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Yes, I’m cheating this morning. Usually, on the first Sunday of each month, I feature the work of a student illustrator or an illustrator otherwise new to the field. Well, I am<\/em> doing that today, featuring the debut illustrated title from Erin E. Stead<\/a><\/strong>, A Sick Day for Amos McGee<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (Roaring Brook, May 2010), written by her husband Philip C. Stead<\/a><\/strong>. But I’m totally cheating, because I featured Erin—in a post in which she talked about creating the artwork for this title—back in July of 2009<\/a><\/strong>. But, hey! It’s my blog, and I can do what I want, right? I flippin’ adore this book, so I invited Erin and Philip over again (Philip also visited 7-Imp<\/a><\/strong> in ’09) to talk a bit more about the book and show some more artwork, etc. <\/p>\n This is one of my very favorite picture books from 2010, as in: Move over, Jeff Newman<\/a><\/strong>. You have a bit of competition. (I love love love The Boys<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, Jeff’s 2010 title.) Erin tells us a bit below about the plot, and I want to get right to that. But suffice it to say that the book’s been met with all kinds of fabulous (well-deserved) reviews, including a starred review from Kirkus<\/em>: “Erin E. Stead\u2019s beautifully wrought woodblock prints and pencil work create almost painfully expressive characters…This gentle, ultimately warm story acknowledges the care and reciprocity behind all good friendships.”<\/em> Betsy Bird<\/a><\/strong> also gave it one of her detailed, thoughtful reviews (and adored it), which I promise you exists, but since her blog has moved, I’m having trouble accessing that link. <\/p>\n Anyway. I love Erin’s artwork. (Visit her blog<\/a><\/strong> to see even more.) I love Philip’s artwork, too. And I love Philip’s writing. This book is a real charmer. Let’s get right to Erin so that this post won’t be 7,777 yards long. I thank her and Philip for sharing (again) this morning: <\/p>\n Amos McGee<\/em> took a little over a year to make. When I started the art for the book, we were living in Brooklyn, New York. Since Amos works at the City Zoo, and since we were living in the big city, I thought we should take a field trip. So, off to the Central Park Zoo we went. <\/p>\n I took a lot of pictures that day, but I ended up barely using them. It was more important that I just looked around. I spent a lot of time with the penguins.<\/p>\n After the field trip, it was work as usual. Here are some examples of that work for the book. You\u2019ll have to excuse the images -\u2013 they are missing the type and are just the scans from my home. The real book looks a little more polished.<\/p>\n We now live in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We both started out in Michigan. Two years ago, we came back for what was supposed to be three weeks. But here we are still, working on our third year. We live and work in a 100-year-old barn across the street from a train station.<\/p>\n Here are a few pictures of our workspace.<\/p>\n Phil\u2019s desk is on the left; mine is on the right.<\/p>\n My desk.<\/p>\n Phil\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n Some studio friends. The pig with the ears is mine. The bear on the left is Phil\u2019s. The bear\u2019s name is Frederick, and he stars in Phil\u2019s next book, which will be out Spring 2011, Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat<\/em>. <\/p>\n A fun fact about this picture: I carved the stamp used to make the wallpaper pattern in the background of this collage. It\u2019s very convenient to have a trustworthy studiomate.<\/p>\n Philip is a philatelist (vocabulary word for the day) and has an extensive collection of boat stamps. He has started a blog in anticipation of the release of Jonathan<\/em> wherein he is putting up a new boat stamp from around the world everyday. You can see it at philipstead.blogspot.com<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s all for now. Thanks again for having us stop by!<\/p>\n A SICK DAY FOR AMOS MCGEE. Copyright \u00a9 2010 by Philip C. Stead. Illustrations \u00a9 2010 by Erin E. Stead. Published by Roaring Brook. All images here reproduced with permission of Erin and Philip Stead. All rights reserved.<\/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). Erin and Phil’s creative minds. <\/p>\n 2). Hanging out with my girls this week. Lots of kid birthday parties that ranged from the gluten-free-cupcake kind to the Sam’s-colas-with-Cheetos kind. Never boring. <\/p>\n 4). Discovering lots of new music, thanks to mixes my friends have made me. I needed new music in my life. <\/p>\n 5). I got to see my aunt and uncle (all the way from Maine) this week. <\/p>\n 6). I got to see my brother and his family this week. <\/p>\n 7). I got to see a good friend and catch one of the Nashville Public Library’s kickin’ story times, just like the old days. <\/p>\n BONUS: “Big Mama’s Door” by Alvin Youngblood Hart<\/a><\/strong>. If you go here<\/a><\/strong>, scroll down, and click on the song, you can hear a bit of it.<\/p>\nPhilip and I are very happy to be back at Seven Impossible Things. We were both here last summer -\u2013 Phil first for his writing and illustration<\/a><\/strong> and then me, Erin<\/a><\/strong>. Even though Phil is the writer in the family, for the most part today you\u2019ll be hearing from me. We\u2019re stopping by to talk a little bit about our new book, A Sick Day for Amos McGee<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. I first mentioned this book right here on this very blog last July<\/a><\/strong>, and it\u2019s finally hitting the shelves. The story is about Amos McGee, {pictured left} in the striped pajamas, who is a zookeeper. He works very hard every day and loves his animal friends (a tortoise, penguin, elephant, rhinoceros, and an owl) dearly. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/center><\/p>\n3). I finally purchased the Dave Rawlings Machine<\/a><\/strong> CD, which is most excellent and which I think came out at the end of last year. And I purchased it STRAIGHT FROM MY NEW iPOD, which was scarily easy. (I can see my credit card company smiling.)<\/p>\n