Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

You’d think I’d timed today’s post to join in all the Alice mania right now, what with a new film adaptation out this week. But, nope, I’m not that organized. Here’s what happened instead: Last November, I visited an East-Nashville art gallery, the wonderful Art & Invention Gallery, which showed up in my kicks last Fall, and I took in an exhibit of works, called “Proto Pulp: Classic Books of the Future,” all created by local, aspiring children’s-book illustrators. It was there I saw the work of Janet Lee, whose Alice illustrations were hanging on the wall of the gallery that day and which are being featured at 7-Imp today. I’ve been wanting to have Janet visit the 7-Imp cyber-salon since then, but sometimes I’m just slow. Here she is today to tell us a bit about the her Alice art, as well as share some more illustrations from her other work-in-progress. So, without further ado, here’s Ms. Lee. (As mentioned above, all Janet’s illustrations here are hyperlinked to take you to larger versions, and I highly recommend rampant clicking-on-images, since her art is so texturized and beautiful up close.)

“It’s exciting (and a bit intimidating!) to actually be on Seven Impossible Things, rather than just reading it. My name is Janet Lee; you won’t have heard of me… at least not yet! By day, I work as a Book Buyer for a large national wholesaler. By night and in every extra moment I can scrape together, I work as an artist/illustrator.

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Two things on this Poetry Friday:

First, you know those picture books that try entirely too hard to be clever concept books, as in the concept is uncomfortably forced? Well, it’s Opposite Day (in more ways than one): Here’s one concept book, a collection of poems, that really works. Below is the smart poem that goes with the spread you see above. It comes from Marilyn Singer’s newest collection of poetry, Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse, illustrated by Josée Masse, and released this week by Dutton Juvenile:

“We read most poems down a page,” writes Singer in the book’s note on the poetry. “But what if we read them up? That’s the question I asked myself when I created the reverso. When you read a reverso down, it is one poem. When you read it up, with changes allowed only in punctuation and capitalization it is a different poem…” Singer uses her reverso technique to tell both sides of each tale, Publishers Weekly calling the concept a smart one and praising Masse’s fun-with-symmetry, as you can see in these featured spreads.

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It’s cold these days. I’ll take some of the hot beans pictured here.

Illustrator Nicole Tadgell visited 7-Imp in October of ’08, and I figured now would be a good time to catch up with her and see what she’s been up to. And that’s because I knew for a fact that what she’s been up to is illustrating author Becky Birtha’s second picture book, Lucky Beans, released by Albert Whitman & Company this month. And I’ve read Lucky Beans, and I like it. (And if I were a math teacher for late-elementary students—or even a social studies teacher—I’d be all about using it in the classroom.) Nicole’s here to share some art and sketches, as well as talk a bit about illustrating the book. Here’s the sketch for the illustration opening this post:

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Won’t you join me for a brief moment as I shine the spotlight on a picture book import? I picked this one up at my local library fairly recently and immediately contacted the publisher about sharing some spreads from it. Canadian illustrator Anne Villeneuve’s nearly wordless picture book, The Red Scarf, was originally published in French as L’Echarpe Rouge in 1999, and it won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. It was released last month by Tundra Books and leapt off the new-books shelf in the library, calling my name loudly with its colorful, action-packed cover. Villeneuve’s work is not well known here in the States, but I hope that changes one day.

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Pictured here is Susan Gal’s Dog Gone, painted in 2009 (charcoal and digital collage). Some of you may remember this Poetry Friday post in which I shared two spreads from this debut illustrator’s first picture book, Night Lights (2009), which was met with more than one starred review. Susan—who began her illustration career as a poster and calendar artist, followed by animation work for Disney—is here this morning to say hello and tell us what’s next for her. Her second picture book with Random House will be released this May. It’s called Please Take Me for a Walk, and since I’ve got an early copy of it, I can vouch for its deep, deep charms. It’s a title about friendship and community, as seen through the eyes of a gregarious pup, and it’s cozy and fun. I said before, and I’ll say it again: Gal’s work to me is reminiscent of one of her idols, Ezra Jack Keats. (I also see online, as I compose this post, that Kirkus made the same comparison and also compared her work to Margaret Bloy Graham’s, though they add, “the images manage to be both fresh and familiar.” Graham, as you can see below, is another of Susan’s artistic idols.) Susan’s charcoal and digital collage spreads are warm and intimate. I love what I see in her two titles thus far and am eager to see where she goes from here.

