{"id":1921,"date":"2010-04-13T00:01:59","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T06:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1921"},"modified":"2010-04-13T00:02:01","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T06:02:01","slug":"so-what-do-you-call-a-pack-of-chimeras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1921","title":{"rendered":"So, What Do<\/em> You Call a Pack of Chimeras?*"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“A dazzlement of Quetzalcoatls \/ An arch of rainbow snakes”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge.)<\/center><\/p>\n

I’m making a quick art stop this morning to show you some spreads from the beautiful new picture book from Jacqueline K. Ogburn<\/a><\/strong> and Italian illustrator Nicoletta Ceccoli<\/a><\/strong>, titled A Dignity of Dragons: Collective Nouns for Magical Beasts<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, to be released next month by Houghton Mifflin. I’ve got an early copy and contacted Nicoletta about sharing some art from it. (You may remember that she visited 7-Imp in 2008<\/a><\/strong>, and in fact, she shared in that post some spreads from this book, telling me at that time that the book was an interesting theme for her.)<\/p>\n

The book is exactly what the sub-title tells you, a collection of clever, evocative terms Ogburn conjured up for over thirty magical beings — from kirin (“a judgment of”) to were-jaguars (“a slinking of”) to minotaurs (“an amazement of”) to thunderbirds (“a storm of”) to just about everything else under, over, around, and in between. Ceccoli’s art gives the book a dream-like, ethereal feel. Here’s the cover art: <\/p>\n

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Kirkus<\/em> wrote about the title:<\/p>\n

Every figure is pretty, but the illustrator staves off preciosity by injecting plenty of drama into her compositions — like a scary “riddle of sphinx” gazing down clinically on a small pilgrim or a ship of ancient design being attacked simultaneously by a “vengeance of harpies,” a “tangle of gorgons” and a (bare-breasted) “chord of sirens.” Enthralling fare for addicts of myth and fantasy…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The book closes with notes on each magical creature and—my favorite part—opens with a quote from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass<\/em>: “‘Well, now that we have seen each other,’ said the Unicorn, ‘if you’ll believe in me, I’ll believe in you. Is that a bargain?'”<\/p>\n

“The publisher initially was not sure if I would fit…this text, as I {have} always illustrated…kinder and sweeter stories,” Nicoletta told me. “But I always loved monsters…Thanks to Kate O’Sullivan and Cara Llewyllyn for their direction on this book and for the chance they gave me. It was a pleasure to work on it with them.”<\/p>\n

A gorgeous book. Here’s some more art from it (with the text not included). Enjoy, and thanks again to Nicoletta for sharing…<\/p>\n

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“A flame of feng hwangs \/ A resurrection of phoenix \/ A flash of firebirds”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge.)<\/center><\/p>\n

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“An avalanche of abominable snowmen \/ A flurry of yetis \/ A thicket of Bigfoots”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge.)<\/center><\/p>\n

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“A storm of thunderbirds \/ A thundering of rocs”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge.)<\/center><\/p>\n

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More of the cover art, “an initial test,” Nicoletta told me.
“I was then required to brighten the background colouration.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge.)<\/center><\/p>\n

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

A DIGNITY OF DRAGONS: COLLECTIVE NOUNS FOR MAGICAL BEASTS by Jacqueline K. Ogburn, illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli \u00a9 2010. Published by Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA. Spreads used with permission of illustrator. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

* Answer: A “confusion of chimeras.” But of course. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“A dazzlement of Quetzalcoatls \/ An arch of rainbow snakes”(Click to enlarge.) I’m making a quick art stop this morning to show you some spreads from the beautiful new picture book from Jacqueline K. Ogburn and Italian illustrator Nicoletta Ceccoli, titled A Dignity of Dragons: Collective Nouns for Magical Beasts, to be released next month […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921","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=1921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}