Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

We know it’s Poetry Friday, but we thought we’d shake things up with Something Unexpected for the end of this week (forgive us, National Poetry Month). It’s probably pretty obvious that we here at 7-Imp think that random author and/or illustrator interviews (as in, the interviewee may not necessarily have a new title to promote) are always interesting and fun. If you’re a fan of the person being interviewed, it’s a nice, little surprise to suddenly see them pop up when you least expect them. Like we did with M.T. Anderson — who is holding Jules’ head, you may remember (dude, I need to remember to ask for my head back) — and Jarrett J. Krosoczka. They had no new books to plug. We just like them a whole, whole lot. The fact that they’re both on Fuse #8’s list of Hot Men of Children’s Literature (#19 and #25, respectively)… coincidence.  Yup.  Sheer coincidence.

Same goes for John Green (HMOCL #6… What? What? It’s coincidence, I tell you!). We are fans of his writing, which tends toward an irresistible mash-up of buddy novel, bildungsroman and love story told through evocative imagery and dead-on dialogue. We are also fans (as is the rest of the world, it seems) of Brotherhood 2.0, the daily video blog he and his brother, Hank, have undertaken, which has graced the world with such gifts as …In Your Pants, Nerd Fighters, and the Foundation to Decrease WorldSuck.  Oh, and this riveting edge-of-your-seat adventure as John Green and M.T. Anderson bravely (and illegally) explore the legendary forbidden ruins of downtown Detroit. Ooh . . . Perhaps the most classic Brotherhood 2.0 moment of all was when John was caught on film when receiving the phone call in January of this year about the Printz Honor for 2006’s An Abundance of Katherines.

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I promise that I actually do have a stack of American picture books by American authors and illustrators here to review. Go, USA! and all that. But, with my growing interest in international authors and illustrators, I have to share just one more — this one by a French author and illustrator duo. Oh là là, indeed.

“Droll” seems to be an adjective appearing in a lot of my picture book reviews these days. So, yes, let’s just lay it all out on the table: I like droll. I do. This book is très droll. Very funny. Makes me laugh out loud. And here’s why: As Emilie Coulter put it so well, “French author-illustrator team Sylviane Donnio and Dorothée de Monfreid have perfectly captured the hubris of childhood” in this picture book, entitled I’d Really Like to Eat a Child (first American edition, 2007; Random House; translated by Leslie Martin). I love it. That’s right up there with Allard’s and Marshall’s (may he rest in peace) The Stupids Die in the name of great children’s book titles that draw the wee ones’ attention and that make overly nervous parents squirm. Read the rest of this entry »

Just why oh why have I not heard of Ayano Imai ’til now? What beautiful illustrations in this little charmer called The 108th Sheep, which I could tack on to my recent short, little post about international books, since this was originally published in Great Britain in ’06 but is just now showing up here in the U.S. (published by Tiger Tales, an imprint of ME Media, March 2007). Imai, according to this wonderful link about her at the Tokyo Chapter of the SCBWI site, was born in England, later spent some time living in the U.S., and then resettled in Japan to study Japanese painting. This is her first picture book (which I suppose is the answer to my first question). And oh my it’s pretty. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to Episode 2 of our series of interviews with the Blue Rose Girls.  Today we’re getting to know Alvina Ling:  children’s book editor, blogger, adventurer, and yet another person to add to our list of Bloggers We Wish We Could Hang Out With In Person, ‘Cause She Seems So Freakin’ Cool.

Why is she cool?  Let us count the ways…

First:  She has TWO blogs.  There’s her own personal one at Bloomabilities, as well as being a member of the BRGs.  Talk about multitasking… 

Second:  She’s been immortalized as a children’s book character!  Lately she’s been contributing a series of “How I Met…” posts on the BRGs tracing her individual connections with each of the other members.  The first describes how her childhood friendship with Grace Lin eventually became the basis for Grace’s novel, The Year of the Dog, which Alvina edited.  How beautiful is that?

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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.

1* Thursday I met Grace Lin. She did a program at my library. In spite of woefully low attendance, and a bizarre series of mishaps that made the day feel slightly cursed (she even had to ride in my cute-but-trashy car Phoebe), she was utterly gracious and adorable and interesting and wonderful, and I think the children who did attend had a very nice time indeed. As did I.

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{Note: Today’s Poetry Friday round-up is here at Big A, little a} . . .

I’m still grooving on my new nephew. So I’m sharing a poem about how a baby can totally change your center of gravity: Only Child by D. Nurkse. Here’s an excerpt.

