{"id":2183,"date":"2011-08-06T19:01:34","date_gmt":"2011-08-07T01:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2183"},"modified":"2011-08-08T11:49:26","modified_gmt":"2011-08-08T17:49:26","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-231-featuring-maria-zaikinanot-to-mention-will-you-join-me-in-celebrating-7-imps-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2183","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #231: Featuring Maria Zaikina
(Not to Mention Will You Join Me in Celebrating 7-Imp’s Birthday?<\/font>)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It’s the first Sunday of August (whoa, it feels like just yesterday I said that for January 2011), so it’s time to shine the spotlight on a student or new-to-the-field illustrator. And I’m doing the latter today — not a student, but an artist whose first illustrated picture book was just released this year (the only picture book this year, I can safely say, in which a sheep is slaughtered, grilled, and made into shish kebab). Maria Zaikina rendered the art in Lucine Kasbarian’s<\/a><\/strong> The Greedy Sparrow: An Armenian Tale<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, released by Marshall Cavendish in April, with layers of wax and oil paint and then cut away the layers to reveal the colors underneath. (Is this a sort of scratchboarding, perhaps?) I’m a nerd who, yes, reads reviews for fun, and I like how Kirkus<\/em> described the illustrations as having, as you can see above, “an appealing, vigorous heft.” Yeah. What they said. <\/p>\n

But, first. Quickly. It just occurred to me that it’s the five-year anniversary of 7-Imp. I’d almost forgotten. Back last month, when I realized a birthday was coming up, I figured I should do something special for the big five-year one. But then I got busy, and now I’m at a loss anyway. I’d really rather just do what I always do — feature some art. But I want to say, quickly: One of the reasons I started this blog five years ago—co-founded it, remember, with my best friend, who is still my best friend but just no longer a blogger (here’s<\/a><\/strong> the low-down)—was to connect with others and to keep my foot in the door of children’s lit. I was suddenly at home (my choice) with young babies, who were puddin’ heads (though screamy ones) and kept me on my toes, but altogether incapable of expounding on the latest and greatest in children’s lit with me. (All I was gettin’ was some goo-gah<\/em> here and some baa-baa<\/em> there.) I was no longer in a school library, where I could gab daily with teachers and other librarians who loved children’s and YA lit as much as I did. And I really<\/em> missed that. <\/p>\n

So, feeling isolated (while also joining forces with my long-distance best friend, with whom I LOVED<\/em> discussing books), I reached out via my laptop to sort of create<\/em> my own colleagues, if you will, through this blog. Eisha and I found the other children’s lit bloggers, and we jumped into the discussion. And I am forever grateful for what it has brought to my life. I always say—and I mean it—I wouldn’t know how to count blogger stats if you put a gun to my head. I honestly don’t care. I just want to connect. If one person is reading, I’ll keep doing it. And so thank you to all you One Persons out there stopping by to read and see and chat and let me be a part of the discussion. And to all my blogging friends, whom I truly admire. AND to all the authors and illustrators and etc. who stop by here to visit the 7-Imp cyber-salon over coffee and keep things interesting and beautiful with their words and their art. <\/p>\n

I’m done. Now, back to Maria’s arresting art. <\/p>\n

So, folktale lovers, take note of this recent release. The Greedy Sparrow<\/em> opens with the following author’s note:<\/p>\n

Armenian fables begin with “Once there was and was not” to suggest that fantastical tales may be real or imagined. The fable of the sparrow, which has been in the Armenian oral tradition for centuries, was first put to paper by the Armenian poet, Hovhannes Toumanian<\/a><\/strong> (1869-1923). In The Greedy Sparrow<\/em>, an original composition, we learn that people who engage in dishonest or selfish behavior may end up losing whatever they gained because of that behavior.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus this tale begins: “Once there was and was not a sparrow who caught a thorn in his foot.”<\/p>\n

Did you all know this about Armenian tales — the “once there was and was not” bit? I did not. I love that. <\/p>\n

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Back to that thorn: The sparrow gets a thorn in his foot and then proceeds to trade the thorn (with a little bit of bullying and a lot of greed) for some bread, trade the bread for some sheep, trade the bread for a new bride, and so on. In other words, to each act of kindness paid him, he responds with an attempt to trick his way into even more generosity. “A homely sparrow turns a thorn in his foot to fine advantage in this simple spin on the familiar folktale of the rising fortunes and eventual downfall of one who overreaches,” writes School Library Journal<\/em>. Yup, don’t want to give away the whole tale here for those who might want to read it, but he definitely overreaches and, at the book’s close, ends up as he started. <\/p>\n

