<\/p>\n
I admit that I sometimes envision what it would be like to be the kind of picture-book blogger who just flings up images of spreads from books without any kind of book summary or extended thoughts ‘n’ ramblings about why I like<\/em> said books. It would be easier and less time-consuming that way. I could even do way<\/em> more posts if all I’m showing is art. But I just can’t do that. I feel like I owe my blog readers at least a little bit more than just pasting images. <\/p>\n It’s about friendship (a dog and his favorite ball) and loss (ball gets busted by large, over-enthusiastic dog in park) and how a friend can comfort you when you feel such loss (little girl pet-owner pets sad dog, whose red ball is kaput and who is way past the aggle flabble klabble stage and is merely just lying drained on the couch). And how one can make up for such sadness (overenthusiastic dog and his pet owner bring a new blue ball* the next day to the sad dog). <\/p>\n See, if anyone’s gonna tell such a story which, on the surface, involves merely a dog and a ball and make you feel<\/em> something, Raschka can. I even got fairly verklempt for a moment, in spite of myself. It’s downright moving — and told with such seeming simplicity. And it’s all wordless. <\/p>\n So, that’s not very detailed, but …hey… if you get a library or bookstore copy for yourself anyway, you won’t feel let down. Well, I realize Raschka’s art is not for everyone—whose artwork is?—but I give this title the thumbs-up anyway. For what that’s worth. <\/p>\n Here are some spreads. Click each to enlarge. Enjoy. And see you later this week after I’ve gotten some sleep. <\/p>\n (* Yes, the new ball in the spread below is green, not blue. I suppose the publisher sent me spreads that were created before the final art, as other things like the girls’ dress colors in that particular spread are also different. But you can still get the general idea here.)<\/p>\n A BALL FOR DAISY. Copyright \u00a9 2011 by Chris Raschka. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Schwartz & Wade, New York, NY.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I admit that I sometimes envision what it would be like to be the kind of picture-book blogger who just flings up images of spreads from books without any kind of book summary or extended thoughts ‘n’ ramblings about why I like said books. It would be easier and less time-consuming that way. I could […]<\/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-2149","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\/2149","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=2149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/aballfordaisycover.JPG\")
That said, though, it’s late as I type this, yet I want to show you some spreads. So, I shall. And, since it’s past my bed time, all I will say is that a) these are from Chris Raschka’s May title from Schwartz & Wade, called A Ball for Daisy<\/a><\/strong><\/em>; b) as I’ve already made clear numerous times here at the blog (most notably in my 2009 interview<\/a><\/strong> with him, but also note this post’s title), I’m a raging fan of Raschka’s minimalist, vigorously-stroked artwork; and c) I really like this book. <\/p>\n<\/a>
\n<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n