Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

I’ve got my cereal bowl ready this morning, as I’m having Lucky Charms with author/illustrator Jeff Newman. I have to say: I like this interview. I want to take it to the zoo to visit hippos and rhinos. I like Jeff’s responses, particularly his…well, his economy of expression. (The good kind, that is. I’ve had some interviewees exhibit an economy of expression coupled with an obvious apathy for the interview, but Jeff is both to-the-point and friendly.) And I am happy about all the art he’s sharing this morning. In my world, Jeff is one of children’s literature’s newest sensations: In a just world, I think he’d Go Places. His art work and storytelling are fresh and funny and like no other’s.

I admit I haven’t read his first book (Jeff lists his books below), but when Hippo! No, Rhino came out in ’06, looking easily like a book that might have been published when I was but a wee babe, it quickly became one of my favorite picture books from that year. (And there are precisely seven skerjillion picture books about zoos in this world; that one’s probably my favorite of all.) Most of the story in Hippo! No, Rhino, as well as his new title, is told through the illustrations, School Library Journal calling it a “clever exercise in promoting visual literacy.”

Wait. What was that? Did I mention his new title? Well, let’s get right to it. I can’t wait any longer. I love his new picture book so much. I really do. If it had a neck, I’d hug its neck. My favorite picture book thus far in 2010 this one is. It’s called… Read the rest of this entry »

My Valentine’s Day gift to everyone this morning involves some illustrations from Sergio Ruzzier’s newest title, Hey, Rabbit!, published by Roaring Brook Press. (I had it in my head that it was published at the end of last year, but online sources tell me it’s coming out in a few days. Shows you what I know.) Since this is a sweet, unassuming tale of friendship that I very much like, a peek at the art is my Heart Day gift to you all, my friends.

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Here’s a quick sneak-peek at a picture book coming from Candlewick later this month.

I’ve previously declared here at 7-Imp my deep and abiding love for the work of British author/illustrator, Charlotte Voake. I always get a little hyper when she illustrates a new title. Coming here to the States in a few weeks (first published in the UK, I suppose it was, in ’09) is Steve Voake’s nonfiction picture book, Insect Detective, illustrated by Charlotte. Evidently, Steve is Charlotte’s cousin. He’s also written some YA titles and is the author of an early-chapter-book series I love, but more on that in a moment.

Pictured here is the book’s beautiful cover… Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, in an interview at Cynsations conducted by Jenny Desmond Walters for SCBWI Bologna 2010, children’s book historian, author, and critic Leonard Marcus, when asked what future historians might have to say about children’s literature today, said: “{They’ll} have a lot to say about comics and graphic novels and how and why they went from being vilified to being regarded as mainstream.” It’s in large part thanks to this morning’s visitors to 7-Imp that they went from panned to praised. Created by two-time Newbery Honor-winning Jennifer L. Holm and her brother Matthew Holm, 2005’s Babymouse #1: Queen of the World (all books in the series are published by Random House) was the first graphic novel to be named an ALA/ALSC Notable Children’s Book, and the subsequent books in the series have made it one of contemporary children’s literature’s most successful series (and “one of the best characters going,” wrote Kirkus in 2008). To boot, the series was not only this funny, exciting new introduction to the graphic novel format, but also that rare bird in the graphic-novel category at that time: A series for girls. As they’ve stated in a previous interview, Jennifer was unimpressed with most of the female characters that were featured in the comics she read as a kid; thus Babymouse was born (though, as they’ve also stated in interviews before, boys are pretty crazy about the series, too).

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It seems like I say this on the first Sunday of every month, when I feature a student illustrator or illustrator otherwise new to the field here at 7-Imp, but I’ll say it again: A month’s already gone by? It’s February? Wasn’t it New Year’s Day just yesterday? Maybe it’s having young children in the home that makes time seem to fly. Or perhaps everyone feels this way. Either way, I seem to be doing a double-take this morning.

On this, February’s first Sunday, I welcome up-and-coming illustrator (and soft-sculpture artist) Lori Nichols. She brings us, as you can see above, Kitty and Piggy. Lori sent me the entire text from which these featured spreads this morning come, and I hope, based on what I saw, that Kitty and Piggy find a publisher. Remember how last Sunday you joined me in celebrating an illustrator who can create engaging illustrations for the wee’est of preschoolers — and manages to do so without being excessively cloying about it? I think Lori has that gift, too.

Kitty Asks What If? is the title (or perhaps just working title) of this text, and it centers around two friends — one porcine protagonist prone to great worry and his feline friend, who seems to excel at … well, easing such worries. (Have mercy, we Piggies most desperately need you Kitties in our lives.) When Kitty asks in the opening spread, “Hi, Piggy. Wanna play?”, Piggy’s worried about the threat of rain. Kitty pretty much says, pshaw, my friend — but with the gentleness of a good comrade, don’t you know:

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It’s always a good Poetry Friday when J. Patrick Lewis stops by.

