan, the penguin, makes himself comfy at Elliot’s home, the boy doing all he can to conceal him from his father, who is a bit obsessed with a different creature, a ginormous sea tortoise from the Galápagos Islands. (Observant readers will notice that Elliot’s father is himself very tortoise-esque in appearance. Hint: Even looking at the shadows in this book is rewarding.) Read the rest of this entry »

That’s illustrator Maja Sereda speaking up there. I’m bending the rules a bit this morning with her visit. On the first Sunday of each month, I feature student or new-to-the-field illustrators, and it’s the first Sunday of February, but Maja is not exactly new to illustrating. However, she may be new to many of us readers here in the U.S., since she is from Poland and now lives and works in South Africa.

I’ll let Maja tell you about herself, and she has some more images to share below. I thank her for visiting. Read the rest of this entry »

If you missed last week’s column, I featured the beautiful picture book Virginia Wolf (to be released in March from Kids Can Press), written by Kyo Maclear and illustrated by Canadian Isabelle Arsenault. Long-time 7-Imp readers may remember this 2008 feature on Arsenault. How much do I love her artwork? If I counted the ways, we’d be here all week.

This morning, Arsenault shares some images and early studies from Virginia Wolf, and I thank her so much. I’m also featuring some illustrations from R. G. Roth from Everybody Gets the Blues (Harcourt, January 2012), written by author and illustrator Leslie Staub, a book I mentioned in last week’s column as well. Roth’s illustrations were hand-drawn, combined with collage, and then designed in Photoshop.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

A visit, that is. From Brian. Before breakfast. I do have strong coffee out, though.

Last year, one book I very much liked on many levels was author/illustrator (and former art director and graphic designer) Brian Biggs’ On Land (Balzer + Bray, September 2011), what is, it turns out, the first in an Everything Goes series of picture books he has planned (as you’ll read below, if you’re so inclined).

Brian and I discussed last year a cyber-breakfast visit here at 7-Imp, but I got busy and he got busy — and then it just never happened. Better late than never, though. He’s here this morning to talk about that book, as well as what’s coming up next in the series. And he’s sharing lots of images (which is exactly how you win over this illustration junkie’s heart). Read the rest of this entry »