{"id":1730,"date":"2009-07-12T00:12:26","date_gmt":"2009-07-12T06:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1730"},"modified":"2009-07-13T08:50:54","modified_gmt":"2009-07-13T14:50:54","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-123-featuring-ed-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1730","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #123: Featuring Ed Young"},"content":{"rendered":"

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(Click to enlarge. Really. You just <\/em>have to. How can you not? It’s Ed Young.)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Jules:<\/font><\/strong> Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, our weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on 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

Happy Sunday to one and all . . . Some of you may remember that it wasn’t too<\/em> long ago that I posted the 7-Imp Ed Young interview<\/strong><\/a>. Well, he’s got a new book out, and I am so head-over-heels in love with it and the art therein that I’m happy to be able to show you some spreads from it today. <\/p>\n

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Hook<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, released by Roaring Brook Press in April, tells in a spare, trenchant text the story of a young boy who finds an orphaned egg and takes it to a hen for some care and attention. When an eaglet hatches from the egg (“{a} hook nose?” being’s the confused hen’s response; hence the eaglet’s name) and after watching him grow, she comes to realize he is “not meant for this earth” — but, indeed, meant for a “higher place.” The eagle tries to fly, though it’s a “short first flight”; he plunges to the earth from his perch. The hen then enlists the help of the boy, who takes Hook to an even higher place. Another try. Another fall. They try yet again, this time in a great canyon. This is the moment in the book in which you see this drop-dead gorgeous spread below. If you click on it to enlarge it, you’ll be doing yourself a great favor and starting off your Sunday just right<\/em>. Guaranteed. Or your money back: <\/p>\n

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Eventually, Hook “rises to where he belongs. For he wasn’t meant for this earth.” <\/p>\n

The text, expertly-paced, is so concise—Ed Young really nails that economy of expression—that I probably just provided half of it with that brief summary. <\/p>\n

Now, this title—with a theme, as you can see, smacking slightly of Hans Christian Andersen’s<\/strong><\/a> Ugly Duckling<\/strong><\/a><\/em>—works on many levels. I know of many folks who thought Young’s Wabi Sabi<\/strong><\/a><\/em> was, in effect, a coffee table book. A winning one, indeed — but not a book children<\/em> will quite get. (To be fair, there are also those who still claim it was robbed of the Caldecott.) I don’t think they can say Hook<\/em> is an adult book wearing a children’s-book Halloween costume. Well, they can<\/em>, if they’re so inclined, but I’d argue that. I think at its core is nested (awful pun not intended) a metaphor to which children can surely relate: You might keep falling and failing and floundering, but you can persevere. With determination, you can see it through. <\/p>\n

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(You can enlarge this one, too.)<\/center><\/em><\/p>\n

And one of the other levels on which it works? Well, it puts a lump in my throat every time I read it. “{He} rises to where he belongs…For he wasn’t meant for earth.”<\/em> I once knew a human like that. How Young manages to infuse so much emotion into such minimal text and still leave lots of space for the reader…I mean, just…just…how does he do<\/em> it? Well, he’s the master. That’s all I know. <\/p>\n

And the art! Okay, so it’s ED YOUNG. I probably don’t need to say more, but I will: These are chalks, and they are stunning<\/em> spreads. Powerful. Wondrous. “Sweeping” doesn’t quite cut it for some of these spreads. There is an austerity to the illustrations as well — and humor, too. I’m glad I managed to get some art to show you today, since I would have been frustrated, simply trying to find the words to describe the beauty. Publishers Weekly<\/em> tried when they wrote, “Young’s pastels…glow with life.” Ah, yes. <\/p>\n

Well, let’s kick it, shall we? But first, the Boring—Yet Very Important—Copyright Info:<\/p>\n

HOOK. Copyright \u00a9 2009 by Ed Young. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Roaring Brook Press, New York, NY.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

1* Oh, Ed Young. *sigh* He can do no wrong. The canyon spread is indeed lovely, but what I love best is the slightly WTF look the hen is giving the egg in that first pic.<\/p>\n

2* I survived another CRAZY-BUSY week at work. Seriously, ya’ll – I don’t mind a busy day here and there. It’s fun, most people who come to use our collections are nice, and the day goes by super-fast. But if any of our readers happen to be planning on doing a little rare book\/manuscript research at Cornell this summer… um… could you just hold off on that? Please? I’m not sure we even have anywhere to put<\/em> you right now – our reading room was at capacity all. week. long.<\/p>\n

3* Have you heard of Alexis Mackenzie<\/strong><\/a>? I’ve recently discovered her creepily-beautiful collage art, and I lurve it<\/em>. I want it all over my walls. And a t-shirt too.<\/p>\n

Viscera IV by Alexis Mackenzie - click for link to her Flickr page.<\/a><\/p>\n

4* I went out to eat with the Poets Upstairs<\/strong><\/a> to this incredibly yummy restaurant, Hazelnut Kitchen<\/strong><\/a>. OMG. I had a summer squash soup with pistachio basil pesto that was so good I almost cried<\/em> when the bowl was empty.<\/p>\n