Many elementary schools this time of year are celebrating the 100th day of school. Yup, we’ve been counting out one hundred Cheerios and one hundred M&Ms with our kindergartener here in the Danielson home. Pat shares this new poem with us this morning, which celebrates school libraries on the 100th day of the school year. “I was thinking,” he told me, “that this might be a good time to recognize the most important room in every elementary school.”

Thanks, Pat. This one’s fun.

“A School Library Is”
(as told in book titles with a twist)

A Child’s Garden of Voices
The Dewey Day
Picka Picka Bloom Room
The Habbit
Boyful Joise
Make Hay for Booklings
Shriek!
Feast o’ the Fun and Best Until June
The House at Ooh Corner
Amazing Space
Mall of the Wild
Teidi
Where the Read Fun Grows
Vowl Boon
The Higher Tower of Lucky
The Blizzard of Ahhs

[Actual book titles above, in reverse: sesreV fo nedraG s’dlihC A; yaD ywonS A; mooB mooB akcihC akcihC; tibboH ehT; esioN lufyoJ; sgnilkcuD rof yaW ekaM; !kerhS; nooM eht ‘o tseW dna nuS eht ‘o tsaE; renroC hooP ta esuoH ehT; ecarG gnizamA; dliW eht fo llaC; idieH; sworG nreF deR eht erehW; nooM lwO; ykcuL fo rewoP rehgiH ehT; zO fo draziW ehT]

The Poetry Friday round-up is being hosted by Great Kid Books today. Enjoy!

Now, isn’t that the Mad Tea-Party as you’ve never quite seen it before? That comes from the mind of illustrator Oleg Lipchenko, but more on that in a minute.

It’s about to be a good time to be a fan of the novel for which Lewis Carroll was most famously known, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, or—in the words of Martin Gardner—“a very curious, complicated kind of nonsense.” And the reason it’s about to be a good time to be an Alice fan? This new film adaptation. Publishers are already taking advantage of the upcoming Alice craze, including Chronicle books, who have recently released this. (More on that later, since—as the Illustration Junkie I am—you can bet I’m dying to see that one.)

Another case-in-point? Illustrator (and designer and teacher) Bill Carman, who has visited 7-Imp several times and whom, I swear, I should bring on as a consultant or something, tells me that Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, California, is planning an upcoming exhibit, a tribute show, called “Curioser and Curioser: Inspired by Alice in Wonderland.” Here’s the link with the information; the exhibit begins February 27th. (How much do I love that they’re also featuring “Zombies in Love,” but I digress.)

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— From Beatrix Potter’s The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit, 1906

You can file this post away in the I Was Remiss to Not Tell You About This in ’09 category. But sometimes late is better than never.

In October of last year, Roaring Brook released the great Anita Silvey’s Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book: Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life. In this book, Silvey shares the results of having posed the following question to well-known Americans in a wide range of fields (authors and illustrators, actors, scientists, reading experts, critics, editors, teachers, athletes, politicians, financiers, and much more): What children’s book left a lasting impact on you — and why? Silvey divides the book into six separate sections, based on common themes in her subjects’ responses (some also taken from statements already in print and interviews): Inspiration, Understanding, Principles & Precepts, Vocation, Motivation, and Storytelling.

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It’s time to take a Sunday once again to appreciate those illustrators who can entertain the youngest of children through picture books without also inducing headaches, brought on by excessive cuteness, in those adults reading the illustrated titles to said children. This is a balancing act, I would think, a tough thing to pull off. David Walker can do it.

Last August, Candlewick released a picture book by Shirley Parenteau, with illustrations by Walker, called Bears on Chairs. This book is a little gem is what it is. If you have a preschooler, or work with them, and you want a picture book that’s going to draw them like a magnet with its rhyming (“Parenteau’s rhythm and rhyme never falter,” wrote Kirkus), fun, accessible text and its soft, warm images, this is the book for you. My own preschooler has carried it around pretty much since I got a review copy and read it to her multiple times: She’ll set herself down on the couch and “read” it. With a text like this…

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After I shared this news in mid-December, a dear friend sent me, as a thoughtful congratulatory gift, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Now, I know this was published in 1994 and lots of writers have probably long leaned on Lamott’s wise advice. In other words, I’m sixteen years late to the party here. But, yeah. I’m reading it for the first time ever. And I love the below excerpt so much on so many levels that I’m going to share it today. And then—while we’re on the subject of glorious imperfections, which we will be—I’m going to follow it with a novel excerpt Eisha once shared with me years ago in a card she gave me, which I also love so much that it’s been hanging in my kitchen all these years.

(And, since Lamott mentions addictiveness, I’m picturing my addiction-of-choice above.)

This post is sort of like a cheap Dollar-Store copy of the kind of goodness you get at John E. Simpson’s blog on Poetry Fridays — interrelated poems, excerpts from novels, song lyrics, even videos/music, etc., though I’ve just got some book excerpts here and though this post doesn’t deliver half as well as John’s do. (Here is but one example.) His cyber-bungalow can be one of your best Poetry Friday visits.

I hope you enjoy the below excerpts as much as I do… Read the rest of this entry »