{"id":1946,"date":"2010-05-30T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2010-05-30T06:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1946"},"modified":"2010-05-30T10:04:58","modified_gmt":"2010-05-30T16:04:58","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-169-featuring-don-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1946","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #169: Featuring Don Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“While he was visiting one office near a railroad station, the three-year-old son of the telegraph operator wandered onto the track and into the path of a freight train.
Brave Tom dashed to the boy, scooped him up, and dove clear.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/center><\/p>\n

This morning, I’m highlighting a nonfiction title from author\/illustrator Don Brown<\/a><\/strong>, who visited 7-Imp in ’09<\/a><\/strong>. This, his latest title, tells the boyhood story of Thomas Edison, “{c}lever Tom, energetic Tom, brave Tom, hard-working Tom, curious Tom…” A Wizard from the Start: The Incredible Boyhood & Amazing Inventions of Thomas Edison<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, released by Houghton Mifflin early this month, captures the curious, energetic spirit of the young Edison and ultimately takes us to the grown man, who is to have said, even though he brought the world a total of 1,093 patents, “I never did a day’s work in my life. It was all fun.” Always engaging, the book is filled with fascinating anecdotes about Edison’s life, and Brown’s watercolors, loose lines, and subtle palette (this one is particularly—and beautifully—light-infused) manage to express so much with such simplicity. <\/p>\n

Pictured below are the cover, a couple more spreads, and some early sketches and the book’s thumbnail sketches from Don. I thank Don for sharing his art work this morning. Enjoy.<\/p>\n

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“He read history and philosophy books. He read books on mechanics, electricity, and chemistry. They inspired Tom to make a laboratory in the Edisons’ cellar.
With a pal, he experimented with acids and chemicals.
Poor Mrs. Edison worried that they would ‘blow [their] heads off.'”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/center><\/p>\n

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“Then, in 1879, Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb. No longer would flickering candles or the wicks of whale oil and gas lamps light the world by fire. Instead, the ‘little globe of sunshine’ would brighten people’s lives.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/center><\/p>\n


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Sketch detail: “Most days, waiting in Detroit for the return ride home, Tom visited the public library. He’d start at the first book on a bottom shelf and read one after another until it was time to move to the next shelf.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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Early sketch: “Mastering the key and making sense of the clicking messages were the hard-won skills of telegraph operators. People admired them for their smart, modern jobs, and Tom longed to be one. He haunted telegraph offices
and collected bits of know-how.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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A WIZARD FROM THE START. Copyright \u00a9 2010 by Don Brown. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All images here reproduced with permission of Don Brown. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/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. New folks are always welcome. <\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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1). This is a belated kick: A new mixed CD from Eisha. Her mixes are always so good that I feel as if I should pay<\/em> her for them. <\/p>\n

2). My oldest wrapped up Kindergarten this week. Everyone told me it would fly by, and—for some reason—it didn’t feel like that to me. But it’s still hard to wrap my head around the fact that she’ll be a first-grader soon. <\/p>\n

3). Last week, I got a beautiful gift from a friend, an original picture book illustration that is so beautiful I can hardly take it in. I seriously need a framing fund. <\/p>\n

4). Yesterday, my girls and I got to visit someone who is clearly one of the world’s most fabulous teachers (second-grade teacher at a private school in Nashville). She also reviews for the Horn Book<\/em> and is an all-around dynamo children’s lit enthusiast. Got to see her classroom, the school’s library, and see her lovely home, filled with picture books and picture book art, so you know I was comfy and happy. <\/p>\n

5). How Natalie Merchant<\/a><\/strong> decided to make Ogden Nash’s “The Adventures of Isabel”<\/a><\/strong> a bluegrass number on her latest CD. I have a big ‘ol crush on that song. Also, the first song, “Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience”<\/a><\/strong> gives me golf-ball-sized chills every time I hear it, and the closing orchestration on it SLAYS ME. <\/p>\n

6). I saw this movie<\/a><\/strong> this week with a friend. Fine, fine acting, though very hard to watch in spots. <\/p>\n

I think that’s about it. How about you all on this holiday weekend? What are your kicks?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“While he was visiting one office near a railroad station, the three-year-old son of the telegraph operator wandered onto the track and into the path of a freight train.Brave Tom dashed to the boy, scooped him up, and dove clear.”(Click to enlarge spread.) This morning, I’m highlighting a nonfiction title from author\/illustrator Don Brown, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,26,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-nonfiction","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946","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=1946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}