{"id":1892,"date":"2010-02-21T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2010-02-21T06:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1892"},"modified":"2013-01-28T22:18:39","modified_gmt":"2013-01-29T04:18:39","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-155-featuring-paul-schmid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1892","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #155: Featuring Paul Schmid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone else see this review<\/a><\/strong> over at A Year of Reading<\/em>? That’s Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s<\/a><\/strong> latest title, published by HarperCollins last month and illustrated by Paul Schmid<\/strong><\/a>. It’s called The Wonder Book<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, and it’s…well, a little wonder, to be precise about it. I love children’s books that do word play well (as it’s ever-so easy to screw up), and this is one. I’m happy to feature Paul this morning, who is making his debut in picture books with this title. Amy says—in that video you see linked in Franki’s post—that Paul’s illustrations perfectly “capture the essence and flavor of this book. It’s almost as if his style was created for this book. I cannot imagine The Wonder Book<\/em> looking any other way.” Score. <\/p>\n

The Wonder Book<\/em>, which—as the publisher likes to point out—is tremendously browse-able, has poems, lists, (clever, as already mentioned) word play, the less famous friends of Mary Mack, Prince sdrawkcaB (a poem actually best read backwards, as in last line first and first line last), palindromes (including the “Too bad I hid a boot” Paul shares below), half-birthday celebrations, a dinosaur with a killer vocabulary (Tyrannothesaurus Rex, who talks everyone to death), a word play in four acts, some moments of clarification, a Rhyming Summary of the Universe, and lots and lots of wonderings. To be opened and read in any spot you’d like, as noted, it’s actually a good title for a lazy, wondering Sunday morning, I have to say. Publishers Weekly<\/em> has already noted the “Silversteinian effect” of the book, in case your brain is also yelling WHEE! WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS!<\/em>, as mine was when I first saw the book. <\/p>\n

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Paul, pictured below (just above my kicks), is here this morning to tell us briefly how he came to picture books and to share some art. I thank him for stopping by. <\/p>\n

“<\/font>I studied at the American Academy of Art<\/strong><\/a> in Chicago, a wonderful school for traditional art training. Lots of figure drawing. Afterwards, I began working as an advertising art director, somewhat blindly following in the footsteps of my dad and grandfather. I had some pretty good clients (Harley Davidson Motorcycles), but an art director is someone who hires other people to do the fun stuff like illustration, and I found I preferred to get my hands dirty. I left agency work and, after wandering a bit around Asia and the Canadian Rockies one summer, I settled in Seattle and began illustrating. Mostly in pastel, which did keep my hands messy.<\/p>\n

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After a few in-house gigs at <\/em>The Seattle Times newspaper, I was hired as a full-time staff artist and enjoyed more than a dozen years court-room sketching terrorists and bank robbers, banging out celebrity portraits and feature illustrations at manic speed, and even writing occasional travel stories centered around my hobby of plein-air landscape painting. It was fast, fun, and conceptual work. But the sad decline of newspapers meant less and less opportunities, so eventually it was time to move on.<\/p>\n

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I had sent some of my personal art work for kids to the Sandra Dijkstra agency<\/strong><\/a> some years before and snagged the interest of a young whippersnapper named Steven Malk<\/a><\/strong>. In about a couple of weeks, that go-getter landed me a commission for a Christmas book. But timing is everything, and this time it couldn\u2019t have been worse. My wife had just left her job to do the mom thing with our infant daughter. You can\u2019t raise a family on a first-timer’s advance (insurance, anyone?), so I reluctantly gave up the book. Steve, however, would give me a call every few years to see if my circumstances had altered, and after an eleven-year wait they did. We teamed up again, and the fabulous editor Maria Modugno at HarperCollins sent <\/em>The Wonder Book my way.<\/p>\n


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It was just the thing for me. Amy Krouse Rosenthal left little or no directions for the visuals, so I had free reign to get as wild as I wanted, and ended up with a huge stack of ideas and sketches. Pure fun.<\/p>\n

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As a kid, I remember coming upon my dad\u2019s stash of Ronald Searle\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> St. Trinian\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> saga, while also being speechlessly in awe of Robert Lawson\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> pen and inks for <\/em>The Story of Ferdinand<\/a><\/strong>, so the prospect of illustrating the book in black and white was thrilling for me.<\/p>\n


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{These are} perhaps my favorites from <\/em>The Wonder Book. <\/p>\n

I think kids love to linger over book art, and that doesn\u2019t always mean more detail; concept works well, too. If they don\u2019t see the gag right away, all the better!<\/p>\n

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Here is an outtake from <\/em>The Wonder Book. An enthusiastic little porcupine I named Percy. It was originally a stand-alone gag, but the more I looked at poor Percy and imagined his disappointment when his quills ruined his fun with the balloon, the more I felt compelled to help him out. The result was my first written manuscript for a kid\u2019s picture book, <\/em>Percy\u2019s Big Idea, which should be printed in 2012 or so.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s Percy thinking about things.<\/p>\n

