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Well, as I indicated in Sunday’s post<\/a><\/strong>, I was away and offline all last week, so having blog posts ready this week—though I have a ton of stuff planned, as you’ll see in a moment—is tough, since I had no time last week to compose posts, format images, etc. But I’m going to tide you over today with some illustrations from Elisa Kleven’s<\/a><\/strong> latest picture book title. <\/p>\n As is always the case with Elisa’s titles, this exudes joy. I asked Elisa if she could please share some spreads from it… <\/p>\n Now, I share this art this morning in the wake of Julie Bosman’s New York Times<\/em> article<\/a><\/strong> on picture books that I briefly mentioned<\/a><\/strong> on Sunday and folks are still<\/em> talking about. I do think the cause-for-concern in the air is valid in that, for instance, as a school librarian (though not currently in a library), I hear a lot of parents pushing their children toward chapter books at ages when picture books can still be enjoyed. It goes without saying, though, that I’m a picture book nerd with a blog that has changed over the years but now primarily focuses on picture books and illustrations, and I find picture books to be a fascinating art form for any age. Nevertheless, this pushing young children away from what they consider “babyish” picture books is maddening. It happens. As I said, I may not currently be in a school library, but I see parents at my daughter’s school do it, too. <\/p>\n But do I also think the NYT<\/em> over-reacted a bit? Yes. As Betsy Bird pointed out in her post yesterday<\/a><\/strong>, Pat Cummings<\/a><\/strong> recently stated that for years<\/em> folks have been saying the picture book is dying. Betsy also points to scholar Philip Nel’s wonderful post<\/a><\/strong> on the matter, in which he states:<\/p>\n The lack of attention paid to picture books\u2019 artists is just a symptom of our culture\u2019s tendency to dismiss illustration as less serious than writing… Those of us who study, teach, or write picture books are used to hearing such ignorant remarks. The thought that such misinformed people were harming something we love \u2014 the picture book \u2014 made us upset.<\/p>\n A picture book is a portable art gallery. It\u2019s also an intricate dance between pictures and words, in which \u2014 though neither leads, and neither follows \u2014 no step is out of place, no dancers trip. A picture book can of course also be wordless, such as Istvan Banyai\u2019s Zoom<\/em> or Jerry Pinkney\u2019s The Lion and the Mouse<\/em>. But for most picture books, pictures and words have an interdependent relationship. The pictures do not simply \u201cillustrate\u201d the words, and nor do the words \u201cname\u201d the pictures. They work together, often in a creative tension with one another, to make meaning.<\/p>\n I could be mistaken, but I\u2019m skeptical of the claim that the picture book is in peril. Indeed, I think we are living in a golden age of picture books.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Hoo boy! And amen to that, I say. <\/p>\n And this all leads to my point, which I oh-so briefly made on Sunday: Let’s just keep on keepin’ on. I’m going to keep talking about picture books and illustrators and sharing lots of art, and I hope you’ll keep reading. ‘Cause picture books, as author Denise Doyen<\/a><\/strong> pointed out in a comment on Sunday<\/a><\/strong>, is “necessary brain food” for children, but—best of all—“{c}hildhood is meant for snuggling in bed with your Mommy or Daddy and a stack of good picture books!” Why, yes, it is. So, the fact that it’s good for the wee brains of the world is great, but even better is that it is an art form like no other that is a joy to share with budding minds. As The One and Only Sendak once wrote, <\/p>\n {t}he picture book is a peculiar art form that thrives on genius, intuition, daring, and a meticulous attention to its history and its various, complex components. The picture book is a picture puzzle, badly misunderstood by critics and condescended to by far too many as merely a trifle for ‘the kiddies.’ Children are routinely patronized, and thus so are we who spend our creative lives entertaining them and nourishing their spirit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Let’s keep our heads up and keep runnin’ our mouths about picture books. Whaddya say? <\/p>\n On that note, here are just a few of the things I’m working on — as a bit of a preview and in my attempt to convince some mad scientist out there to create more hours for my day:<\/p>\n Hang in there, folks. I’ll get to it all soon. In the meantime, I’ll see you at the picture book shelves…<\/font><\/p>\n WELCOME HOME, MOUSE. Copyright \u00a9 2010 by Elisa Kleven. Published by Tricycle Press, New York.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Click to enlarge illustration.) Well, as I indicated in Sunday’s post, I was away and offline all last week, so having blog posts ready this week—though I have a ton of stuff planned, as you’ll see in a moment—is tough, since I had no time last week to compose posts, format images, etc. But I’m […]<\/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-2008","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\/2008","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=2008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/whm.JPG\")
As you can see at this page<\/a><\/strong> of 7-Imp, where I archive all illustrator or author\/illustrator visits of any kind, Elisa’s visited many times, because this blog is, for all intents and purposes, a fan site, and I’m the nerdiest of all fans of her work. (Her 2008 interview<\/a><\/strong> is still one of my favorites.) The book is Welcome Home, Mouse<\/a><\/strong><\/em>—a fitting post as I return from some time away from my own home—and it was released at the end of last month by Tricycle Press. In their starred review, Kirkus<\/em> wrote, “Every word and brush stroke is spot-on in this luminous celebration of creativity, conservation and compassion,” which tells the story of Stanley, who loves to help but isn’t always so physically graceful about it. While running errands for his mom one day, he bounces his ball right on top of Mouse\u2019s house, smashing it “to bits and pieces.” But Stanley makes up for his mistake by creating the Mouse her own brand-new home out of bits and pieces of items he sees while he’s out. And that’s all I’ll say, ’cause if you pick up a copy of this yourself, its wonders can then unfold for you. <\/p>\n<\/a>
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‘But I want to help,’ Stanley said.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge.)<\/center><\/p>\n<\/a>
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(Click to enlarge.)<\/center><\/p>\n\n
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