Without further ado, here’s Susan to say hi and share a bit more art: Read the rest of this entry »

I promise I haven’t forsaken Poetry Fridays. I do so love Poetry Fridays. But, hey, I’ll be back with an entry soon. And you know what else? All kinds of other folks are sharing poetry today. Jone’s hosting the Poetry Friday round-up, if you feel like exploring…

Author/illustrator Matt Tavares is joining me for breakfast this morning, and here’s why I’m happy about it:

My Picture Book Moods change. I love some good abstract children’s book illustrations some days; I love the postmodern on others. I love me some funky and even some cartoony, depending on my mood, and I like minimalism done well. Sometimes my mood is very Rashcka; other days, very Kadir. Some days, it’s gotta be detailed, ornate Barbara McClintock or nothing at all. You know me (and you get the point): While I have my favorite styles and illustrators, I also am an all-around Picture Book Nerd who likes to take it all in — as long as it’s done well. And when I want to see a master watercolorist working in realism, someone who paints—as The Washington Post once put it—with a real sense of solidity (and usually taking on quite “monumental subject matter”), one illustrator I go to is Matt. In writing about his illustrations for Doreen Rappaport’s Lady Liberty, James McMullan wrote in The New York Times, “Tavares creates images with a pageantlike grandeur. He achieves this by arranging the figures in classically simple compositions and through his use of light.” Spectacular is what the work in that book is…

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I’m having cyber-coffee this morning with Kathi Appelt and Kelly Murphy. However, since I’m feeling a bit under the weather (You know how getting the flu shot can momentarily give you flu-like symptoms? Yeah. That.), I’m going to keep this introduction short. It goes something like this: Kathi wrote a picture book, which Kelly illustrated, and it was published last December by HarperCollins. It’s called Brand-New Baby Blues. I actually haven’t read it yet. That’s right. Haven’t read it yet, though I’ve seen snippets here and snippets there. But I still wanted Kathi and Kelly to visit and talk a bit about the book, as I generally like what they do and am interested in getting my library copy soon. I know, I know: I usually give you my opinion of a book, but humor my temporarily achy self here. When I read the book later, if I think your happiness as a reader is in jeopardy, I’ll come back and warn you. Somehow, I doubt this.

The book, all about a young girl’s attempts to acclimate to life with her baby brother, which prompts her to sing the blues of the picture book’s title, is “funny and concise,” wrote Kirkus. Here’s what else they said:

…the rollicking rhyme bounces along, accepting the frustration natural to the situation, while gently allowing the girl’s love of and appreciation for her brother, as well as her anticipation of a future playmate, to gradually shine through. The process is complemented by the illustrations, which modulate in palette from angry blues and greens to sunny yellows, while serene compositions replace off-kilter ones. Older brothers and sisters will easily identify with this jaunty heroine and profit from her realizations — an excellent choice for a new older sibling.

So, without further ado, I welcome Kathi and Kelly. Since Kelly’s up, getting us some biscotti for our coffee, Kathi is up first: Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone else see this review over at A Year of Reading? That’s Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s latest title, published by HarperCollins last month and illustrated by Paul Schmid. It’s called The Wonder Book, and it’s…well, a little wonder, to be precise about it. I love children’s books that do word play well (as it’s ever-so easy to screw up), and this is one. I’m happy to feature Paul this morning, who is making his debut in picture books with this title. Amy says—in that video you see linked in Franki’s post—that Paul’s illustrations perfectly “capture the essence and flavor of this book. It’s almost as if his style was created for this book. I cannot imagine The Wonder Book looking any other way.” Score.

The Wonder Book, which—as the publisher likes to point out—is tremendously browse-able, has poems, lists, (clever, as already mentioned) word play, the less famous friends of Mary Mack, Prince sdrawkcaB (a poem actually best read backwards, as in last line first and first line last), palindromes (including the “Too bad I hid a boot” Paul shares below), half-birthday celebrations, a dinosaur with a killer vocabulary (Tyrannothesaurus Rex, who talks everyone to death), a word play in four acts, some moments of clarification, a Rhyming Summary of the Universe, and lots and lots of wonderings. To be opened and read in any spot you’d like, as noted, it’s actually a good title for a lazy, wondering Sunday morning, I have to say. Publishers Weekly has already noted the “Silversteinian effect” of the book, in case your brain is also yelling WHEE! WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS!, as mine was when I first saw the book.

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I’m doing another quickie In-Appreciation post today. Okay, well: Doing an In-Appreciation post about British writer (though German-born) Judith Kerr after having only read two of her books kinda makes me a poseur. But I very much love the two books, and I’d like to explore her work further. As you can read here, she’s also known for her Mog series, as well as the children’s novel When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. She’s also well-known for this title…

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