{"id":1805,"date":"2009-09-27T00:01:33","date_gmt":"2009-09-27T06:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1805"},"modified":"2009-09-27T00:01:33","modified_gmt":"2009-09-27T06:01:33","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-134-featuring-ted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1805","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #134: Featuring Ted!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“‘A parade!’ shouted Firefighter Ted. ‘Firefighters always lead parades!’ Firefighter Ted led the parade down the hall. ‘Whoooooo-whoooooo-whooooo!’ All the other classes came out to watch. ‘Everyone loves a parade,’ said Firefighter Ted,
and he waved to the crowd.”
(Click to enlarge.)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

<\/a>Jules:<\/strong><\/font> 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

Featured this Sunday morning is Firefighter Ted, who sprung from the mind of one of my favorite picture book authors, Andrea Beaty<\/strong><\/a> (who, as I’ve said before, has this keen ability to get smack-dab into the center of a child’s way of thinking), and who is illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre<\/strong><\/a>, who stopped by and had breakfast with me last month<\/strong><\/a>, you may remember. You also may remember that, during April of ’08, our imaginative protagonist, Ted, decided to be a doctor<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

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When he needs something and can’t find it, why, he just makes do on his own. This time, in Firefighter Ted<\/strong><\/em><\/a> (Margaret K. McElderry Books, September ’09), he tries on the firefightin’ profession for size, since he wakes up smelling burning toast. If you click on the smaller, second image above and left, you’ll see how he makes his own fire extinguisher. (And you can enlarge the image to see the entire spread from which it comes.) Ted cracks me up<\/em>. And, once again with Ted, Beaty nails a child’s need to play-pretend, to learn through role-play, and to simply assert himself in a world full of adults and their tendency to sometimes dismiss this type of imaginative play. <\/p>\n

Ted not only cracks me<\/em> up; he cracked up my five-year-old daughter’s kindergarten class. I got to go read them some books this week, and I chose to bring Ted and his two sagas (medical and fire-fighting), since the class has been talking about “community helpers.” There were many laughs. (And my five-year-old, who adores this character, sat in the back with the<\/em> biggest grin, as if she would nearly burst, and this kind of look on her face: “YOU ALL JUST WAIT YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE HOW FUNNY THIS BOOK IS YOU ALL!<\/font>”<\/p>\n

Here’s my favorite spread from the book, in which Ted, thinking he’s doing everyone a favor, has placed some random pets and a tricycle or two in a tree, in order to get them off the hot sidewalk:<\/p>\n

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“The crowd was speechless. ‘No need to thank me,’ said Firefighter Ted,
and he waved to the crowd.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Ted always gets to save the day, though. And his principal, Mr. Bigham, always calls for help. (And always yells “call the library!” That just means he’s got his priorities straight.)<\/p>\n

<\/a>
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“The smoke got thicker and thicker. His pants got hotter and hotter. Principal Bigham ran this way and that. ‘HELP!’ he yelled. ‘Call a tailor! Call the janitor! Call the library! JUST CALL SOMEBODY!'”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Andrea and Pascal have another title out now, which is a good choice for it’ll-be-here-before-you-know-it Halloween, called Hush, Baby Ghostling<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. I’ve got some art from that, too, to share a bit later. But here’s the cover:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

FIREFIGHTER TED. Text copyright \u00a9 2009 by Andrea Beaty. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2009 by Pascal Lemaitre. Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books, New York, NY. Images used with permission of author and illustrator. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Caramel apple, Ithaca-style.Hey! The husband and I are entertaining this weekend – his sister and her husband are staying with us for a few days. Saturday we did the Corning Museum of Glass<\/strong><\/a>, and ate a whole mess of fried and\/or caramel-coated stuff at the Apple Harvest Festival<\/strong><\/a> (just look at that caramel apple sundae there. That was MINE!), and today we’re going to the Farmer’s Market<\/strong><\/a>, a waterfall or two, and then to the premiere of a short film<\/strong><\/a> for which my husband did art direction. So I’m kind of scarce, ‘net-wise, right now. But I look forward to reading all ya’lls kicks when I get a breath.<\/p>\n

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

1). As mentioned above, reading to my daughter’s kindergarten class this week.<\/p>\n

2). My neighbor, who will come over to help me when, say, a blue-tailed skink has gotten into the house (or been brought<\/em> into the house through a cat door) and I pick up two different segments of its tail, still wriggling, from the living room floor and then I see the rest of it scurrying around and nearly hyperventilate. <\/p>\n

Anyone want a cat? <\/p>\n

3). Saving the Best for Last: My five-year-old was sick this week, but the high fever didn’t last too<\/em> long, and she’s better now. <\/p>\n

BONUS: I’m a serious Saturday Night Live<\/em> geek, as in one of those people who likes it even during the dark times in which everyone else doesn’t. (And ask Eisha: I have an SNL<\/em> reference for just about everything in life.) Since the season premiere is tonight (that’s “last night” to you reading this on Sunday), I’m off to go watch. I’ll leave you with dress-rehearsal bloopers from “Weekend Update,” if you’re so inclined to watch. (Sorry about the ad at the beginning). <\/p>\n

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

“‘A parade!’ shouted Firefighter Ted. ‘Firefighters always lead parades!’ Firefighter Ted led the parade down the hall. ‘Whoooooo-whoooooo-whooooo!’ All the other classes came out to watch. ‘Everyone loves a parade,’ said Firefighter Ted,and he waved to the crowd.”(Click to enlarge.) Jules: Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, our weekly meeting ground for taking some time to […]<\/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-1805","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\/1805","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=1805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}