{"id":2571,"date":"2013-05-23T00:01:33","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T06:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2571"},"modified":"2013-05-23T20:52:46","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T02:52:46","slug":"for-country-mail-and-genevieve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2571","title":{"rendered":"“For country, mail, and Genevi\u00e8ve!”"},"content":{"rendered":"


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“…his hands were nimble…”<\/em><\/center>
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\nLast week at Kirkus<\/em>, I chatted with author Matthew Olshan<\/a><\/strong> and illustrator Sophie Blackall<\/a><\/strong>, who recently collaborated on The Mighty Lalouche<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, released this month by Schwartz & Wade Books. That Q&A is here<\/a><\/strong>, and today Sophie is sharing a few sketches, some of her research images (all the vintage photos you see below), and a sneak peek inside the book. The artwork, as you can read at the Q&A, was rendered in Japanese paper dioramas, or tatebanko. <\/p>\n

(You can click on most of these images to enlarge them, though they’re a bit blurry in spots.)<\/p>\n

Enjoy the images and artwork. <\/p>\n


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Endpapers<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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“One hundred and a few-odd years ago, in Paris, France, there lived a humble postman named Lalouche. He was small, Lalouche, and rather bony,
but his hands were nimble, his legs were fast, and his arms were strong.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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“For company, he kept a finch named Genevi\u00e8ve. His mustache was his other pride and joy. Lalouche’s rented room was on the Seine, but, unlike all the other rented rooms, it lacked a window with a view. Lalouche pretended not to mind,
but how he wished to see the brand-new city lights!”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“One day, Lalouche’s boss pulled up and said, ‘Look here, Lalouche. The postal service has just bought a fleet of electric autocars. A walking postman’s far too slow.
<\/em>Je suis d\u00e9sol\u00e9, but we’re going to have to let you go.'”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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“‘You? A boxer?’<\/font> cried Diamond Jacques, who managed all the fighters at the boxing club. ‘I could sneeze and knock you down.’ But Lalouche refused to leave.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“The boxers all laughed when they saw Lalouche. ‘I’ll zap him!’<\/font> cried Amp\u00e8re. ‘I’ll pound him to a pulp,’<\/font> said the Piston. ‘But first,
I’ll tie him in a pretty bow,’<\/font> said the Grecque.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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“The hairless muscleman was huge, as tall as a spiral staircase, as wide as a wall of cubbies, as massive as a heap of undelivered packages. Lalouche struck a gallant fighting pose. ‘I’ll squeeze him till he pops!’<\/font> the Anaconda roared.
The bell rang out. The fight began.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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“And when the bell was rung, one man stood tall: the mighty Lalouche! Just then, Genevi\u00e8ve flew down and perched upon Lalouche’s shoulder. And when he smiled,
the crowd erupted in a frenzy. ‘Bravo! Bravo!’<\/font> they cried. Cameras flashed.
Lalouche’s bony arm was raised in victory.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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“From that day on, Lalouche fought every challenger who dared to climb into the ring—Old Shatterhand and Bl\u00e9riot; the Bolshevik, the Pointillist, and even the Misanthrope. He never lost. They never won.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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

THE MIGHTY LALOUCHE. Copyright \u00a9 2013 by Matthew Olshan. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2013 by Sophie Blackall. Published by Schwartz & Wade Books, New York. All images reproduced with permission of Sophie Blackall and Schwartz & Wade.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“…his hands were nimble…”   Last week at Kirkus, I chatted with author Matthew Olshan and illustrator Sophie Blackall, who recently collaborated on The Mighty Lalouche, released this month by Schwartz & Wade Books. That Q&A is here, and today Sophie is sharing a few sketches, some of her research images (all the vintage photos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-interviews","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571","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=2571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}