Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Hi, everyone. Jules here. Eisha and I were excited to participate in our first Wicked Cool Overlooked Books entry. If you haven’t already noticed, Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray started this series idea (talk about a wicked cool overlooked book the first Monday of every month), and a handful of bloggers participated last month. We weren’t able to play ’til now, because our blogger interviews are every Monday. But we cleared today to participate and got to work on our first entry.

So, together we composed a co-review of sorts about two wicked cool overlooked books. And, blammo! I inadvertently deleted. the. entire. post. Time seemed to move in slow motion while I watched this rather long-ish post fade from view, due to a misunderstanding I was having about the admin functions of the blog, and slip from our hands altogether. Yes, a thoughtfully-composed post on both of our parts; I had spent most of my Sunday thinking about these books and trying to find the words to articulate why they work and why I find them so beautiful. And Eisha had made such lovely contributions to the post (she was joking about them being overbearing “former-lit-major pontifications,” but they weren’t at all). She was very understanding about my stooooopid mistake, but I still hate that it happened.

Anyway, life goes on. Sweat the big stuff. But here is — for what it’s worth and since I simply do not have the energy this morning to try to recreate all the many, many profound and insightful and amazing things (heh) that we had to say about the books in the post I deleted; it would have changed your life, indeed — the EXTREME Cliffs Notes version of our first Wicked Cool Overlooked Books entry. And forgive the, uh, slight lack-of-detail:

Jon McGregor rocks. He wrote two stunningly beautiful books (both adult fiction). The first, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (2002), was reviewed by Eisha here around this time last year, and it’s pure unadulterated loveliness, as Eisha put it. Go read that review. His second novel — So Many Ways to Begin, a companion novel to the first one — was just published in March and is also beautiful, and I promise we had lots of things to say about McGregor’s techniques as an author and all the stunning prose (and maybe we can start over again and try to co-review it one day soon). For now, you can read this review from The Observer. The End.

We promise we’ll get this right in July! (And thanks again for understanding, Eisha) . . .

LOOK, EVERYBODY! IT’S GRUMPY BIRD! And he’s mustering his best smile for us! Yes, three 7-Imp cheers for Jeremy Tankard, who sent us this illustration for us to kick off our 7-Kicks lists this week. Remember how last week we experimented with a different image for the list (instead of the usual Alice-with-the-White-Queen image)? And then we thought we could use a different illustration every week, and Jules suggested Grumpy Bird (the star of her favorite picture book thus far this year)? And even Adrienne, who wasn’t so sure she could let go of last week’s illustration (which Nancy now owns!), said she’d totally go for Grumpy Bird? Well, just ask and you shall receive. Jeremy says that this illustration of Grumpy Bird is a piece he did for the cover of a French children’s book catalog (we asked for an image of Grumpy Bird actually smiling, if possible, since we’re listing happy things every week, though we would have gladly accepted a grumpy pic, too. Jeremy says, “He looks sort of happy here. He’s smiling at any rate”). Many thanks to Mr. Tankard!

{Speaking of grumpy, one of Jules’ favorite word fun facts — ’cause, yes, she’s a Super Nerd — is that “gruntle” is an actual verb (as in “disgruntled,” of course), meaning “to put in good humor.” Jeremy Tankard has left us gruntled with this illustration. And lordhamercy, go read Grumpy Bird right now if you haven’t already. It’s a fine, fine book} . . .

Okay, let’s get to the lists then. Here’s our usual intro for any new people: It’s time for another installment of 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks. For those new to our series, this is where we all stop in every Sunday to report seven (more or less is fine) Good Things that happened to you (or that you read or saw or experienced or . . . well, you get the picture) this week. Absolutely anyone is welcome to contribute, and your lists don’t have to be book-related. Read the rest of this entry »

I feel like it’s been a little while since I’ve talked about books, what with my computer issues this week (I’m beginning to wonder if the phrase “customer service” should now be “customer disservice” anymore, but I digress). Here are two picture book reviews that I managed to pull off this week, even with a terribly slow or altogether useless modem. More to come later, as I still have a huge stack. Happy Saturday to all . . .

If you’re a fan of Kevin Hawkes’ illustrations for Andrea Beaty’s imaginative ’06 title, When Giants Come to Play, then you will likely take much pleasure in his depiction of yet another larger-than-life (in more ways than one) character. This time it’s a wicked big toddlah. There’s nothing about this tot’s life that is any different from any other toddler’s – except that he’s ginormous. The title page spread brings us a stork carrying a hugely huge baby in his bill, heading straight toward the state of Maine (hence, the “toddlah” pronunciation, of course), and it’s on the opening page that the chuckles come, as we see that the poor bird -– complete with plaid hunting cap — is about to burst from the weight of it all and is doing everything he can just to stay up in the air. Read the rest of this entry »

