Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Happy Halloween! Below is the Robert’s Snow schedule for Wednesday, October 31, 2007. Pictured here is an older snowflake, Mo Willems’ 2005 creation, entitled “Snow Devil,” done in pencil and ink. Mo’s ’07 snowflake, you’ll see below, is being featured today.

• Shawna Tenney, featured by Kate Messner at Kate’s Book Blog
• Adam Rex, featured by Stacy Dillon at Booktopia and welcome to my tweendom
• Mo Willems, featured by Pamela Coughlan at MotherReader
• Rolandas Kiaulevicius, featured by cloudscome at a wrung sponge

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I had planned on posting a book review today up above this snow schedule post, but then I saw this snowflake (also a Christmas-tree topper) for the 2007 Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure online auctions. It was created by illustrator Linda Wingerter. Why not let this sit atop our blog for a while in all its glory? Isn’t she gorgeous? As in, heart-stoppingly beautiful? Her name is Grace. I wouldn’t dare cover her up today.

This snowflake/piece of beauty by Linda did not make the illustrator list initially sent to me by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, so it wasn’t assigned to a blogger in this whole Blogging for a Cure effort. And I don’t believe it’s posted yet at the auction site. But I’m happy to show it to you today and to tell you a bit about Linda if you aren’t already a fan:

If you’re not familiar with Linda’s work, you can read our April interview with her, in which her talents as an illustrator, Blue Rose blogger, doll artisan, fire-spinner, puppeteer, and rollergirl are revealed. She’s probably best known for her illustrations in 2002’s One Grain of Sand: A Lullaby (Little, Brown and Company), a picture book adaptation of a lullaby written decades ago, which folksinger Pete Seeger composed for his daughter. Linda’s most recent book was 2005’s What Could Be Better Than This? by Linda Ashman (Dutton Juvenile). It’s a twist on the traditional fairy tale, the story of a dragon-slaying king and his seafaring bride who finally find their “happily ever after” in the simple, everyday wonders revealed to them by their young child. You can read about all of Linda’s illustrated titles thus far in that afore-linked interview.

I failed to find out in which auction (Auction 1, 2, or 3) this snowflake/tree-tropper will be included. But, since I have a feeling people will be very curious to know, I’ll try to find out today and amend this post later.

ADDENDUM: Okeley-dokeley. Linda’s snowflake will be auctioned off in Auction 3: December 3 to 7!

Here’s today snow forecast: Read the rest of this entry »

Hi. No blogger interview this week, ’cause next week will be the Winter Blog Blast Tour in which we here at 7-Imp will feature five interviews with some children’s and YA authors whom we respect and admire a great deal, so WAHOO! But we gotta prep for those interviews, so no blogger feature today. Sorry. And none next week, since we’ll be interviewing authors each and every day, but the week after that . . . well, we will feature none author than Andrea or Mark (whoever sends responses first!) of Just One More Book!! Excellent.

Today’s post is a quick one to show you the book cover images, title info, and a bit of an excerpt from each review for the eight picture books I covered this week at ForeWord Magazine in their “Shelf Space” column. I mentioned this last Friday, but I gotsta gotsta gotsta see my book cover images, especially when we’re talking picture books (and the Shelf Space column doesn’t include book covers), so here they are in case you’re interested in reading about them. My write-up this week is called “Size Matters — And So Do Your Friends and Neighbors,” and if you’re wondering what I mean and which book goes where (size? friends and neighbors?), why, you’ll just have to go read.

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Pictured here is Tony Diterlizzi’s 2004 snowflake for Robert’s Snow: for Cancer’s Cure, entitled “Mr. Spider’s Webby Snowflake.” Neat, huh?

Now, I’ve been featuring ’07 snowflakes lately — those, that is, which have not already or will not be featured by a blogger in this Blogging for a Cure event (remember that the illustrators and snowflakes that participating bloggers are featuring are only the ones that the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute had ready to go when this multi-blog event was organized). But, you know, I just looked at the current list of ’07 snowflakes, and all of those illustrators are scheduled to be featured or have already been featured. Those who haven’t been featured or aren’t scheduled to be covered, I wrote brief write-ups for — and featured the snowflakes, of course — here at 7-Imp last week (Jarrett J. Krosoczka’s here; Yuyi Morales’ here; Ashley Bryan’s here; Anna Dewdney’s here; Amiko Hirao’s here; Patrick Girouard’s here; and Lizzy Rockwell’s here). Unless I’m missing someone, we’ve got that list covered! So, until I see new snowflakes up there, I’ll keep showing you some of the wonderful older ones.

