![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/9780763653118arthur.jpg\")
\n
\n
Okay, I’m gonna be straight-up honest with you right off the bat this morning: No stealthy April Fool’s joke is hiding ’round the corner here at 7-Imp today. I know of other bloggers with sneaky, winky plans, but … well, since blogging comes after things like my children and work, I’m lucky to produce normal, non-jokey posts on a fairly consistent basis. My co-author, Peter D. Sieruta<\/a><\/strong>, even had a great idea for me. But, while I consider myself a mildly to moderately clever human (who really appreciated his funny suggestion), I have a terrible poker face, y’all, and I always<\/em> ruin the punch line anyway. <\/p>\n Glad we got that out of the way. <\/p>\n So, no kidding, my post today is one of those where I feature a student or debut illustrator, since it’s the first Sunday of the month. (March, WHERE’D YOU GO anyway? That March. So zippy-quick and tricky.) Today it’s the latter, a self-taught debut author\/illustrator, who lives in Michigan. His name is Kenneth Kraegel<\/a><\/strong>, and he’s visiting today to say a bit about his first book. Now, this picture book, King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, comes out in July of this year (Candlewick), so I apologize for showing you art from a book you can’t quite yet purchase or find on library shelves, but July will be here before you know it. Moving on then … <\/p>\n “Henry Alfred Grummorson was the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of King Arthur, the noblest knight ever to wield a sword. . . .” opens this book — actually, right on the title page itself. (Kraegel doesn’t waste any time, does he?) On Henry’s sixth birthday, well … Kenneth tells us below what Henry is up to, so I’ll summarize by saying Henry wants to have a grand adventure. I don’t want to give away the entire story (and certainly not the ending), so I’ll just say he meets some grandiose creatures, indeed. Adventures? Not so much. Or at least not what he had planned<\/em>. The Dragon, Cyclops, Griffin, and other “terrible monsters” he meets have something else in mind, and in the end, Henry gets a nice surprise — not to mention “[t]o his knowledge, not even the great King Arthur had accomplished as much in his first two days as a six-year-old.” <\/p>\n I like Kraegel’s art, some of which you can see here, primarily because he has a style all his own. (Incidentally, there’s something about the whole book that reminds me of a wonderfully funky mid-1980s picture book, though I can’t quite pinpoint what exactly it is. I’ll get back to you on that, as Joey Pigza<\/a><\/strong> would say.) These are detailed, textured images on spreads that are never too busy and with thickly-outlined, not-too-scary-yet-never-too-watered-down “terrible monsters” who steal the show. Once Henry’s adventure begins, too, which Kraegel gets right to<\/em> on the second page, these illustrations don’t take no for an answer and they sprawl<\/em>, using up every inch of space in the spreads. (And the endpapers are worth the price of admission alone, not to mention Henry’s greeting for each monster, as you can see above — things like “I AM COME!” and “LET US HAVE ADO!” as he challenges them to fights to “THE UTTERMOST!”)<\/p>\n I shall cease my babbling and give the cyber-floor to Kenneth, and I thank him for visiting today … <\/p>\n Kenneth<\/font><\/strong>: “<\/strong><\/font>My picture book, King Arthur\u2019s Very Great Grandson<\/em>, comes out this July from Candlewick Press. It is the story of Henry Alfred Grummorson, who is the great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson of King Arthur. On the morning of his sixth birthday, he eats a large breakfast, mounts his trusty donkey, Knuckles, and goes out in search of knightly adventures. He encounters a Dragon, a Cyclops, and a Griffin, but, to his dismay, they all turn out to be friendly! Thirsty for real battle, he heads to the sea where he encounters the most fearsome of all beasts, the Leviathan…. <\/p>\n Unintentionally, the story is partly autobiographical. As a teenager, I wished that the troubles of daily life would take on a physical form. Why couldn\u2019t my awkwardness around girls be a knight in black armor that I met walking home from the bus? Or why couldn\u2019t global poverty be an angry giant that I manage to conquer with my cunning and courage? It worked like that in Narnia. You fought it out, bravely struggled and overcame, and then there was a feast in your honor and you could kick back and take it easy.<\/p>\n One time on the beach, after finishing Don Quixote<\/em>, I put the book down and grabbed a huge fallen tree branch and charged Lake Michigan for all I was worth. I tripped on a wave and sprained my neck pretty badly and went around for a week with my head tilted to one side. So, maybe I am not as capable of grappling with evil incarnate as I imagine myself to be. But I would still love to go galloping off on a donkey into the high mountains like Henry gets to do in the book.<\/p>\n I hope my readers feel that way, too. Wonder<\/em> is what I want to convey. As a kid, books really opened me up to worlds full of possibility and promise. Their effect on me continues to this day. I am very grateful that I encountered those books and hope to make my own small contribution with this book. <\/p>\n Many thanks to the effervescent Jules, for allowing me this opportunity. I have been reading her wonderful blog for some time now and am delighted to actually be on it.“<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n Thanks again to Kenneth for visiting. You can see more art at Kenneth’s site<\/a><\/strong>, as well as his blog<\/a><\/strong>. And, hey, look! A trailer with a tiny bit more art:<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/167840232kacover.JPG\")
<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/9780763653118_1arthur.jpg\")
\n
\n
before the watercolor was applied.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n