{"id":2565,"date":"2013-05-12T00:01:45","date_gmt":"2013-05-12T06:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2565"},"modified":"2013-05-12T00:01:46","modified_gmt":"2013-05-12T06:01:46","slug":"7-imp%e2%80%99s-7-kicks-330-featuring-komako-sakai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2565","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #330: Featuring Komako Sakai"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As I’ve made clear before here at 7-Imp, I’m a fan of the illustration work of Komako Sakai (who even visited for a brief interview<\/a><\/strong> last year). So, I was happy to see that she’s illustrated a new book, this one written by Hatsue Nakawaki. It’s called Wait! Wait!<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, and it’s for very young children. It will be released by Enchanted Lion Books in June, but I’ve got a sneak-peek of it today. <\/p>\n

In a story mirroring the staccato rhythms of a toddler, we meet a young child dressed in overalls, ever-curious about the natural world. The child spots a butterfly—“Wait! Wait!”—and watches it flutter away. With each animal seen, the child reaches out to touch and learn, yet the creature flees — flying in the air, wiggling away. In the end, an adult (whom we assume is the parent) picks up the child, saying “Wait! Wait” in the same manner in which the child was trying to secure and hold other creatures. He then places the child on his shoulders, saying “Here we go!”<\/p>\n

Sakai’s delicately-colored acrylic and oil pencil illustrations are beautiful. Her tight focus in these spreads puts us right with the toddler, exploring and reaching. She also includes pretty much the essentials here — the child and the creatures with which he or she (this could easily be either a male or female child) is fascinated, with the addition of a few supporting details, barely outlined in some cases, and generous white space. It really works. And I’m taken with her flying pigeons, as you can see below, and the compelling sense of movement here. <\/p>\n

This is a gentle and perfectly paced story for very young children, originally published in Japan as Korya Mate Mate<\/em> in 2002. (This First American Edition is translated by Yuki Kaneko.) Here’s a bit more art.<\/p>\n

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WAIT! WAIT! First American Edition copyright \u00a9 2013 by Enchanted Lion Books, New York. Text copyright \u00a9 2002 by Hatsue Nakawaki. Illustration copyright \u00a9 2002 by Komako Sakai.<\/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. New kickers are always welcome. <\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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I know I did this last week—one of those “my kicks ONE<\/strong><\/font> to SEVEN<\/strong><\/font> this week includes ONE thing”—but it’s another big<\/em> kick for me:<\/p>\n

I got a digital piano for my birthday from my considerate family. I’ve always wanted to learn to play the piano, yet our house is too tiny for a real one. The digital piano (with weighted keys and all) is the next best thing, and it’s really great. And I’M LEARNING TO PLAY! (My seven-year-old is learning with me.) Who’s gonna come to my first recital? <\/p>\n

What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? Happy Mother’s Day to my Imp readers … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Click to enlarge) As I’ve made clear before here at 7-Imp, I’m a fan of the illustration work of Komako Sakai (who even visited for a brief interview last year). So, I was happy to see that she’s illustrated a new book, this one written by Hatsue Nakawaki. It’s called Wait! Wait!, and it’s for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2565","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=2565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}