Kasbarian—a writer, illustrator, and descendant of survivors of the 1915 Turkish genocide of the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks—tells the story with economy and no fuss whatsoever, occasionally using speech balloons. She learned to recite this fable from her father, whose own grandmother was a storyteller and taught him this fable of the sparrow and other Armenian fables in her dialect. Zaikina is from Moscow and her heavily-outlined, brightly-colored neo-folk illustrations are textured and filled with humor. <\/p>\n

I’ll let her artwork speak for itself. Enjoy. <\/p>\n


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THE GREEDY SPARROW: AN ARMENIAN TALE. Copyright \u00a9 2011 by Lucine Kasbarian. Illustration \u00a9 2011 by Maria Zaikina. Published by Marshall Cavendish, Tarrytown, New York. Spreads reproduced by permission of the author and publisher.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Note for any new readers: 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)<\/strong><\/font> I thoroughly enjoyed jurying for the Society of Illustrators’ Original Art award<\/a><\/strong> this week. It’s really and truly an illustrators’ award, illustrators judging their peers (with just a couple of exceptions, including me), and it was fascinating to be a part of it. And everyone was super nice. <\/p>\n

The Society said they’d announce the Gold and Silver winners we chose by end of week. Still no announcement up at the site yet, but I’m sure it will be soon. <\/p>\n

Oh, and we all did this jury work at the Society of Illustrators<\/a><\/strong> itself (on East 63rd street in NYC) near this bar in this room that only<\/em> has a Norman Rockwell painting hanging over it. (I was having trouble not goggling all day.)<\/p>\n

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2)<\/strong><\/font> New York City was very fun. It was my first time. I crammed what I could into two-and-half days, including meeting up with some folks I know. A highlight was seeing an old college friend (the Mr. Prather of a certain Eisha Prather) and the off-Broadway play he designed. It’s called Freud’s Last Session<\/a><\/em><\/strong> and is an imagined conversation between Freud and C.S. Lewis. Good stuff. (And this friend of mine has photographic evidence of me hailing my first NYC cab, but he hasn’t sent it to me yet. Slacker.)<\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> While in NYC, I got to meet and hold the beautiful baby<\/a><\/strong> of one of my co-authors. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> Did you all see this<\/a><\/strong>? Check out the one for The Wizard of Oz<\/em>. Heh. Thanks to Betsy Bird<\/a><\/strong> for the link. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> Have you seen FutureMessage.me<\/a><\/strong>, too? I have Tanita<\/a><\/strong> to thank for this. You can enter a message to anyone over there, even yourself. It will be delivered at a random time between one and six months from now. I’m considering sending myself either a Jack-Handey Deep Thought or something actually profound for inspiration. Probably the former, ’cause it doesn’t get better than “When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it\u2019s not, mmmmmmm, boy.”<\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> I’m not sure if this is a kick, but sometimes Sundays become a parenting journal (of sorts) for me. I mean, I at least try to avoid getting insufferably confessional on everyone, but I do<\/em> occasionally share things here and there and now and then. Anywhoozles, my youngest daughter goes off to kindergarten in a little bit here, and my oldest will be in second grade. It’s the end of an era. The end of the preschool era, that is, in which I daily juggle Spending Time with Children while simultaneously juggling Getting Junk Done. I feel like they’re growing up fast; I feel happy for them; I feel sad, too; I feel like I’m fully<\/em> dropping my heart off at the school now. I think both my five-year-old and I will cry when I take her the first day. (She’s anxious enough to be asking questions lately like, “who will tuck me in when I’m a grown-up?” and “who will put band-aids on my leg when I fall when I’m a grown-up?” I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she started making such queries on the very first day she visited the school as an incoming student.)<\/p>\n

Okay, I’m done now. I guess the kick is that, knowing they’ll both be in school and summer is ending, we’ve been doing things like having chocolate chip pancakes for dinner and staying up extra late. <\/p>\n

{That’s the incoming kindergartner and I pictured left, ’cause … well, why not? I love her happy face.}<\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> I have survived shopping for school supplies and am not altogether broke. (I think.)<\/p>\n

TWO NOTES:<\/strong><\/font> <\/p>\n