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Percy begat Pearl. I was scribbling away furiously on Percy\u2019s story, and as such was seeing porcupines in everything. As I was picking my daughter up from school one day, I glanced over to see one of her classmates hugging all her friends goodbye. I actually heard a voice in my head say: \u201cThat\u2019d be tough for her to do if she were a porcupine,\u201d and Pearl\u2019s story was born. Pearl is sweet, Pearl likes to hug, but Pearl is a porcupine. She is determined not to let her handicap get in the way, so she endeavors to find a solution.<\/p>\n

I have a deep regard for kids; I think they are more tuned in to their happiness than adults. They\u2019re optimistic, inventive, resourceful, and determined. All qualities I wish I had more of.<\/p>\n


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<\/em>A Pet For Petunia will be the first of my stories to be published. The plot of <\/em>Petunia is modeled after the relentless campaigns for various oddball pets waged by my own daughter, Anna. (We settled on two rats and a Leopard Gecko. So far.) When Petunia sets her heart on a pet skunk, she encounters resistance by her stubborn, myopic, unreasonable, booby-headed parents and decides to takes matters into her own hands. I just finished the art for that book, and it will be out around January of 2011.<\/p>\n

I had no idea I could write, so Harper\u2019s intention to publish four of my stories has been a terrific surprise.<\/em>“<\/font><\/p>\n

Here’s<\/strong><\/a> a peek inside Paul’s studio. His “inspiration wall” includes a note which I am pretty sure says “creativity is subversive.” Well, there you go. I like that. <\/p>\n

Thanks again to Paul. Here’s to Percy, Pearl, and Petunia and their forthcoming adventures, and I look forward to seeing more Paul-art in the future…To keep up with Paul’s work, visit his website<\/strong><\/a> or his blog<\/a><\/strong>. (Speaking of his blog, I love tip #6 of his daughter’s writing advice<\/strong><\/a>.)<\/p>\n

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As a reminder, 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks is 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

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

I’m trying to recover, as I type here on Saturday night, from having had a lovely and hugely huge dinner with a friend who came over to visit and let us feed him belated birthday cupcakes. I love having people over and feeding them chocolate. With sprinkles. I guess that’s kick #1. <\/p>\n

2). Well now, for some reason I had it in my head that (500) Days of Summer<\/em><\/strong><\/a> had gotten bad reviews all-around or something altogether incorrect like that. So, when my husband and I watched it this week, I was surprised at how much I liked it. And I bet the soundtrack is great, too, as it’s sure to involve The Smiths. THE SMITHS!<\/p>\n

3). This afternoon, my daughters were playing with the neighbor. They played princesses. The neighbor was the princess first and insisted on pretending to be stuck in a castle so that the prince can save her. Then, it was my kindergartener’s turn. From the next room, I heard her say, “I don’t want to be a princess who waits on some guy to save her.” While the neighbor argued in utter confusion, I was in the kitchen doing a fist pump, jumping up and down, and mouthing, ATTAGIRL!<\/p>\n

4). My husband found this old footage online<\/strong><\/a> of Prince rehearsing in the early ’80s. Looks like a lot of videos got removed, but what matters is that “When the Doves Cry” is still on there. If you’re making fun of that song as you read this, please do so behind my back, as I really do still adore that song so very, very much. <\/p>\n

5). My daughter wrote in a card for one of her classmates on her birthday: “I love you and it will never stop.”<\/p>\n

6). Stumbling upon Bunny Days<\/a><\/em><\/strong> by Tao Nyeu<\/a><\/strong> in a bookstore, reading it with my girls, and laughing so hard that we got funny looks. More on this later. I think Tao will stop by for a breakfast interview. <\/p>\n

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7). I am generally disorganized and haven’t responded to this publicly at 7-Imp and picked my own favorites and so on and so on, but this<\/a><\/strong> was nice to see and I thank Jenny for it. I am in such good company there. I hardly feel “prolific,” but perhaps I’m fooling everyone. <\/p>\n

BONUS #1: Go, Betsy, go!<\/strong><\/a> Forbes<\/em>, dude. FORBES.<\/p>\n

BONUS #2: Oliver Jeffers<\/a><\/strong> is one of My Bests, and I was happy to stumble upon this. He should be stopping by for an interview, too. Fingers crossed:<\/p>\n

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

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What are YOUR kicks this week? How is everyone? I’m behind on my blog-reading. Boo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone else see this review over at A Year of Reading? That’s Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s latest title, published by HarperCollins last month and illustrated by Paul Schmid. It’s called The Wonder Book, and it’s…well, a little wonder, to be precise about it. I love children’s books that do word play well (as it’s ever-so easy […]<\/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-1892","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\/1892","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=1892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1892\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}