We are happy to have a cyber-visit today here at 7-Imp with author/director/performance artist/indie rock musician Cecil Castellucci, everyone’s favorite “punk rock prom queen” (as Little Willow called her in this recent interview). We had a lot of fun talking to her, and — jump back! — she even shared a brand-spankin’-new original poem with us when we asked, so we thank her kindly for stopping by and thank her for the poem on this first Poetry Friday of June. We have had her on our mental to-interview list, and what a perfect time to chat it up with her. Why? you ask. Well, because Cecil currently has two books out at once — yes, two (The Plain Janes and Beige) — and as to how she’s feeling about that (is it an exhilarating rush or tremendous pressure?), you can read below in our interview with her. One of her essays (“My Fairy Godfathers”) is also included in the recently-released Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys: True Tales of Love, Lust, and Friendship Between Straight Women and Gay Men (Dutton Books)? Whew, she’s one busy literary punk rock star. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome back! Believe it or not, we got tagged a third time for this meme, by Jone of Check It Out!. That’s what happens when you procrastinate on responding to the first tag. Good thing we’d already planned a sequel.

Here’s part two of our response to the 8 Things Meme. This time, we’ll be listing 8 things not many people know about each other. Mwah-ha-ha-ha!

The rules, again, are as follows:

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

eisha: Here’s my list of 8 Things You May Not Know About Jules. I’ll try to keep it clean…

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Hey, all. We’ve been tagged TWICE in the past two days with the “8 Things” meme. So here’s what we decided to do. First, in today’s post, we’re going to play it straight for Kelly’s tag, and each list 8 random things about ourselves. Then, in our next post, we’ll each list 8 random things about the OTHER person for Michele’s tag. What will we reveal about each other? When we’ve been friends for nearly half our lives? And even roommates for a couple of years? Ooh, you’ll just have to tune in and see…

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— Billie Marie in Billie Standish Was Here by Nancy Crocker

Nancy Crocker, author of the 2006 picture book Betty Lou Blue (illustrated by Boris Kulikov and reviewed here at
7-Imp by Yours Truly), has a new novel coming to a shelf near you this June (published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers). This is her first novel, an emotionally compelling YA story about the intense and profoundly powerful ability of one person to shape the course of a young girl’s life. And if this is the first novel that springs from the mind of Nancy Crocker, I can hardly wait to see what she brings us next.

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It’s with a bit of sadness that we complete our series of interviews with The Blue Rose Girls this week (you can scroll down and see some goodbye photos under this interview), but it’s with pleasure that we tell you about author Libby Koponen.

Libby is pictured here (middle) with two of her Blue Rose cohorts, Alvina Ling and Anna Alter. The photo was taken, Libby told us, during a Blue Rose Girl weekend after she’d just moved to Mystic, Connecticut (they’re standing on the Mystic Bridge in this photo).

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New image this week! Thanks to Nancy at Journey Woman, I (Jules, that is) saw this illustration and was led to the illustrator’s site, artista blog. This is the blog of artist Irisz Agocs, who lives in Budapest. Go to her site to see more of her work, ’cause it’s good stuff. I love the feelings this illustration captures. I didn’t officially get Irisz’s permission to use this image, but I’m linking it to her site (thanks, Nancy, for taking us there), and I hope Ms. Agocs won’t mind.

Okay, let’s get to the lists then. Here’s our usual intro for any new people: It’s time for another installment of 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks. For those new to our series, this is where we all stop in every Sunday to report seven (more or less is fine) Good Things that happened to you (or that you read or saw or experienced or . . . well, you get the picture) this week. Absolutely anyone is welcome to contribute.

1). Usually my lists aren’t in any sort of order in terms of Most Impressive to Least Impressive. I just randomly number them. But, without question, number one this week (as in, THE BEST THING that happened to me) has to be: Having the undisputed honor of reading Billie Standish Was Here, Nancy Crocker’s new YA novel. It will be on the shelves in June, and I hope to talk about it here on the blog on Tuesday (since tomorrow will be our last Blue Rose Girls interview with Libby Koponen). This was one of the most beautiful novels I’ve read in a long, long time. When I put it down, I dunno, I felt like someone had blessed me. It’s utterly perfect and unforgettable. I say: Move over, all other YA titles published thus far this year. Or, really, any titles published thus far this year. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember last year’s wonderfully impish Wolves (the Cybils shortlister) by Emily Gravett? Well, this year she’s back with two titles. Rather, one of them — Orange Pear Apple Bear (Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing) — was published last year, but we’re seeing the first American edition this month, and the other one — Monkey and Me (Macmillan Children’s Books) — was released in April in the U.K.

For these two titles, Gravett drops the dry humor and winks and nudges that permeate Wolves and, apparently, Meerkat Mail (a title from last year I’m still waiting to read) and brings us stories a bit more stripped down but just as charming as any of her other titles. I know “charming” is a bit cliché in book reviewing, but MY GOD, THE CHARM. The woman’s work just reeks charisma and buckets of child appeal. Does she possess some sort of supernatural power? Hmmm, I’m beginning to wonder. She is one of my top-five new favorite picture book illustrators. Thank heavens she showed up.

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