Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Last Fall, I did a small handful of posts in which I highlighted some new picture books for the wee’est of readers, and I never quite finished. One of those books (and more are to come, as I will get to them, even if in 2012), another book geared toward your toddler-sized readers, is Angela DiTerlizzi’s Say What?, illustrated by Joey Chou and released by Beach Lane Books in July of 2011.

The illustrations Joey shares today give you a good sense of the book, which ends with a wee human child, telling his mother how much he loves her. This is always good for toddlers. (In fact, I envision this book as becoming a board book one day. Hey, good idea. Should I call the editor? “Jules WHO?” Seriously, I hope they consider it. It’d work.) This one is also good for, as the Kirkus reviewer noted, preschoolers who enjoy language play. Read the rest of this entry »

This week at Kirkus, I take a look at 2012 picture book titles I’m particularly eager to see. The link is here this morning.

If you missed last week’s column, I wrote about Martin Jenkins’ Can We Save the Tiger? — illustrated by Vicky White and published by Candlewick in February of last year. Beautiful book in every way. That link is here, and above is a spread from the book. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a quick post in celebration of a 2011 title that I really enjoyed, Michael Morpurgo’s adaptation (Candlewick, October 2011) of the classic Pied Piper of Hamelin, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark, a story which—according to this link anyway—may date back to the Middle Ages. (Now, suddenly, I want to know everything about this fairy tale, but I guess that’ll have to get added to my to-do list. Wonder if anyone anywhere has annotated it?)

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m doing something a little different today. Author/illustrator Carin Berger is visiting, which always makes me happy, but the slightly different part here is that she’s sharing art from a book not scheduled to come out till over a year from now. But, hey, why not? Right? I always like to check in to see what Carin’s doing, and as you can read below, she’s having fun with dioramas, her three-dimensional art — and the results are good. Very good. (I’d like to live inside Carin’s brain for at least one day, thanks very much.)

So, let’s get right to it. Carin (who visited me for a cyber-breakfast in 2009) is here to explain what in the hubba-what I’m talking about here: Read the rest of this entry »

Happy 2012, everyone! Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you.

I hope you rang in the new year just the way you wanted to. It’s the first Sunday of the month, so that means I invite a student illustrator or brand-spankin’-shiny-new illustrator over to share some art and say a few words. Today, I have a new illustrator, whose name is Lia Marcoux and who graduated in 2009. Let’s get right to it. She’s here to introduce herself, and I raise my cup of coffee to her. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning over at Kirkus, I put in my own good word for the beautiful Can We Save the Tiger?, written by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by Vicky White. You can get the low-down over there.

I hope everyone is planning something fun for New Year’s Eve — or deliciously quiet. Hey, whatever floats your boat. Until later …

It’s that time of year, dear readers. It’s when I like to look back on what happened at 7-Imp during the year and look at who graced the site with their presence—all with my buddy here, Alfred—because evidently I am slightly to moderately screwy in the head. (It’s taken me over a week just to pull all this together.) Actually, I just really enjoy end-of-the-year recaps of every kind, and—as I said in 2010’s recap post—this is my warped idea of tidy fun. Also, it satisfies the tremendous picture book junkie in me.

As my regular readers know, I am devoted here at 7-Imp to focusing on contemporary illustration (well, not always contemporary — there are some exceptions) — with a particular focus on picture books. So, even though I certainly didn’t have the time to cover every book I wanted to discuss, not to mention I didn’t read every picture book created in 2011, 7-Imp end-of-year recaps can be an awful lot like looking back at the state of picture books during a given year, which I also find really fun. That’s one way of saying: This long post is good for browsing, especially if you like to see picture book art.

If I take a look at what was new to 7-Imp in 2011—before we look at who visited, that is, and all kinds of artwork—I run the risk of actually sounding organized, which I’m not. Or as if I’m someone who blogs 40 hours a week, which I’m also not. Since blogging comes after my children, the work-that-pays, and other things that allow me to have a life, I’m kind of scattered, have no real 7-Imp Action Plans, and you should just see my system of organization (chicken-scratch-scrawled Post-it notes stuck all over my very messy desk). But let me give this a shot anyway, an attempt to ponder what was new in 2011: Read the rest of this entry »

This morning, for my last breakfast interview of 2011, I welcome one of the hardest-working illustrators (and authors and designers) in children’s literature, whom the Washington Post described as “one of the most dynamic, original, colorful and humorous cartoonists working today.” Just this year, Bob Staake—who is also an editorial illustrator, as well as a cover illustrator for the New Yorker—illustrated two titles, if I’m counting correctly, and a visit to this page of his site shows he has nearly ten titles soon to be released. As he notes below, he is author and/or illustrator of over 50 children’s books to-date in his career.

If Staake didn’t consistently produce such exciting illustrations (of great “compositional flair and imagination,” in the words of Booklist), to me he’d merely be That Blessed Guy Who Took On the Contemporary Adaptation of Struwwelpeter. (Yes, he has a special place in my heart for his gutsy 2006 re-imagining of Heinrich Hoffmann’s 19th-century cautionary tale for children.) But he does much more, bringing readers colorful and engaging books (particularly engaging in the case of this year’s Look! A Book! from Little, Brown) on a regular basis, his bold, graphic, and highly stylized digital artwork providing a feast for young eyes. (Drawn went so far as to write in this 2006 interview, “To say that Bob Staake is just an illustrator is like saying The Beatles were just a bunch of musicians; the title doesn’t do the artist justice.”) Best of all, as he writes at his site, his books range from “the goofy and silly to the thought-provoking and mysterious.” With both words and pictures, he adds, he aims to entertain but also ask young readers to “wonder, question and think.”

And, as you can see in some of the art Bob shares below, his work can be refreshingly honest and wickedly funny. (His Facebook status updates still remain one of the top-five reasons I don’t just drop my account already. A recent example of Bob engaging with his readers: “Santa’s List Of Rejected Reindeer Names:” … And let me just say Bob has funny friends, and I’m talkin’ to you, Michael Herron, who responded with “Sphincter.” Jimmy Mutch’s “Thud” comes in a close second for me.)

Well, let’s turn it over to Bob now, shall we? He says he’s not a huge breakfast guy, unless I include a pot of French Roast before noon. Ah. A coffee-lover after my own heart. I’ll get the basics from him, while the coffee brews.

I thank him for visiting. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you.

Read the rest of this entry »

This week at Kirkus, on account of how I got tired of hearing my own self talk, I invited some folks (authors, illustrators, a few bloggers, editor-type people, etc.) to come briefly discuss with me what they’d like to see in picture books in 2012. So, head on over there, if you’re so inclined. The link is here.

For last week’s column, I weighed in on Olivier Dunrea’s A Christmas Tree for Pyn. (An image from the book is pictured above.) I love this book — and explained why over there. Here’s the link, if you missed it last Friday and wanna read.

And here are some more of Dunrea’s illustrations from the book. Happy holidays to all… Read the rest of this entry »