Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“Truth be told, I’ve always been a secret writer. That’s the thing about writing. You can write on for a long time and tuck it all away with only your significant other in the know, because there are bins upon bins of paper that travel with you on every major move, that sit in the dark basement, that don’t pay rent in storage.”

* * *

Over at Kirkus today, I talk with illustrator Cozbi A. Cabrera, pictured here, whose newest picture book is one she also wrote, her first book as an author-illustrator. My Hair Is a Garden is on shelves now.

The Q&A is here. Next week, I’ll follow up here at 7-Imp with a bit more art from the book.

Until tomorrow . . .

 
I’m hosting a party for The Party today. That is, author-illustrator Sergio Ruzzier visits to talk a bit about his new picture book, a collection of three stories called Fox + Chick: The Party: And Other Stories (Chronicle, April 2018). He also shares some preliminary images and artwork from the book.

As you will read below, this is a series of three stories about two endearing characters, Fox and Chick, with the promise of a second book to come next year. As you will also read below, Sergio returns to comics for the book’s format, and the results are wonderful. This is a set of stories that follows in the grand tradition of Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad stories or James Marshall’s George and Martha stories. Only the comics format differs. You know you have in hand a book that will strike a chord with developing readers, much as Lobel’s and Marshall’s books did, when the personalities of the book’s duo are so clearly established on the first page of the first story in merely four small panels. (Chick is fussy and somewhat mercurial; Fox is centered and possesses an everlasting patience for his small friend.)

I’m going to move over now and give Sergio the 7-Imp mic, because you will learn more about the three stories within the book from his words and art below. I thank him for sharing. Read the rest of this entry »

Illustrations from title page spread
(Click to enlarge)

 
I’m doing that thing again (forgive me) where I’m writing about a book several months before it arrives on bookshelves, but I’ve had this art for a while and decided to go ahead and share it today. (See how I waited at least a little bit?) Karen Hesse’s Night Job (Candlewick), illustrated by G. Brian Karas, will be on shelves in September — and it is a book to look forward to.

This is the story of a boy and his father, who leave their apartment complex and take a motorcycle on a Friday night to the school that the father cleans for a living. “He opens the door, and the building sighs,” Hesse writes. “Come, it whispers to us.” While sometimes the boy plays (shooting hoops while his father cleans the gym or reading aloud to him while he cleans the library), he also gives him a hand, “sweeping the school from stem to stern.” Hesse captures one night of the father’s custodial work; afterwards, they head home and, just as the sun is rising, drift away together in a recliner. Read the rest of this entry »

 

— From Thomas Scotto’s Jerome By Heart,
illustrated by Olivier Tallec

 

“Turtle dreamed about a better home.
So he decided to make some renovations to his shell.”
— From Michelle Cuevas’s The Town of Turtle, illustrated by Cátia Chien
(Click to enlarge spread)

 
This morning at Kirkus, I’ve got a Belgian import.

That is here.

* * *

Last week, I wrote here about Thomas Scotto’s Jerome By Heart (Enchanted Lion, April 2018), illustrated by Olivier Tallec, as well as Michelle Cuevas’s The Town of Turtle (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 2018), illustrated by Cátia Chien. I’m following up today with art from each book.

Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry »

“There was an organist who looked about a hundred years old.
She played a swirling song, and people in the front of the row
began to move out of the church.”
(Click to enlarge)

 
I’m following up my Kirkus Q&A from last week with Canadian author-illustrator Matt James with some roughs, sketches, reference photos, work-in-progress images, and final artwork from The Funeral (Groundwood, April 2018). That is below.

Enjoy! And thanks to Matt for sharing.

Read the rest of this entry »

 
I’ve got a review over at BookPage of Sophie Blackall’s beautiful Hello Lighthouse (Little, Brown, April 2018). That is here, if you’d like to read more about the book.

Here at 7-Imp, Sophie visits to tell me a bit about the book, her research for it, and her process. I thank her for visiting and sharing lots of art. Let’s get right to it.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Hello Color / Hello Bright.”
(Click to enlarge spread)

 
I’ve got a review over at BookPage of Brendan Wenzel’s Hello Hello (Chronicle, March 2018). That is here.

Here today at 7-Imp, I’m featuring some spreads from the book. …

Read the rest of this entry »

— From Matt Phelan’s Pignic

 

— From Sebastian Meschenmoser’s It’s Springtime, Mr. Squirrel!

 
Over at Kirkus today, I write about two new picture books, one about true love and the other, about turtle towns. Yep, turtle towns.

That is here.

* * *

Last week, I wrote here about Matt Phelan’s Pignic (Greenwillow, March 2018) and Sebastian Meschenmoser’s It’s Springtime, Mr. Squirrel! (NorthSouth, February 2018). I’m following up with some art today, and Matt even sent along some preliminary artwork.

Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry »

“I want Norma to show that these moments can hit us all differently and that there is a serious complexity to the way we all process something like death — in this case, the death of a distant relative.

The truth is, though, that this book came into being because I had a chance to observe my kids in situations that were more or less the same as the ones that Norma and Ray find themselves in. Mix in a fair amount of recollection — I remember my first funeral vividly, especially the fact that I felt really guilty for not being sad enough — and a little bit of invention, and you get The Funeral.”

* * *

Over at Kirkus today, I talk with Canadian illustrator Matt James, pictured here. His newest picture book, The Funeral (Groundwood, April 2018), is the first one he’s both illustrated and written.

The Q&A is here. Next week, I’ll follow up here at 7-Imp with more art from the book.

Until tomorrow …

“‘I love books and flowers . . . and you, too, Daddy!'”
(Click to enlarge spread)

 
It’s such a pleasure to have author-illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal visit 7-Imp today to talk about her new picture book, Alma and How She Got Her Name, which is publishing simultaneously in both Spanish and English (Candlewick) this week. Juana, fresh on the heels of winning a 2018 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award for Susan Middleton Elya’s La Princesa and the Pea, was born in Peru and is the daughter and granddaughter of painters. (She discusses this below.) Now living in Arizona, she sees with this book her debut as an author.

And what a book it is, this story of one girl, Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela; her very long name; and what she learns from her father about that name and her family heritage. It’s a book celebrating cultural identity in specific ways while, simultaneously, inviting children, no matter where they’re from, to consider their own family stories. Its distinctive palette (which Juana also discusses below), soft and endearing illustrations, and beautiful lettering make it sing. It’s a beauty, this one, with inviting, uncluttered spreads and a protagonist whose charms will draw in readers (particularly, preschool-aged ones, those more likely being read to) like a magnet.

I thank Juana for visiting 7-Imp today to share lots of art (including the art of her father and grandfather) and to talk about the book. Read the rest of this entry »