{"id":2538,"date":"2013-03-28T00:01:15","date_gmt":"2013-03-28T06:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2538"},"modified":"2013-03-28T06:51:31","modified_gmt":"2013-03-28T12:51:31","slug":"the-best-kind-of-do-over-before-breakfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2538","title":{"rendered":"The Best Kind of Do-Over Before Breakfast"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“But then she clenched her jaw.
‘Not on my<\/font> watch, buster!’ said Ol’ Mama Squirrel.
She scooped up her babies and went to raise the alarm.”<\/strong><\/font>
(Final spread from book — click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
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\nI’m not talking here about my own<\/em> do-over (though I often wish for those on the days when the coffee seems to brew slower than normal and it takes me a bit longer to acclimate to the day). I’m talking instead about author\/illustrator and Caldecott Honor winner David Ezra Stein<\/a><\/strong> — who, you may remember, visited me with quiche in 2008<\/a><\/strong>. (May the heavens bless him for that quiche, even if it was cyber-only for me.) He’s here today to share early sketches from his latest picture book, Ol’ Mama Squirrel<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (Nancy Paulsen Books\/Penguin, March 2013), which Publishers Weekly<\/em> calls a “rousing and rowdy readaloud” and Kirkus<\/em>, an “effervescent tale [brimming] with humor and vibrant characterization.” <\/p>\n

You’ll see many sketches here this morning, because it turns out that David, in his words, “did the art for the book over again to get to the way it is now. I redesigned the character and then redid the dummy and then redid the art!”<\/em><\/p>\n

Whew. <\/p>\n

This is the story of a mama squirrel, who “had raised many babies.” Ol’ Mama Squirrel knows that there’s “no shortage of creatures that would love to snack on a baby squirrel,” but she’s fierce and she’s not going to allow that to happen. “Chook, chook, chook,” she shrieks at approaching cats, dogs, owls, and such. She even extends her chook-chook-chooking to the least likely of predators — kites, airplanes, and the man who prunes the tree where she and her babes make their home. But when a bear approaches one day and scoffs at Ol’ Mama Squirrel’s attempts to fend off the danger he poses, well … I can’t give the whole story away, but suffice it to say that it takes a village, as they say. <\/p>\n

There’s a lot of humor and heart in this spirited story — and fierceness, what with Ol’ Mama Squirrel shaking her paw at predators both living and mechanical. Stein packs in a lot of energy here with his loose-lined, relaxed watercolor and crayon illustrations. The action, the drama, the sassy protagonist — it all makes for an entertaining story of familial love and honor. Can’t ask for more, especially as we inch closer to Mother’s Day. (That is the one day of the year after all where we stop to solemnly acknowledge the fierce protective urges of which a mother such as Ol’ Mama Squirrel is capable. Steer clear of a mother guarding her babe, I tell ya.)<\/p>\n

Let’s get to those sketches David sent. I’ve also got some final art from the book, which I paired up with the early discarded sketches. (I see our intrepid protagonist even went from “old Mrs. Squirrel” to “Ol’ Mama Squirrel.”) I thank David for sharing. <\/p>\n

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Initial sketches<\/strong><\/font><\/em>
(Click each to enlarge)<\/center>
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Early versions of Ol’ Mama Squirrel and her babies<\/strong><\/font><\/em>
(Click each to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\n

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Final illustration<\/strong><\/font><\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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First and final version of the cat illustration<\/strong><\/font><\/em>
(Click each to enlarge)<\/center>
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First and final version of the owl illustration<\/strong><\/font><\/em>
(Click each to enlarge)<\/center>
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First and final version of the dog illustration<\/strong><\/font><\/em>
(Click each to enlarge)<\/center>
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(Click either image to see sketch in its entirety)<\/em><\/center>
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More early sketches<\/strong><\/font><\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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Early bear sketches
(the last one is the sketch for what became the final illustration)<\/strong><\/font><\/em>
(Click each to enlarge)<\/center>
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Sketch of one of the book’s final spreads:
“…And they scolded him high and scolded him low and threw
old nuts at him until he ran away and never came back.”<\/strong><\/font><\/em>
(Click each to enlarge)<\/center>
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Title page sketch, cover sketch, and final cover art<\/strong><\/font><\/em>
(Click each to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\n

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OL’ MAMA SQUIRREL. Copyright \u00a9 2013 by David Ezra Stein. Published by Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Group, New York. All images here reproduced by permission of David Ezra Stein and Penguin.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“But then she clenched her jaw.‘Not on my watch, buster!’ said Ol’ Mama Squirrel.She scooped up her babies and went to raise the alarm.”(Final spread from book — click to enlarge)   I’m not talking here about my own do-over (though I often wish for those on the days when the coffee seems to brew […]<\/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-2538","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\/2538","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=2538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}