5* We finished the night with ice cream at Cayuga Lake Creamery<\/strong><\/a>. We ate at one of their outdoor tables, next to a little waterfall\/pond, and there were all these noisy frogs. (Newsflash: some frogs don’t say “ribbit.” It’s more like a belch.) And FIREFLIES! Living in the “city” like I do, I hadn’t seen any yet this year. They were all over the place, and it was magical. Belching frogs notwithstanding.<\/p>\n

6* And, since the poets are leaving this week (*SNIFFLE*) I gave them their good-bye present, which I’ve been holding on to for months: a pirate sock zombie<\/strong><\/a> made by Erin Glaser<\/strong><\/a>. Hey, JES<\/strong><\/a>, do you remember that hilarious scuba diving video you linked to on one of your kicks lists? That’s her! That’s how I found her blog, and from there found out she makes sock zombies<\/strong><\/a> (“Like sock monkeys. Only undeader.”) and sells ’em on Etsy. So thanks, John! You helped me find the perfect present for a sock monkey enthusiast to give to two devoted zombie\/pirate fans.<\/p>\n

GRRR! ARRGH!<\/p>\n

7* I started reading As She Climbed Across the Table<\/em><\/strong><\/a> by Jonathan Lethem<\/strong><\/a>, and so far it’s incredibly weirdly wonderfully good. Jules, if Blaine hasn’t read it yet, he should – it’s got lots of physics in it. And you should read it too, because it’s also a messed-up love story and it’s just generally excellent so far. It’s almost making me care about physics, that’s how good it is.<\/p>\n

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

1). Ed’s art. <\/p>\n

2). Ed’s art today reminded me that I don’t think I ever shared this kick: Back during the February Ed Young interview<\/strong><\/a>, Ed wasn’t able to do an interview via email, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to do it via phone — and do it justice, that is. So, I snail-mailed his questions to my contact, the assistant to Ed’s agent. She got them to Ed, he wrote his responses on regular ol’ lined notebook paper, she typed them up for me, and then she emailed them to me. (Whew.) When it was all said and done, she asked me if I’d like his written responses on paper. You can probably guess what my response was. She mailed them to me. It’s tremendously cool to me to see his hand-writing and have Ed Young’s hand-written responses to keep forever. <\/p>\n

3). I finally got my library copy of Grace Lin’s<\/strong><\/a> Where the Mountain Meets the Moon<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. It’s wonderful. I know she did a blog tour<\/strong><\/a> recently, but I’m hoping to show some art from the book some time soon. Maybe have an excerpt from the novel. Maybe have Grace say a word or two about the book, if she’s not too tired of talking about it. Something. Anything. Soon. ‘Cause I love it. Oh, and same goes for Laurel Snyder’s<\/strong><\/a> Any Which Wall<\/strong><\/a><\/em>. Illustrated novels make me extra happy. <\/p>\n

4). Remember I mentioned last week<\/strong><\/a> that I’m learning to play simple songs on the ukulele for a story time I’ll be doing at my local public library? Well, that’s my father’s ukulele. Or was. He told me this week I COULD KEEP IT. Ya<\/em> and hoo!<\/em> Since it’ll probably take me the rest of my life to nail “You Are My Sunshine” and “I Wish I Were a Fishy in the Sea” and that Twisted Sister tune, this is good news. (Can you guess which one of those I’m not really learning? Yet.)<\/p>\n

\"I5). My five-year-old is talking a lot like Ned Flanders<\/strong><\/a> these days. A while ago, she said, “yippo-dangedly-do-do-diddly-oh” or something similar. That was her “yes” to a simple question I posed. <\/p>\n

6). You know when you have one of those awful nightmares that is made all the worse by your dream-you really believing the dream is not a dream but is actually<\/em> happening? And you just can’t seem to wake up? Yeah. I had one of those on early Thursday morning, and it was one of those mother’s-worst-nightmare dreams. And that’s all I’ll say. But the kick here? The best kick of the whole week, in fact? It was just a dream. <\/p>\n

7). The next day, my five-year-old—who will not go outside for days if she sees a bee or wasp or even the GLIMMER of one in the next yard<\/em>—inadvertently stumbled upon a wasp’s nest. She was just trying to put some pretend cookies (“sand cookies,” if you’re in-the-know) into a toy kitchen on the back deck, and she opened up the toy oven to a wasp’s nest. And LOTS OF WASPS. Of the four children out there, the one who squeals in terror when a mosquito or ANT is on her was the one opening the oven. She’s fine now<\/em>, though she did get stung and though she totally. lost. it. And there I was, not knowing if she’s the kind of kid so allergic to wasps that she’d have an anaphylactic reaction—since this was her first sting. And, you know, an anaphylactic reaction would be very, very bad. <\/p>\n

The kick? She’s okay. Though I’d be happy to get that image of her freaking out so intensely out of my head. <\/p>\n

BONUS: The new marionette production of Cinderella<\/em> from Wishing Chair Productions<\/strong><\/a> at the Nashville Public Library. The girls gasped in amazement a lot.<\/p>\n

OTHER BONUS: A brand-new Sam<\/strong><\/a> song —<\/p>\n

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What are YOUR<\/font> kicks this week?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Click to enlarge. Really. You just have to. How can you not? It’s Ed Young.) Jules: Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, our weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on 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","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730","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=1730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}