{"id":1063,"date":"2007-12-16T00:01:48","date_gmt":"2007-12-16T06:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1063"},"modified":"2007-12-16T00:05:13","modified_gmt":"2007-12-16T06:05:13","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-41-featuring-janet-morgan-stoeke-minerva-louise-j-patrick-lewis-and-national-chocolate-covered-anything-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1063","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #41: Featuring Janet Morgan Stoeke, Minerva Louise, J. Patrick Lewis, and National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jules<\/strong>: This image is just for Eisha this week! She loves loves loves<\/em> Ms. Minerva Louise. And then I reviewed the wonderful Minerva Louise on Christmas Eve<\/em> (here<\/strong><\/a>) at the beginning of this month and thought, hey, maybe Janet Morgan Stoeke<\/a><\/strong> would be willing to share some Minerva Louise art work with us.<\/em> Lucky for us, she was. <\/p>\n

Somewhere, from far away in Ithaca, New York, I can hear Eisha squealing right now. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Janet also sent us a sneak peek at her next book — the cover, that is, pictured here. She says it will be published in June 2008 by Dutton Books and that “there are ‘real’ books sprinkled throughout \u2013 like a treasure hunt, at least for the teachers and librarians.” Janet also shared with us a bit about her art:<\/p>\n

“I create my illustrations using layers. I make the top layer first, which is my best trick. I draw the black line, using Prismacolor black (a kind of colored pencil.) It\u2019s got a wonderful crayon-like texture, and I get to hang on to that by separating it onto its own layer. It\u2019s drawn onto rough heavyweight vellum, allowing me to easily trace and retrace the lines as I revise and edit. For the base art, I use a watercolor paper that doesn\u2019t buckle or shrink (Aquarius II by Strathmore.) I trace the line onto it using a light table, so that the registration will be perfect. Then I lay in the gouache with several sizes of round brushes. <\/p>\n

The printer shoots each layer, surprinting the black line over the color. This way the line remains fresh and fluid, and the color nearly always is held by the contour line. I say nearly, because every once in a while the color drifts or slurs past the line, which keeps it humble and home-made looking. (Tried computer color work, and it looked sterile to me.) Sometimes I will paint a watercolor sky that will take up its own third layer, and often there\u2019s a layer for lines that reverse to white out of one of the colors (snowflakes or fireworks, for instance.) It\u2019s a fun and free technique that I came up with after 8 years of production work at a magazine.”<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

Thanks so much to Janet for stopping by 7-Imp today and sharing. She has come to a place where there is much Minerva love, and we look forward to her upcoming title, too. <\/p>\n

* * *<\/center><\/p>\n

By way of explanation for any new folks (who we hope will leave their lists), our weekly 7 Kicks list is the meeting ground for listing Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week (whether book-related or not) that happened to you. <\/p>\n

*******eisha’s kicks<\/strong>*******<\/center><\/p>\n

1* MINERVA LOUISE!!! SQUEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!<\/p>\n

2* Our second article for the Poetry Foundation website is up! Go see!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

3* Haven Kimmel’s new children’s book<\/strong><\/a> is coming out in February! Thanks to Little Willow<\/strong><\/a> for giving us the heads-up. Jules has already asked for review copies, so hopefully we’ll get a co-review out sometime after the Cybils<\/strong><\/a> madness.<\/p>\n

4* I got lots and lots of great-sounding Fantasy recommendations from our kind, thoughtful readers on Friday. Thank you! <\/p>\n

5* New musical obsession: The Go! Team<\/strong><\/a>. I kept hearing “Grip Like a Vice” on the radio and loved it, and then I heard “Doing It Right” which pretty much sealed the deal. You can listen to both songs on their MySpace page<\/strong><\/a>, and you can watch the video for “Doing It Right” below. Go ahead, take a little dance break. Kick it old skool. We’ll wait here…<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

6* I just took a little dance break myself. Whew! How awesome is that song? They really know how to rock a glockenspiel.<\/p>\n

