{"id":2490,"date":"2013-01-03T00:01:45","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T06:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2490"},"modified":"2013-01-03T19:30:26","modified_gmt":"2013-01-04T01:30:26","slug":"what-i-did-at-kirkus-last-weekfeaturing-suzy-lee-and-adam-rex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2490","title":{"rendered":"What I Did at Kirkus<\/em> Last Week,
Featuring Suzy Lee and Adam Rex"},"content":{"rendered":"

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(Click on image to see entire spread from which it comes)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Squeak. Grunt. Stumble. That’s how I feel my words are today, since I took a sort of holiday blog break there, didn’t I? (That is, with the exception of my ginormously nerdy 2012 recap<\/a><\/strong>, but I think those are fun.) <\/p>\n

But here I am, and fortunately today I don’t have to compose that<\/em> many words, since this is a follow-up post to last week’s Kirkus<\/em> column. It was over there last Friday that I wrote about the good thing that happened when author Neil Gaiman<\/a><\/strong> and author\/illustrator Adam Rex<\/a><\/strong> collaborated. I’m talking specifically about Chu\u2019s Day<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, released by HarperCollins in early January. Chu is pictured right, mid-sneeze. I know what you’re thinking: THE PRECIOUS<\/strong><\/font>. Yes, he appears adorable. But no, my dear imps, keep outta the way of that boy’s sneeze, I tell you. (As a reminder, we got a sneak-peek of this book back in July of 2012<\/a><\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

I also weighed in on debut author (and editor) Jesse Klausmeier’s<\/a><\/strong> Open This Little Book<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, illustrated by Suzy Lee<\/a><\/strong> and released by Chronicle. (An illustration from it is pictured at the tippy-top of this post.) That column is here<\/a><\/strong>, if you missed it last week and are so inclined to read. <\/p>\n

Today, I’m here to share art, since I start to get twitchy if I don’t get to showcase picture book art from the books about which I write. <\/p>\n

Also, there are two special treats today: Adam shares early sketches from Chu’s Day<\/em>, and for Open This Little Book<\/em> … well, you’ll see the treat below. <\/p>\n

Enjoy. <\/p>\n

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One of the book’s final spreads, sans text:
“There was a lot of pepper in the air. …
‘Are you going to sneeze?’ asked his father.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\n

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One of the book’s final spreads<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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\nAnd some of Adam’s early sketches from the book: <\/p>\n


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Here are some images from Open This Little Book<\/em>. First up, I’m very grateful for this image … <\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

… given that in my Kirkus<\/em> column last week, I sort of struggled to describe how there are books nested within books in this picture book. Voil\u00e0. Disregard my rambling, and just check out the image. <\/p>\n

Here are some more:<\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

So, here’s the Open This Little Book<\/em> treat … <\/p>\n

These are what you could call the book’s “original” illustrations. Author Jesse Klausmeier made these for the book when she first came up with the idea — at age five. That’s right. I said age five. <\/p>\n

Say it with me now: Awwwwww. Freakin’ aw! I love it. Here they are: <\/p>\n


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

CHU’S DAY. Copyright \u00a9 2013 by Neil Gaiman. Illustrations \u00a9 2013 by Adam Rex. Published by HarperCollins, New York. All images reproduced by permission of both the publisher and Adam Rex.<\/em><\/p>\n

OPEN THIS LITTLE BOOK. Copyright \u00a9 2013 by Jesse Klausmeier. Illustrations \u00a9 2013 by Suzy Lee. Published by Chronicle, San Francisco. All images reproduced by permission of the publisher.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Click on image to see entire spread from which it comes) Squeak. Grunt. Stumble. That’s how I feel my words are today, since I took a sort of holiday blog break there, didn’t I? (That is, with the exception of my ginormously nerdy 2012 recap, but I think those are fun.) But here I am, […]<\/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-2490","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\/2490","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=2490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}