{"id":2311,"date":"2012-03-16T00:01:18","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T06:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2311"},"modified":"2012-03-16T06:02:36","modified_gmt":"2012-03-16T12:02:36","slug":"what-i%e2%80%99m-doing-at-kirkus-this-morningplus-what-i-did-last-week-featuring-brian-biggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2311","title":{"rendered":"What I\u2019m Doing at Kirkus<\/em> This Morning,
Plus What I Did Last Week, Featuring Brian Biggs"},"content":{"rendered":"


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“YES! Brownie drives back home.”
(Early sketch and final art)<\/em>
(Click second image to embiggen)<\/center><\/p>\n

This morning over at Kirkus<\/em>, I write about the new chapter book for very young readers, Sadie and Ratz<\/em>, by one of my favorite authors for older people, Sonya Hartnett (interviewed here<\/a><\/strong> at 7-Imp in 2007, during the 7-Imp era in which images were tragically small).<\/p>\n

Just as soon as I finished this book, I turned around to write about it, because—as I note over at Kirkus<\/em>—all chapter books for young children should be this<\/em> good. The link is here<\/a><\/strong> this morning, if you’re so inclined to go read about it. <\/p>\n

* * *<\/center><\/p>\n

Last week at Kirkus<\/em>, I wrote about<\/a><\/strong> Cynthia Rylant’s<\/a><\/strong> and Brian Biggs’<\/a><\/strong> Brownie & Pearl<\/a><\/strong><\/em> series (eight books published by Beach Lane Books), seeing as how I was feeling very all-caps about the fact that I’d never seen it (“WHERE HAS THIS SERIES BEEN ALL MY LIFE ANYWAY?” is how that went.) Yep. I was late in getting to it, and I think it’s such a great series in many ways for young children. <\/p>\n

I featured Brian Biggs fairly recently here<\/a><\/strong> at 7-Imp, but now he’s back, ’cause I just gotta<\/em> show some early sketches and final art (note: the final art is sans text) from this series. Here’s what Brian had to tell me about some of the early sketches you’ll see below: <\/p>\n

When I first read the manuscripts, it was not clear that Brownie and Pearl were a girl and a cat. I thought, in fact, that they were both cats. So, imagine my surprise when I sent a batch of character sketches to my agent and he calls me up and says, “erm, um, Brownie is a girl.”<\/p>\n

So, ha ha. You know.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brian Biggs. He makes me laugh. (Also, show young fans of this series the early cat sketches below, explaining that Biggs initially had Brownie in mind as a cat, and you’ll get lots of loud, happy laughs. I know this for a fact.) <\/p>\n

And<\/em> I really love Brian’t art. Let’s get right to it then… <\/p>\n


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Brownie and Pearl, the two-cats version<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“Brownie try-outs”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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Sketches below from Book One, <\/em>Brownie & Pearl Step Out<\/a><\/strong>, 2009:<\/em><\/center>
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(Cover sketch)<\/em><\/center>
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Sketches below from Book Two, <\/em>Brownie & Pearl Get Dolled Up<\/a><\/strong>, 2010:<\/em><\/center>
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(Cover sketch)<\/em><\/center>
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Sketches and final illustrations below from latest book,
<\/em>Brownie & Pearl Go For a Spin<\/a><\/strong>, February 2012:<\/em><\/center>
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<\/p>\n


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“She parks her car. Pearl doesn’t want to get out.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\n

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“Brownie has an idea. She runs inside.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\n

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“Soon she is back. She has treats. Pearl is so happy.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\n

* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

BROWNIE & PEARL GO FOR A SPIN. Copyright \u00a9 2012 by Cynthia Rylant. Illustration copyright \u00a9 2012 by Brian Biggs. Published by Beach Lane Books, New York. All images posted with permission of Brian Biggs.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“YES! Brownie drives back home.”(Early sketch and final art)(Click second image to embiggen) This morning over at Kirkus, I write about the new chapter book for very young readers, Sadie and Ratz, by one of my favorite authors for older people, Sonya Hartnett (interviewed here at 7-Imp in 2007, during the 7-Imp era in which […]<\/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-2311","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\/2311","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=2311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}