{"id":2295,"date":"2012-02-19T00:01:41","date_gmt":"2012-02-19T06:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2295"},"modified":"2012-02-19T00:01:52","modified_gmt":"2012-02-19T06:01:52","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-269-featuring-shane-w-evans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2295","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #269: Featuring Shane W. Evans"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I know that tomorrow we celebrate President’s Day and that Martin Luther King, Jr. Day has already passed, so forgive my blatant disregard of the calendar here. But I wanted to show a few illustrations from a book I meant to highlight in January. (Not to mention we should celebrate King any<\/em> day of the year. For a more presidential post, should that be your desire today, see my Kirkus<\/em> column<\/strong><\/a> from yesterday.) <\/p>\n

Shane W. Evans’<\/a><\/strong> We March<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, released last month by Neal Porter\/Roaring Brook, is the simple and elegantly-told account of one family’s march in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Filled with just nine short sentences (and I mean some as short as “We sing”), Evans lets the focus here be on the people involved, shining a spotlight on their determination and spirit. I love what Evans does with lines (what the Publishers Weekly<\/em> review calls his “angular characters”) and how you can see his very brushstrokes on the characters’ faces — and even in the textured backgrounds. (The art I’ve got here today, though not a lot and not full spreads, speaks way better than I, so be sure to take a look.)<\/p>\n

With a palette getting progressively warmer as the story unfolds, it culminates in a luminescent spread of King himself giving his historic speech, the sun rising in shimmering yellows behind his head. It’s lovely. <\/p>\n

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Last month, Evans received the Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award<\/a><\/strong> for Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (covered here<\/a><\/strong> at Calling Caldecott<\/em> in mid-December), released in January of last year. If I were organized, I’d have art from that to show you, too, but do you know I haven’t even read that one yet? Egads, it is true. I will certainly look for it. <\/p>\n

Here’s a bit more art from We March<\/em>. Enjoy. <\/p>\n

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WE MARCH. Copyright \u00a9 2012 by Shane W. Evans. Published by Neal Porter\/Roaring Brook Press, New York. Images used with permission of publisher.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 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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Before I get to kicks, let me mention that the 2011 Cybils Awards were announced this week. If you missed it, the winners are here<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

1)<\/strong><\/font> As mentioned earlier<\/a><\/strong> and briefly this week, I had the pleasure of jurying the 2012 BolognaRagazzi Award<\/a><\/strong> for the 2012 Bologna Children’s Book Fair<\/a><\/strong> in Italy last weekend. I’m very grateful to have had the chance to see all that international children’s book art. Just fascinating. <\/p>\n

The winners will be announced soon. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> Lucky me, I got to meet Cristiana Clerici<\/a><\/strong> in person. Looky here!<\/p>\n

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That is us having lunch. I would just like to point out the following comments I made previously at 7-Imp:<\/p>\n