Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“I’m a storyteller. I love telling stories. I’ve found poetry to be one of the most beautiful and effective ways to do that. Poems say what they have to say, and then they are silent. The rest is up to the reader – what they get out of them and how that makes them feel. I want them to feel something. I always want them to feel something.”

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Over at Kirkus today, I talk to author, poet, and illustrator Hope Anita Smith, pictured here, about her newest picture book, My Daddy Rules the World: Poems about Dads (Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt, May 2017).

That is here.

Next week, I’ll follow up with some of her torn-paper art from the book.

Until tomorrow …

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Photo used by permission of Hope Anita Smith.

“That night just as Sarabella was about to give up, a whale of a thought appeared on the horizon. The closer it go, the more beautiful it became. And though it was the most enormous creature she had ever seen, Sarabella felt unafraid. ‘Do you know what I think?’ asked the whale. ‘I can see what you think,’ replied Sarabella. ‘And so should everyone else,’ said the whale. ‘To share it, you’ve just got to wear it.’
Then the whale blew Sarabella a kiss before she swam off.”
(Click to enlarge spread)

 
Today’s post is a bit of a preview. This September (from Dial Books), readers will see Judy Schachner’s Sarabella’s Thinking Cap, a picture book that is an explosion of color, as well as a tribute to those deep-thinking, philosophically-minded students in class who have trouble focusing, all on account of the boatloads of thoughts in their heads.

I’ve an F&G, and I like it. It’s more than a tribute to a child’s imagination; it’s a story that shows the reality of how challenging it can sometimes be for students like that to fit into the traditional classroom mold.

“Sarabella had no time for small talk,” the book opens. “In fact, she never talked much at all … because she was too busy thinking.” Sarabella, as her (similarly creative) family likes to put it, has her feet on the ground and her head in the clouds. She has “daydreams in her DNA,” her mother tells her. She comes home with report cards from her teacher, Mr. Fantozzi, who appreciates her creative mind, yet also feels the need to curtail the imaginative wanderings. In other words, he consistently notes, she needs to learn to focus.

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I love the first Sunday of each month here at 7-Imp, because that’s when we all get to see the work of student or debut illustrators. Today, author-illustrator Mika Song visits. She’s not a student, and her newest book is not her debut. But she’s still relatively new to children’s lit, and I’m happy to showcase her work today. Let’s get right to it, because she tells us a bit about her work and shares some artwork and sketches below. I thank her for visiting.

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“Crimson red is my favorite color because it is the color of the crimson rosella,
a parrot found in southeastern Australia, where I live.”
(Click to enlarge spread, created by Marc Martin)

 
Come dig deep with me over at Kirkus today.

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Last week, I wrote here about What’s Your Favorite Color? (an Eric Carle and Friends book, published by Godwin Books/Henry Holt), which features the work of a slew of talented authors and illustrators and will be on shelves in August. Today, I’ve got a small handful of spreads from the book.

Enjoy!

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Normally, when I do a Kirkus Q&A, as I did last week, I follow up the following week with art here at 7-Imp from the picture books I write about. I have no art for you this week, since my Q&A last week was not about a picture book. But I’m still doing a quick post. Wanna know why?

My Q&A (here) was with Deborah Heiligman, and we talked about her new book, Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers, published by Henry Holt in April. Yesterday, it up and won the 2017 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in the category of Nonfiction, which made me happy to see!

In fact, all their choices in all categories were so good that it’s too hard to single out any other one book. Check out all the winners here.

Congrats to all!

“Exhausted by all the fun, he stopped for a moment. It was then that he remembered his poor hungry grandmother. He looked to his right, his left, ahead of him,
and behind him … the trail had disappeared!”

 
I’ve a treat for you today, dear Imps.

Over the weekend, I was lucky enough to see an early copy of a book coming to shelves this Fall from Lion Forge Comics/CubHouse, Amélie Fléchais’s The Little Red Wolf, originally published in French in 2014. The English edition of this story, which turns the classic “Little Red Riding Hood” tale on its head and features a wolf in a red cape, was translated by Jeremy Melloul.

I’ve got some art from the book to showcase today—I’d love to let the art do the talking—but let me do my best to describe to you what this book offers. It’s a story, divided into chapters, that is, at turns, funny and haunting, the tale of a little wolf instructed to head to his grandmother’s house to give her one of the juicy rabbits his mother has recently killed. Read the rest of this entry »

 
I’ve got a BookPage review of Isabelle Arsenault’s newest picture book, one she both wrote and illustrated. Colette’s Lost Pet was just released (Random House); my review is here over at BookPage; and I’m following up with some art from the book here at 7-Imp today, thanks to Isabelle.

Enjoy!

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— From Patrick McDonnell’s
The Little Red Cat Who Ran Away and Learned his ABC’s (the Hard Way)
(Click to enlarge spread)

 


— From Barb Rosenstock’s
Vincent Can’t Sleep: Van Gogh Paints the Night Sky,
illustrated by Mary GrandPré
(Click to enlarge spread)

 


— From Mac Barnett’s I Love You Like a Pig, illustrated by Greg Pizzoli

 

Today over at Kirkus, I’ve got colors on the mind.

That is here.

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Last week, I wrote here about three picture books that won’t be on shelves till the Fall, but I like them so much that I couldn’t help myself. Today I’m following up with some art from those books, so you’ll see illustrations here from Patrick McDonnell’s The Little Red Cat Who Ran Away and Learned his ABC’s (the Hard Way) (Little, Brown, September 2017); Barb Rosenstock’s Vincent Can’t Sleep: Van Gogh Paints the Night Sky (Knopf, October 2017), illustrated by Mary GrandPré; and Mac Barnett’s I Love You Like a Pig (Balzer + Bray, September 2017), illustrated by Greg Pizzoli. Greg also shares some preliminary images below.

Enjoy!

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“I thought I knew everything about Vincent, but then I was in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in the summer of 2011, and I saw a mention of Theo. Next to a painting, it said something about how Theo supported Vincent. I was bowled over. I probably gasped. I had forgotten he had a brother, and I had no idea that Theo had supported him. I knew right away that I wanted to write a book about the brothers someday.”

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What’s that? You want a recommendation for a great book? I’ve got one: Deborah Heiligman’s Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers, published by Henry Holt in April, a book officially geared at the late middle-grade/YA crowd but which I say is for all ages. It’s the best book I’ve read this year, and I’m pleased that Deborah chatted with me about the book over at Kirkus. I enjoyed our conversation.

That is here today.

Until tomorrow …

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Photo of Deborah taken by Matt Peyton.

 

“Shortly after breakfast, Pete decided he was a boulder. …”
(Click to enlarge)

 
I’ve got a BookPage review of Rowboat Watkins’s Pete With No Pants, released by Chronicle Books in early May. I love this book, and you can read why at my review over here at their site.

But there’s more: I chatted with Rowboat about this book. He shares his thoughts about the story and its meaning for him, and the discussion opened my eyes to the book in new and wonderful ways. Let’s get right to it, and I thank him for visiting 7-Imp again.

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