Always we passed the seesaw
on the way to the swings
but tonight I remember
the principle of the lever,
I sit the child at one end,
I sit near the center,
the fulcrum, at once she has power
to lift me off the earth
and keep me suspended
by her tiny weight, she laughing,
I stunned at the power of the formula.

Read the rest here.

And because I really, truly can’t help myself, here’s another picture of Miles:

Did you know they even MADE jeans this small???

And those little feet! In little striped tube socks, even!

Can you stand it???  Can you stand the cuteness???

I mean, I can’t. Every new picture I get is like an actual, serious, physical pain, a paroxysm of cuteness.

Please tell me when I start to get annoying.

Not that it will stop me. But tell me. Please?

Okay, thanks.

And thanks for indulging me.

You can go read the poem now.

I’ve been more and more interested lately in international picture book authors and illustrators. There’s always the tried-and-true IBBY, International Board on Books for Young People, for some reliable info, but — as for publishers — who do we have? Well, we all know that Kane/Miller is a good source for imports, but I also just stumbled upon North-South Books (their site is here, though I believe a new one — or at least updated one — is to come). North-South is a “small, fiercely independent publisher of children’s books. Our roots are in Europe, where our parent company, NordSüd Verlag, was founded over forty years ago. The aim of the founders was to build bridges — bridges between authors and artists from different countries and between readers of all ages around the world.” Their books are distributed by Chronicle Books. Who knew? Turns out they’re a good source for some exciting and talented authors and illustrators from places other than the U.S. (though, apparently, they also highlight American authors/illustrators as well).

So, here’s a spotlight — though a small one — on four fairly recent titles upon which I stumbled or that fortuitously fell into my lap:

What Elephant? (September 2006) written and illustrated by Geneviève Côté — So, Côté is from neighboring Canada; she’s not exactly new to us, as her editorial art has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Wall Street Journal; and this particular title is from Kids Can Press, who — though Canada’s leading publisher of children’s books and another publishing company with an international reputation — is well known here in the U.S. (which doesn’t exactly make this one an “import”). But this is the first time I’ve seen her work, and I’m impressed. Read the rest of this entry »

Susan Thomsen asked me to do a write-up about a project from my former life (at least it feels like that anyway) over at Chicken Spaghetti. Take some children’s lit, American Sign Language, hand-flapping actors, and theatre and mix it all together, and that’s what the write-up is about. If you’re interested, it’s here . . . Now back to our program . . . If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t miss Elaine’s interview below or her new blog, the Wild Rose Reader. Bye for now and until next time . . .

How’s this for coincidence?

Last week we emailed the Blue Rose Girls, asking if they’d be interested in being interviewed.  We had no idea at the time that Elaine Magliaro was already planning to launch her very own blog, the Wild Rose Reader, this very week.  What perfect timing!  We’re so thrilled for Elaine, and honored to be able to allow our readers to get to know this charming, classy, brilliant blogger a little better.

In case you’re not familiar with the Blue Rose Girls (for the record, our goal is to interview each and every one of them), it’s a blog about children’s literature — the writing, editing, illustrating, teaching, and pondering of it — that is shared by seven women (Alvina, Anna, Elaine, Grace, Libby, Linda, and Meghan). And here’s how their story goes: Three of them (all illustrators — Grace Lin, Anna Alter, and Linda Wingerter) forged a bond online through the Internet, and after their children’s book careers began to take off, they named themselves “The Blue Rose Girls” (in a tribute to the Red Rose Girls who came before them). Eventually, the others — including Elaine — joined the online presence, and, as their site states, “{w}hile we don’t all live together in a shared studio space, we do, like the Red Rose Girls, depend and feed off each other for inspiration and support.” (We feel like we’re glossing too quickly over these talented women, and we’re obviously not linking to the blog and/or site of each individual Blue Rose Girl; however, you can read all about them at their site, not to mention wait for our future thrilling interviews, as we’d eventually like to chat with each one of them anyway) . . . Here’s Elaine’s inaugural post as the Blue Rose Girls’ “first guest blogger,” back in October of ’06. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

1> The poem “Request” by Franz Wright, which you can read here at Liz Scanlon’s Poetry Friday entry from yesterday. I am in love with this poem, and I thank Liz for introducing me to it (Poetry Friday is such an excellent thing). Amusingly enough, I read — while trying to find more info on Franz Wright — the following: “A five-year-old Franz Wright once reportedly made the following request of his parents: ‘Excuse me. Do you think, because it’s my birthday, we could not talk about poetry today?'” (I read that here; his father was poet James Wright) . . . The poem made me think of another favorite, “The Guitarist Tunes Up,” by Frances Darwin Cornford: Read the rest of this entry »