Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Here’s a quick post to celebrate a wintry title I really like. Over and Under the Snow (Chronicle Books, October 2011), written by Kate Messner and illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal, is what Kirkus calls “utterly charming, and informative, to boot” and Publishers Weekly calls both “informative” and “evocative.”

In this book, a young girl explores the snowy woods with her father. As they ski, seen above, he tells her all about the various animals that live under the snow after she first spots a red squirrel, “a flash of fur,” and asks where he went. “Under the snow is a whole secret kingdom, where the smallest forest animals stay safe and warm,” her father tells her. “You’re skiing over them now.” Read the rest of this entry »

I lied again. I have more than one illustration from today’s book. I’m also bending the rules a bit: Today’s book, I must clarify, is not officially a holiday title. It’s about elves, though, and I’m sorry, but these elves make me think of Christmas. They just do.

The Helpful Elves, based on a poem by 19th-century German poet and painter August Kopisch and illustrated by Beatrice Braun-Fock, was originally published in German as Die Heinzelmännchen. The story comes from an old German tale (Cologne) about little house gnomes, or the Heinzelmännchen, who do chores for the folks in Cologne while they sleep at night. A 2011 English version was brought to us by Floris Books in September. Again, not a holiday book, but I feel like featuring these handy elves anyway. Please just humor me here. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the first Sunday of the month (the last first-Sunday of 2011, GASP!), and so that means I’m shining the spotlight on a student or debut illustrator. In today’s case, I’ve got the latter. Elizabeth Zunon, who was born in Albany, New York, but grew up in West Africa, attended RISD. Jeanne Walker Harvey’s My Hands Sing the Blues: Romare Bearden’s Childhood Journey, published by Marshall Cavendish in September, marks Zunon’s debut as a picture book illustrator, which Hazel Rochman at Booklist called “handsome” and a “lively introduction to the artist for young children and for older readers, too.”

With a text “loosely based…on the concept of the blues,” as Harvey writes in her closing Author’s Note, the book is told (nearly sung) from the point-of-view of Bearden as an adult, looking back on a particular time in childhood during which he left North Carolina to take a train trip with his parents to Harlem. Having to heed Jim Crow laws, his family knows they must head North: Read the rest of this entry »

I lied. I’ve actually got two illustrations here.

In my quest to feature 2011 holiday titles this month, today I feature an illustration from A Stork in a Baobab Tree: An African Twelve Days of Christmas (published by Frances Lincoln in September), written by Catherine House and illustrated by Polly Alakija, a British artist living and working in South Africa (and who previously lived in Nigeria). An author’s note states that the idea for the book came to House when she heard her own children singing African words to the traditional holiday carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” while they were living as a family in Zimbabwe.

No partridges, pipers piping, or gold rings. In this one, we’re treated to market traders, bright khangas, grazing goats, storytellers, woven baskets, and more. We keep drummers, though, as well as some dancers. The book includes, as you can see above, informational facts about Africa, and a closing author’s note indicates which African country is represented on each spread. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning at Kirkus, I’m taking a look at Lita Judge’s newest picture book, Red Sled. Such a good book, but I tell you why over there. The link is here. (Note: Next week I’ll feature an interview with Lita.)

Yesterday, I featured a festive holiday illustration from the one and only Brock Cole — all in the name of a last-minute idea to feature some 2011 holiday titles during the month of December. For today’s featured title, I’ve got more than one illustration. Hey, if it’s James Flora, it’s hard to pick just one.

Commercial artist Jim Flora’s Kangaroo for Christmas was originally published in 1962 by Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc, but the art was restored (digitally) for this October 2011 re-release by Enchanted Lion Books.

A young girl named Kathryn receives a huge box on her doorstop the day before Christmas. “I hope it’s full of candy,” she says. But something inside is scratching. Turns out it’s none other than a kangaroo. “She’s just exactly what I’ve always wanted. I’ll call her Adelaide, and she’ll be my best friend,” the girls says to her dumbfounded father. On the way to visit Kathryn’s Grandma, a dog barks at Adelaide and scares her. She begins to hop very fast over the town and generally causes some serious mayhem. Kathryn and her new pet do eventually arrive at Grandma’s, who has a solution to the problem at hand.

Here are some more spreads. Enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s an idea: There are some holiday picture books I’d like to share here at 7-Imp—I like doing that this time of year—but if did a typical post about each one … well, I just wouldn’t have time for that, unless I, say, neglected my children and work-that-pays altogether (not to mention—this just in at the 7-Imp news desk—the edits I now have to do on this work-in-progress).