And remember that you can see all of the snowflakes at the Robert’s Snow auction site.

Here’s today snow forecast:

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Jules: Mwahahahahahaha. Happy Halloween to everyone! This week’s illustration is by LeUyen Pham (who, apparently, goes by “Uyen” and says it’s pronounced “win”), and let me just say that I love her illustrations but it wasn’t ’til I saw this post in July at Chicken Spaghetti, in which Susan talked about Once Around the Sun by Bobbi Katz and illustrated by LeUyen, that I became familiar with her books. Whoa, she’s talented. Go visit her great web site, too, where you can see all kinds of her illustrations in her gallery. Eisha, I think, was already in love with her art work, and I thank Susan for posting about one of her books so that I could discover her awesome-ness myself.

And many thanks to LeUyen for giving us permission to use this Halloween illustration, which is on her web site — especially since she just gave birth and yet still managed to take the time to correspond with us about this. She also sent many other illustrations, some never seen before (as in, slotted for upcoming publications), and told us all about them. Woot! So, here’s the deal: If you’re a LeUyen fan, you’re in luck. If you’re not, we hope to convert you. If you really just visit every Sunday to merely read and list kicks and don’t care about the illustrator features (my New Favorite Thing Ever at 7-Imp), then scroll down to the kicks, by all means.

We’re just going to post these beautiful things and include her commentary about them right next to them:

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Below is the Robert’s Snow illustrator-and-snowflake feature schedule for Sunday, October 28 (scroll down after clicking “read the rest of this entry”).

Featured here is Lizzy Rockwell’s snowflake for this year’s auction, entitled “Snowangels” (*). I didn’t think I was familiar with Lizzy’s work, but then I saw this page at her site, which lists the books she’s illustrated thus far in her career. And, hey, I know and love this one: Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell, published back in 1989. What elementary school library doesn’t have that great book in its collection? Here’s part of her bio, straight from her site:

“Lizzy Rockwell is an illustrator whose artwork can be seen in picture books, magazines, games and other children’s products. She studied art at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Lizzy is the illustrator of over 20 children’s books by a variety of authors including her mother, Anne Rockwell. She wrote and illustrated Good Enough to Eat: A Kid’s Guide to Food and Nutrition, Hello Baby!, and The Busy Body Book: A Kid’s Guide to Fitness. Lizzy frequently visits schools to talk to young authors and illustrators about her work.”

Lizzy’s snowflake will be auctioned off in Auction 2 from November 26 to 30.

Reminder that in this below schedule, the illustrator’s name links to his/her website, but click on the blog to be taken to that blogger’s snowflake/illustrator feature:

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Below is the Robert’s Snow illustrator-and-snowflake feature schedule for Saturday, October 27 (scroll down after clicking “read the rest of this entry”).

Featured here is Patrick Girouard’s snowflake for this year’s auction, entitled “Fishmas Tree Topper” (*). I am not familiar with Patrick’s work, so I can’t very well get behind it with a “rah! rah!” or even tell you that I don’t care for it. I have no opinion, as I’ve never seen one of his books. But here’s some info, straight from his web site, if you’re interested in this snowflake (look at that Fishmas Tree!):

“When Patrick was growing up his teachers constantly scolded him for drawing monsters in class. Many years later he illustrated his very first book, Halloween Holiday Grab Bag, and got to put those monsters to good use. In the days since, he has illustrated over seventy books for children. They include More or Less a Mess, Yikes-Lice! (Science Books and Films Best Books), I Have A Weird Brother Who Digested A Fly (Society of School Librarians International Honor Book), and Paul Bunyan. His work has appeared in National Geographic, Sesame Street Magazine, USA Today, Kid City, Spider, Weekly Reader, and Instructor Magazine.”

And here’s his very colorful portfolio. I see, after a bit of research, that he also illustrated Halloween by Alice K. Flanagan (Compass Point Books, 2001). There’s an older title for you — just in time for the upcoming holiday.

Patrick’s snowflake will be auctioned off in Auction 1 from November 19 to 23.

