{"id":1868,"date":"2010-01-10T00:01:52","date_gmt":"2010-01-10T06:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1868"},"modified":"2010-01-10T09:46:33","modified_gmt":"2010-01-10T15:46:33","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-149-featuring-timothy-basil-ering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1868","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #149: Featuring Timothy Basil Ering"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, a 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

I’m here once again on a Sunday to share art from a book I was hoping I’d feature in an illustrator interview, but it looks like the interview might not happen. Boo. That’s okay: Let’s go ahead and enjoy the art this morning, shall we? <\/p>\n

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Timothy Basil Ering created some unforgettable illustrations in ’09 for David Elliott’s<\/strong><\/a> very funny—and true-to-life, if you’ve ever been around toddlers—Finn Throws a Fit!<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Candlewick, August 2009). “Droll text and exuberant illustrations render a toddler’s tantrum in all its magnificence,” Publishers Weekly<\/em> wrote. This could<\/em> be where I stop in describing this book, as that suffices quite nicely. And, since I’ve got only two spreads today (though I’m happy to have them at all), I’ll keep this short, as I never like to ramble longer than the amount of time you’re looking at art, if I can help it. <\/p>\n

You all know I like my hyperbole; maybe that’s why this book cracks me up so. The very egg-shaped Finn likes peaches. Usually, Elliott writes. This in an illustration that shows him calm, placated, oh-so happy. Then: “But today, Finn doesn’t like peaches. Today, Finn doesn’t like anything.” And, as you can see in the spread opening this post, today, “Finn is cranky. Anything could happen.” And it’s at this point in the book in which what Kirkus<\/em> called the climactic metaphors for the boy’s tantrums are unleashed: “Thunder in the nursery! Lightning in the kitchen!” as Finn throws his fit. There’s flooding in the kitchen from crying, an avalanche launched by his screams, and an earthquake kicked off by his…well, kicks. You’ll pretty much have to hunt down a copy of the book for the full effect: Each assault on Mother Nature and<\/em> the parents is devoted a full illustration or its own spread: Hurricanes raging in the dining room, blizzards in the bathroom, and
“{t}idal waves sweep through the living room”:<\/p>\n

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(I laughed very hard when I first spotted little Finn in the background in this spread —and his particular sturm und drang there. I’ve pretty much already worked out that I perhaps have anger management issues, since if someone tells me things like “just count and breathe” when I’m really angry, that in and of itself makes me angrier. I pretty much need to do as Finn is doing there for a moment, and then I’ll likely be juuuuust fine, thanks very much.)<\/p>\n

Did you click-to-enlarge? Just look at what Ering does in that spread with line and … well, emotion. The scribbles. The Smudging of Paint. (I’m sure that’s not a technical artistic term.) “Ering, always atmospheric, goes happily nuts with the premise, his mixed-media-charcoal, oils and grease pencil-illustrations almost palpably three-dimensional in their wind-blown vigor,” write Kirkus<\/em>. I wish I could show you every spread. But, if you go get the book to see for yourself, come back and talk to me about it. I love it. Is it funnier to parents than children? Perhaps. (“While likening a child’s tantrums to a severe storm is apt enough from an adult perspective, it may be too conceptually remote for little ones…” the Kirkus<\/em> reviewer added.) I can say my own children got wrapped up in it. <\/p>\n

It’s also worth seeing simply for the post-tantrum spreads. (“What was wrong with him anyway? He’d like those peaches now. Please.”) Incidentally, this book is featured in the October ’09 New Yorker<\/em> article<\/strong><\/a> by Daniel Zalewski on parenting and discipline and how the two are depicted in contemporary children’s lit, if any of you missed that. Interesting read. <\/p>\n

{FINN THROWS A FIT. Text Copyright \u00a9 2009 by David Elliott. Illustrations Copyright \u00a9 2009 by Timothy Basil Ering. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.}<\/em> <\/p>\n

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

1). My tenth wedding anniversary, which was this week. We even got a kid-free, dinner-and-movie date. We were happy to discover that day marked the wide release of Terry Gilliam’s<\/strong><\/a> The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (UK trailer is below, since it’s a particularly good trailer) and went to see that. We rarely see movies in the theater anymore, what with wee kids — so much so that I have just started adding new movies to the Netflix queue, and I simply wait for them. Thus, our good timing with this movie was exciting to me. <\/p>\n