7* This time next week I’ll be in Tennessee, hanging out with my baby nephew (not to mention my mom, sister, brother, sister-in-law, sister’s best friend and her new baby, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, dogs, etc.).<\/p>\n

Happy Chocolate-Covered Anything Day, everybody {see below}! <\/p>\n

*******Jules’ kicks<\/strong>*******<\/center> <\/p>\n

Eisha, what a great song! And I’d say that video is probably a fair representation of what the world looks like through Joey Pigza’s eyes. <\/p>\n

I’m going to relinquish my kicks this week to do something different (except I will share two Quik Kicks):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. My three-year-old daughter’s been walking around all week, singing “She’s got the money and I’ve got the honey.” Heh. It’s very funny to hear. It’s from “Rich Woman,”<\/a><\/strong> an old blues song written circa 1955 by Dorothy LaBostrie and Mckinley Millet, covered on the new Robert Plant and Alison Krauss CD<\/a><\/strong>, which I can’t. stop. listening. to.<\/li>\n
  2. This story<\/a><\/strong> I saw on the local news and found at this link. Why? It’s pretty kickin’ what that modern-day fast-food drive-thru Zen master did, and then there’s the element of FREE COFFEE in the story, too.<\/li>\n
  3. Wait, one more! Speaking of my three-year-old, she said something today that made me laugh so hard and made me so happy that I wrote it down and can, therefore, share it with you all. I try to read lots ‘o’ poetry to her, and — needless to say, probably — we read lots of books together. So, she’s started making up nonsense poems with very sing-songy rhythms (the rhythm of a lot of children’s poetry — not all, but a lot). And she’s started making up nonsense words (and did you know that “attagirl!” means “great job with dinner, Mommy!” in Spanish?). Anyway, so today, as my husband was pretending to be a bear and chasing her and her sister around the house, she ran up to me, all out-of-breath, and said:\n

    “We’re trying to get away from the fogularly, fesky bear that lives in that busky ‘ol cave.”<\/font><\/p>\n

    O MY GOD I LOVE IT.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Okay, here’s what I’m doing this week instead of Seven Kicks: Children’s poet and author J. Patrick Lewis<\/a><\/strong> has stopped by for a visit, and I’m going to use my kicks space to share two of his poems. Why today? Because today is National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day<\/a><\/strong>, a day certainly worth celebrating in our book, and he’s written a poem, “Chocolate-Covered Ants” (here on the left), to celebrate it. And also because Mr. Lewis (who I believe goes by Pat) also has written an original anthology of poetry for this Christmas season, entitled Under the Kissletoe: Christmastime Poems<\/strong><\/em><\/a> (Wordsong; September 2007), illustrated by Rob Shepperson<\/a><\/strong>. And my girls and I really enjoyed our library copy of this book. Unfortunately, I could not hold on to it long, as it was on hold at the library, in great demand and all that. But, fortunately for us all, Pat gave me permission to share my favorite poem from the book. You can read the Horn Book’s<\/em> review of this anthology here<\/a><\/strong> (“each poem is a study in expressing content through form”). Consider this part of my round-up of ’07 holiday titles. It’s an enjoyable read. Thanks to Pat for sharing both poems with us. Here’s the Christmas poem then, “One Winter Night,” and happy holidays to all (and don’t forget to tell us if you had a kicky week). <\/p>\n

    (I know the poem’s text is huge, but I had to make an image out of it to get it to format correctly — and the spacing and formatting of this poem is important, obviously. And then, well, blahblahblah, I just ended up having to make it huge for it to space correctly in the post and look right. But I kinda love it — making a poem so big like that, like it’s a piece of visual art itself. Which in this poem’s case, it is anyway! Enjoy). <\/p>\n

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    Jules: This image is just for Eisha this week! She loves loves loves Ms. Minerva Louise. And then I reviewed the wonderful Minerva Louise on Christmas Eve (here) at the beginning of this month and thought, hey, maybe Janet Morgan Stoeke would be willing to share some Minerva Louise art work with us. Lucky for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}