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Never had he seen such a wonderful sight…”<\/em>
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I’ve got a couple of spreads to share this morning from the 50th anniversary edition of author\/illustrator Michael Foreman’s<\/a><\/strong> first illustrated title, The General<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (published by Templar Books). And that’s ’cause I adore Foreman’s work and oh heavens why wouldn’t I take any and every opportunity to feature him? <\/p>\n And that’s about it. Sure, it’s what a lot of folks would call a naive tale, as war is never an uncomplicated thing, but most of these picture books about war for very young child readers are such. (Think Davide Cali’s<\/a><\/strong> and Serge Bloch’s<\/a><\/strong> The Enemy: A Book about Peace<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.) The point, very obviously, as the publisher likes to point out, is that it’s a “celebration of peace and beauty,” a nudge to child readers to consider how hard we humans stomp, so to speak, on the earth. And that, ultimately, is a good thing. <\/p>\n Fans of Foreman will be pleased to see his art in action in this, his first published title. In fact, a fascinating note from the publisher at the book’s close notes:<\/p>\n One frightful night while a three-year-old Michael lay fast asleep, a bomb came crashing through his bedroom ceiling—this is his first memory. The bomb missed him by a few inches, bounced on the floor, hit the wall, and then dropped into the fireplace, where it exploded up the chimney. When the war ended, Michael looked forward to a world of peace, but unfortunately his teenage years were lived under the threat of nuclear war. In creating their first book…Janet and Michael wanted to produce a fun and lively story that encouraged a sympathetic outlook on the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And it is utterly fascinating to illustration junkies such as myself to see this, his early work, and compare it to, say, this<\/a><\/strong> (his later work). I was surprised at the very sort of John-Burningham<\/a><\/strong> vibe in this early work of his. <\/p>\n Here’s another spread for you so that you can see it for yourself and don’t have to take my ramblings for it:<\/p>\n THE GENERAL. Text copyright \u00a9 1961 by Janet Charters. Reprint \u00a9 2010 by Janet Abis. Illustration \u00a9 1961 by Michael Foreman. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Templar Books, an imprint of Candlewick Press.<\/em><\/p>\n 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. New folks are always welcome. <\/p>\n 1). Finally getting a compost bin. Do you even know how long I’ve wanted to do this? <\/p>\n 3). A new song from Sam<\/a><\/strong> this week, a bonus track that comes from the EP pictured here. It is exquisite and spreads joy. Both the song and the EP, that is. <\/p>\n 3\u00bd). As I’m typing this, I’m listening to Sam’s “Fan Dance” at the mp3 player at her site. This is ONLY MY FAVORITE SONG IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD. <\/p>\n 4). The B-52s.<\/p>\n 5). Finally making a bit of progress on some writing. <\/p>\n 6). A great evening with a good friend on her back deck on a chilly spring evening with a fire in her chiminea (MY GOD, ALL THOSE PREPOSITIONS) and sharing a bottle of wine and just talking—and sharing good music—till about midnight. And a great phone conversation with a great long-distance friend, too. <\/p>\n 7). Sunshine. <\/p>\n BONUS!:<\/font> First, if you haven’t seen this post<\/a><\/strong> about the Guys Lit Wire<\/em> and Operation Teen Book Drop event for Navajo and Apache teens, then by all means, head over there. <\/p>\n Secondly, there is so much poetry goodness going on at various and sundry blogs this month for National Poetry Month. Too many to name, but the bottom of this post<\/a><\/strong> over at A Year of Reading<\/em> names the ones I’m doing my best to follow (such as, Jama<\/a><\/strong>, Tricia<\/a><\/strong>, Jone<\/a><\/strong>, Greg<\/a><\/strong>, Andi<\/strong><\/a>, Kelly<\/a><\/strong>—not to mention A Year of Reading<\/em>, too—and many more. See. I named some of them anyway. Don’t ever believe me when I say I’m not going to do something.)<\/p>\n What are YOUR<\/font> kicks this week? Anyone around? If it’s quiet today—’cause you’re all suffering Spring Fever and feeling very ADHD and jumping around outside, as I am—then I’ll understand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “…All at once the general came upon a field of beautiful flowers.Never had he seen such a wonderful sight…”(Click to enlarge spread.) I’ve got a couple of spreads to share this morning from the 50th anniversary edition of author\/illustrator Michael Foreman’s first illustrated title, The General (published by Templar Books). And that’s ’cause I adore […]<\/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-1919","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\/1919","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=1919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The General<\/em>, written by Janet Charters (this was also her<\/em> first book), was originally published in the U.K. in 1961. It’s the very simple tale of a military general, General Jodhpur, who strives to be the most famous and well-respected general in all the world, but who falls off his horse one day, lands on some soft grass, takes some time to lay back in the warm sunshine, and then has a grand epiphany about how he’d never really taken time to notice things like flowers and bees before. As a result, he proclaims to his army that, instead of longing for the day when “he and his army would be so famous that a book would be written about them,” they need to “never harm or frighten anything again…I will try to help the animals and tend the flowers and plants and all other things that grow.” He even goes so far as to tell the soldiers to leave the army and return to their homes and jobs. Farmers plow fields and sow seeds, the fishermen head out to sea, and the army camp is turned into a “lovely city with shops and schools…{with} parks where children could play” (a spread whose illustration adorns the book’s cover if you think to remove the dustjacket). Eventually, the general is praised for having made his country the most beautiful in the world. <\/p>\n<\/a>
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