Christopher Plummer<\/strong><\/a> is particularly good in it. Tom Waits as Mr. Nick<\/strong><\/a>? Perfect. And Heath… So good to see him performing for the last time. The quick-fix with Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell worked. It really did, even if I would have rather seen Heath do that role (who wouldn’t?) and it would have added more depth to that particular character. <\/p>\n

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2). The ever-thoughtful Farida sending me Eleanor Farjeon’s<\/strong><\/a> out-of-print Martin Pippin in the Daisy Field<\/em>. I finally get to read “Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep.” I wonder if it’ll move me like it does Farida<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n

3). Considering that most of my female friends of all beautiful shapes and sizes don’t like at least<\/em> one thing about their bodies, the lyrics (from Regina Spektor<\/strong><\/a>), “I’ve got a perfect body, though sometimes I forget \/ I’ve got a perfect body, ’cause my eyelashes catch my sweat.”<\/p>\n

4). I want this night-owl poster, which pretty much captures how I manage to get any content up at 7-Imp. And note at this post<\/strong><\/a> at bb-blog<\/em> that it says, “Black ink was mixed with coffee grind, making this poster a scratch n’ sniff.” AWESOME-NESS in many, many directions. Thanks to Sara<\/strong><\/a> for pointing it out to me:<\/p>\n

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5). Congratulations, Tanita!<\/font> (See here<\/strong><\/a>.)<\/p>\n

6). Watching some behind-the-scenes type of footage about the show Deadwood<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, which my husband and I are sort of wrapping up. (Sniff.) The show got so much attention for its rampant cursing, but I love hearing the actors talk about the impressive writing\/dialogue. It’s often just beautiful<\/em>, really. Or “serpentine,” as one actor put it, adding that it’s dialogue that he finds a pleasure to speak. Also: I decided—when I heard him say that—that if someone threw the Pivot Questionnaire at me today, “serpentine” would be my current favorite word, especially<\/em> in relation to language. <\/p>\n

7). Re-reading Emily Jenkins’<\/strong><\/a> Toys Go Out<\/strong><\/a><\/em> and Toy Dance Party<\/strong><\/a><\/em> aloud with my girls. We pause and laugh. A lot. Even after having heard it before. Tuk Tuk and the Chewing Society of North America and Frank, the washing machine: It’s funny, funny stuff. I wish she’d write a third. That would be specialness!<\/em> (as Plastic might put it). <\/p>\n

BONUS KICKS:<\/font><\/p>\n

* I really like the interview with Ed Spicer<\/strong><\/a>, a former Caldecott committee-member, over at 100 Scope Notes<\/em> — for many reasons (not because one of My Life’s Dreams is to be on a Caldecott committee, no sirree bob), but mostly because of when he talks about the importance of visual literacy:<\/p>\n

I think it is probably true to say that the Caldecott is the most difficult winner to predict because we do not value illustration as highly as we do words in our culture. One of my pet peeves as a first grade teacher is hearing families tell me not to send picture books home to read because the student is able to read chapter books. Implicit in this request is a devaluing of art. Young students, even excellent reading young students, need illustrations because while they may well indeed be able to read books without pictures, they also need to build comprehension skills. Picturing learning is a skill that is not innate. It is developed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* * Paterson<\/strong><\/a>!<\/p>\n

* * * Eisha, if she even reads this, might just kill<\/em> me, but check out these photos of acting we did in college (from our former theatre professor’s web site): Go here<\/strong><\/a> and scroll down to “The Shadow Box.” That’s me on the left with very big hair, playing an … ahem, lady of the night. And Eisha in the middle (not the old lady). I’m mostly sure we didn’t know WHAT we were doing playing folks over the age of 35 in our early 20s. (That’s also me a bit further down, playing Millie in William Inge’s Picnic<\/em> — such a great role to play and one of my favorites.)<\/p>\n

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

(Click to enlarge spread.) Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, a 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. I’m here once again on a Sunday to share art from a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1868","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\/1868","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}