Reminder that in this below schedule, the illustrator’s name links to his/her website, but click on the blog to be taken to that blogger’s snowflake/illustrator feature:

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Eisha and I are about to complete our month-long guest-blogging gig for ForeWord Magazine. This week, I wrote a picture book round-up and it’s entitled, “Size Matters -– And So Do Your Friends and Neighbors” (and we’ll be writing for them next week as well). Lately, I’ve had my mind on picture books whose illustrators, in one way or another, play around with the notions of size and perspective, as well as the abundant number of books out and about now which focus on one’s community and circle of friends. So, I chose eight of them to review. It’s posted this morning over at “Shelf Space,” ForeWord’s column where we are guest-blogging until the end of this month (I’ll have to plan on a Monday post with all the great book cover images).

One of the books I reviewed is the fabulous Monster Hug! by David Ezra Stein, whose snowflake is also being featured today at HipWriterMama’s site. I began my review of that book thusly: “I think an up-and-coming picture book illustrator we all can get most excited about this year, other than the obscenely talented Jonathan Bean, is David Ezra Stein.” Yes, my love for Stein’s art work is strong (and fortunately for us and all our readers, he agreed to let us feature some of his illustrations on a Sunday in November. Swoon! Swoon!).

And for this Poetry Friday, since my mind is on monsters and it’s nearly Halloween and since Eisha and I have been doing some writing for the Poetry Foundation and playing around in their archive of children’s poems, I am going to share this Halloween monster poem by Kenn Nesbitt:

When the musical contest for monsters convened,
the Wolfman was howling and played like a fiend.
Then Dracula jammed, but flew into a rage
when Frankenstein’s torch singing lit up the stage.

The Mummy, he rapped with the aid of a band,
but stopped when The Blob ate his microphone stand.
The Blob, by the way, also swallowed The Fly.
(I don’t know why he swallowed The Fly.)

Heh. You can read the rest here. And for another laugh, here’s another Nesbitt poem, “Halloween Party,” at the aforementioned Poetry Foundation site.

Don’t you just want to read those aloud to some late elementary/early middle school students? Enjoy. And happy Poetry Friday (and almost-Halloween)!

Below is the Robert’s Snow illustrator-and-snowflake feature schedule for Friday, October 26 (scroll down after clicking “read the rest of this entry”).

Featured here is Amiko Hirao’s snowflake for this year’s auction, entitled “Caravan” (*). I’m not terribly familiar with her work, but you can see some of it here at the artists’ agency, Studio Goodwin Sturges (click on “artists & authors”). And I have seen and enjoyed 2002’s All Aboard! (Little, Brown & Company), illustrated by Hirao and written by Mary Lynn Ray. She also illustrated 2002’s How the Fisherman Tricked the Genie: A Tale Within a Tale Within a Tale (Atheneum) by Christopher “Kitoba” Sunami.

This year, her illu-
strated Tulip at the Bat by children’s poet and author J. Patrick Lewis was released in April by Little, Brown Young Readers, and next year we will see Just What Mama Needs (Harcourt) by Sharlee Glenn.

Again, I’ve only seen All Aboard! (and enjoyed it), but, hey . . . I’m just a messenger right now, trying to get people to buy snowflakes and raise money for cancer research.

Amiko’s snowflake will be auctioned off in Auction 2 from November 26 to 30.

Reminder that in this below schedule, the illustrator’s name links to his/her website, but click on the blog to be taken to that blogger’s snowflake/illustrator feature:

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eisha: OMIGOD OMIGOD OMIGOD!!! I cannot believe we are ABOUT TO MEET PUNK FARM IN PERSON!!! Jules, how’s my hair? Do I have anything in my teeth?

Jules: You’re fine. I am, like, shaking, though, I’m so flippin’ nervous! God, what if I throw up? What if I throw up ON THE BAND???

eisha: You will not throw up. You can’t throw up, because then they’ll leave, and we won’t score this interview, and this interview is the coolest thing we’ve ever done on our little blog. Honestly, how many people can say they’ve interviewed a fictional farm animal band? With a TOTALLY HOT BASS PLAYER? This is my chance to… I mean, this could totally make our careers. Or whatever.

Dude, is this even happening? Maybe I’m dreaming it. Hey, pinch me?

Jules: . . .

eisha: OW!!! I didn’t say draw blood… Whoa, do you hear that? Geez, ever heard of a muffler, people?

Jules: (looking out the window) That’s their van! They’re here!! THEY’RE HERE!!!

Jules & eisha: (jumping up and down in that annoying fangirl way) SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jules: Okayokayokay… be cool… breathe…

eisha: Here they come… Okay, we can handle this… We’re professionals… whew…

Okay.

You ready?

Jules: Oh yeah.

Let’s rock this interview.

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