Anyone can throw images up at a blog and walk away, which is why I always like to provide commentary of some sort or another about the images and the book in which they reside. Or invite creators over and have breakfast chats, etc. etc. and all that.

But, THAT SAID, in the interest of time, these holiday images will be just one (sometimes more than one) image from the book, a brief summary of the book, and the cover. Just a zippy-quick little series of holiday illustrations, since I enjoy seeing what illustrators are doing in the way of festive picture books.

Entry #1, on this first day of December, comes from Brock Cole’s The Money We’ll Save (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, October 2011), probably my favorite holiday title of all and a great picture book no matter what month of the year it is. Dang, I could say a lot, because I adore this book and am generally an enthusiastic fan of his work, but I’m going to have to stick to my economy of words here. (Be strong, Jules.) Read the rest of this entry »

As you can see here in a comic she created, illustrator Abigail Halpin has known since childhood that she wanted to illustrate. If you’re like me, you’ve seen her cover and interior artwork in several middle-grade novels, all listed below. Early this year, she also illustrated Kallie George’s original fairy tale, The Melancholic Mermaid (published by Simply Read), which I suppose is a sort of hybrid picture book/illustrated novel.

I’ve followed Abigail’s work with interest over the years, and it’s a real treat to have her visit this morning, especially given the fact that she shares a lot of character studies and artwork below, not previously published in books, which are very different from the pen and ink drawings of hers we’ve seen in novels. (I’m particularly fond of her Steampunk image and would love to read a story swirling around that one.) Fortunately, she shares a bit of everything below, and I thank her for visiting, as well as for bringing so many images to the breakfast table. Let’s get right to it so that you can see it all.

Her breakfast-of-choice today? “Huevos Rancheros and a whole lotta’ coffee, ” she told me, adding that she’s a former barista, “so the coffee part is crucial.” A visitor after my own heart. Read the rest of this entry »

As I explain at this page of the site, 7-Imp’s header should probably say “a blog about illustration,” as that’s entirely more accurate. (But I’m sentimental, so I’m not changing it and that’s that.) Yep, I like to follow contemporary illustration like my kitten likes to bite my ear at 5 a.m. to tell me it’s time to be fed (SHE SAYS WITH GREAT FATIGUE).

But there is one particular type of rendering picture book art which I feel I don’t cover enough. And that’s the kind of art featured here this morning. Salley Mavor, whom I interviewed around this time last year, calls her work “fabric relief collage.” I’m not sure what author/illustrator (or “sorceress of the ordinary” — visit her site to get the scoop) Anna Grossnickle Hines calls hers, but quite simply (though there’s very little that’s simple about the process, I’m sure) it’s quilting. Pictured above—please note that is only the right part of one full spread—is an illustration from her latest title, Peaceful Pieces: Poems and Quilts About Peace, published by Henry Holt in March of this year. Read the rest of this entry »

Meet Mouserella. I love this above illustration of her. It’s somehow both moving and funny in its honest pathos. (I’m not sure how that works, as calling it “funny” just makes me sound cruel. The poor creature misses her grandmother somethin’ fierce. But maybe I think it’s also ADORABLE, which it clearly is, and somehow that adorable-ness makes me laugh in a with-Mouserella, not an at-Mouserella, way.)

David Ezra Stein’s Love, Mouserella—released in September from Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin and recently named a Kirkus Best Children’s Book of 2011—is told from the point of view of young Mouserella, who is not happy about her grandmother’s departure. She takes her mother’s advice and writes a letter to her Grandmouse, giving her a recap of what’s gone on since she left for the country (including an exciting loss of electricity in their home, making this one of two memorable picture book blackouts this year). She also fills her letter with the types of meandering details to which young children pay great attention. (“I don’t know what to write . . .” she starts. “Guess what? My beaded belt is almost done now.”) In fact, the entire book captures so accurately the train of thought of young children — er, creatures. “Mama says we won’t come see you till the leaf falls off our oak tree,” she writes at the book’s close, Stein nailing the ways in which really young children mark time (there’s also “till….me and Ernie go to school”). She also sends along things like a pack of ketchup, a picture of herself smooching the camera, and lots of doodles and drawings. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t tend to cover news items here at 7-Imp. I leave that to other bloggers, who are particularly good at rounding up the newsy-type notes, but here are two quick ones for today, ones I feel are important for various reasons:

Read the rest of this entry »