{"id":2013,"date":"2010-10-24T00:01:22","date_gmt":"2010-10-24T06:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2013"},"modified":"2010-10-24T09:16:42","modified_gmt":"2010-10-24T15:16:42","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-190-featuring-laurie-keller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2013","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #190: Featuring Laurie Keller"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I have so many picture books I want to post about here lately and not enough hours in the day. And I’m sitting on lots of art and several interviews and lots of features and such, but I simply have<\/em> to post about Laurie Keller’s<\/a><\/strong> newest title today in celebration of the fact that she’ll be at a local bookstore tomorrow, and I’ll get to meet her. In person, that is. I cyber-met her in early 2009<\/a><\/strong>, and I immediately liked her. I knew I liked her books, but then she had to up and tell me about her adoration for Waiting for Guffman<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, what is quite possibly The Funniest Movie of All Time in my book (but maybe only tied with This Is Spinal Tap<\/a><\/strong><\/em>), so there you go. I liked her even more. <\/p>\n

Good thing I love her new picture book title, too, so that I had a great excuse to ask her to visit again. Now, let me just say: As has probably already been made clear before here at 7-Imp (repeatedly), I have a somewhat dark sense of humor and I’m also just a contrarian at heart. Can’t help it. So, a book about smiling? Well, it’d normally want to make me punch something. Most likely. But only Laurie Keller could make one that would make me laugh outloud. And fall hard and fast for. <\/p>\n

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Meet Birdy. This is her book<\/a><\/strong> (Henry Holt, September 2010). She likes to smile, and she wants to tell you all about smiling. And encourage you to do so. Well, I’ll let her introduce herself…<\/p>\n

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“Hi! I’m Birdy<\/font> and this is my dog, French Fry<\/font>.”<\/em>
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I can hear you now: She’s going to encourage me to smile? This will just make me feel stabby, Jules.<\/em> But let me challenge you: Get this book and try NOT to fall hard for Birdy. Laurie is up to her usual smart tricks in this new title: Humor that manages to come across as both outloud-goofy and<\/em> subtle at just the right moments (it’s little moments like Troy McSwooney and<\/em> Birdy’s friend, Pearl, and<\/em> her fist-bumps with the world that get me laughing); exuberant and colorful cartoon illustrations, rife with little details (and puns) you don’t want to miss and her spot-on, ballon-speak dialogue; and her warm, leap-off-the-page characters, full of life. The New York Times<\/em> once referenced her “goofball genius” in their review of Arnie the Doughnut<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, and Kirkus once described her illustrations as “frenetic {and} postmodern.” Let’s be clear: There is no narrative thread here, but Keller didn’t intend that. It’s just as Publishers Weekly<\/em> wrote: This is a “cheerful advice manual,” and our “redheaded optimist explains her philosophy. ‘I think the first person you see each day should look happy to see you,'” as we see Birdy staring in the mirror. Damn skippy, I say. <\/p>\n

Laurie is sharing some spreads from the book this morning, as well as some early sketches, so I’m going to let her art speak for itself. <\/p>\n

No worries: If you’re not smiling yet, her art will make you. (I myself can’t smile in the mornings till I’ve got coffee cup in hand.) <\/p>\n

And did I mention the book closes with a mirror on the final page for you to practice your own smile? Just try<\/em> to pry the book out of a child’s hands then.<\/p>\n

{Note: To see the full spreads from which the illustrations come, click on each.}<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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Some more of Laurie’s sketches: Click to enlarge each…<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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BIRDY’S SMILE BOOK. Copyright \u00a9 2010 by Laurie Keller. Published by Henry Holt, New York. Illustrations and sketches reproduced by permission of Keller.<\/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. <\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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1). Lunch, coffee, baklava, and warm hospitality from a friend early this week, complete with lots of good picture book discussions, as we’re both hopeless picture book nerds. <\/p>\n

2). Purchasing a copy of my friend’s<\/a><\/strong> new CD and seeing that she thanked me in the CD insert. What a happy surprise. <\/p>\n

3). Belated birthday cake with said friend. Hey, I might be over a month late, but I won’t forget the birthdays of my people. (To my credit, I was late in delivering cake, because everyone in my family kept getting sick. It’s better to celebrate one’s birthday all month anyway.)<\/p>\n

4). Author\/illustrator Sergio Ruzzier<\/a><\/strong> (whom I interviewed here<\/a><\/strong> in ’08) has asked folks<\/a><\/strong> for their top-ten favorite picture books. When he emailed me, I instantly got excited by the challenge, though it was difficult for me to narrow to ten. He has already posted Matthew Cordell’s<\/a><\/strong> list here<\/a><\/strong>. I love these kinds of discussions. <\/p>\n

5). AND…these<\/a><\/strong> kinds of discussions. Those are students of children’s lit at Vanderbilt, discussing books. I love it, especially since what I’d love to do one day is teach children’s lit like that — to the folks who will be going out into the world to educate our children and putting books in their hands. <\/p>\n

6). A very fun gift in the mail, which includes more picture book art for my walls. I need a framing fund. (But I’m hardly complaining. This is a good problem to have in life.)<\/p>\n

7). Lots of my friends right now are either pregnant or having babies. Is it something in the water, as they say? But all these babies are happy and healthy and beautiful, as are the parents. This is kick-worthy, indeed. <\/p>\n

BONUS:<\/font> Congratulations to the Society of Illustrators’ award recipients in the category of 2010 Original Art. Remember this post<\/a><\/strong>? (Hint: See book cover pictured above.) This year’s gold medal winner, Renata Liwska, was recognized for her illustrations in The Quiet Book<\/em>. I whole-heartedly agree with this decision! Here’s<\/a><\/strong> more info on the awards (Celebrating the Fine Art of Children’s Book Illustration). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Click to enlarge.) I have so many picture books I want to post about here lately and not enough hours in the day. And I’m sitting on lots of art and several interviews and lots of features and such, but I simply have to post about Laurie Keller’s newest title today in celebration of the […]<\/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-2013","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\/2013","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=2013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}