{"id":2574,"date":"2013-05-26T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T06:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2574"},"modified":"2013-06-01T19:22:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-02T01:22:00","slug":"7-imp%e2%80%99s-7-kicks-332-featuring-tom-lichtenheld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2574","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #332: Featuring Tom Lichtenheld"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/SingLichtenheldstrong.jpg\" border=1><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/SingLichtenheldopeningcrop.jpg\" style=\"float:right;\">I&#8217;m so pleased that author\/illustrator <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tomlichtenheld.com\/\">Tom Lichtenheld<\/a><\/strong> is visiting today. I&#8217;ve wanted him to visit the blog for a while, and we just haven&#8217;t pulled it off. (Till now!) I enjoy his work. Did you all see <em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9780545436793\">Exclamation Mark<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Scholastic, March 2013), his most recent collaboration with <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.whoisamy.com\/\">Amy Krouse Rosenthal<\/a><\/strong>? It&#8217;s exceedingly clever, that one. Yet I never got around to blogging about it, despite my best intentions.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/SingLichtenheldopeningcrop2.jpg\">Tom&#8217;s newest book, <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9780805090710\">Sing<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (to be released this week from  Christy Ottaviano Books\/Henry Holt) is so joyous and so just-the-right-book-for-him that I&#8217;m <em>extra<\/em> pleased he&#8217;s visiting today to tell us all about it. My regular readers know I&#8217;m a ginormous music-lover, and for that reason&#8212;and lots of others having to do with Tom&#8217;s abundant talents as an illustrator&#8212;I think this book is special. It&#8217;s unabashedly cheerful without being the slightest bit cloying about it. <\/p>\n<p>As Tom explains below, this is a picture book adaptation of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Joe_Raposo\">Joe Raposo&#8217;s<\/a><\/strong> song, made famous on <em>Sesame Street<\/em>. &#8220;The most interesting part,&#8221; Tom told me, &#8220;was that the song, though sweet and well-known, doesn&#8217;t have or <em>need<\/em> any semblance of a story. To turn it into a picture book I had to not only come up with a story, but one that was completely visual, so the lyrics could remain pure. Being handed this challenge was an honor, so the book holds a special place for me. I also like that it has a quieter mood than my usual zany stuff; I like books at opposite ends of the spectrum &#8212; mindlessly ridiculous or thoughtfully sweet.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s get right to it so that Tom can tell us more about it, and I thank him for sharing today. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p><center>* * *<\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong><font size=4>Tom<\/font><\/strong>: <em>[Phone in my studio rings]<\/em> <\/p>\n<p>ME: Hello.<\/p>\n<p>CO: Hi, Tom. It\u2019s Christy Ottaviano. I\u2019ve got a great new project I\u2019d love you to work on. It\u2019s already world-famous, so all you have to do is not screw it up.<\/p>\n<p>ME: Great! I\u2019ll do my best. Send me the manuscript.<\/p>\n<p>CO: Actually, it\u2019s not so much a manuscript as, um &#8230; well, I\u2019ll send you a YouTube link.<\/p>\n<p>ME: A YouTube link? Okay\u2026<\/p>\n<p>And here\u2019s the link Christy sent:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ev9P79uSu8M\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Christy Ottaviano, editor of the eponymously-named imprint at Henry Holt, had purchased the picture book rights to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sing_(Joe_Raposo_song)\">\u201cSing,\u201d<\/a><\/strong> the famous <em>Sesame Street<\/em> song by <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Joe_Raposo\">Joe Raposo<\/a><\/strong>. I was flattered that she\u2019d turned to me for this special project, so I listened to the song and wrote down the words with great anticipation.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Sing, Sing a song<br \/>\nSing out loud, Sing out strong<br \/>\nSing of good things, not bad<br \/>\nSing of happy, not sad<br \/>\nSing! Sing a song<br \/>\nMake it simple, to last your whole life long<br \/>\nDon\u2019t worry that it\u2019s not good enough for anyone else to hear<br \/>\nJust sing, Sing a song.<br \/>\nLa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la-la la\u2026(etc.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The song is inspiring, but even a third-grader could point out the challenge of turning it into a picture book: There\u2019s no character, no setting, and no problem. In other words, no story. Which was a problem &#8212; my problem. <\/p>\n<p>So I thought \u201cWell, who would have a problem if they couldn\u2019t sing?\u201d A bird, of course. You know \u201cbirds gotta sing\u2026\u201d and all that. So, I did this sketch.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V2_FirstDoodle.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V2_FirstDoodlesmall.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>The idea is that a little birdy can\u2019t sing, so Mama birdy inspires her by playing an <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ella_Fitzgerald\">Ella Fitzgerald<\/a><\/strong> record. (Kids, that\u2019s a record player.) I liked the idea of a bird not being able to sing, but I needed to establish the problem, then solve it in an interesting way. And I had to do it all visually, because Christy and I wanted the lyrics to be the only words in the book. We thought of it as a musical, where the action and music tell the story in unison without being redundant.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m a big fan of the \u201caccidental helper\u201d concept in stories, so I came up with someone to help the birdy solve her problem.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V3_SingSequence.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V3_SingSequencesmall.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Now it\u2019s about a man who sings underneath a tree &#8212; with the notes from his music floating up \u2026<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V4_SingSequence.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V4_SingSequencesmall.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>\u2026 lifting the nest \u2026<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V5_SingSequence.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V5_SingSequencesmall.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and inspiring the bird to sing.<\/p>\n<p>Confident that I had the most important part worked out, I played with character designs.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe it should be a child&#8212;or two&#8212;making the music.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V6_Characters.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V6_Characterssmall.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>\u2026 or a banjo-playing bunny.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V7_BanjoBunny.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V7_BanjoBunnysmall.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>But I decided the musician should be a person, because I like the human-to-animal connection. So, I worked on the look and age of the character.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V8_Characters2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V8_Characters2small.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V9_Characters1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V9_Characters1small.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Then I worked on the birdies. I wanted them to be cute and expressive in the nest, but elegant in flight.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V10_BirdSketch1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V10_BirdSketch1small.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V11_BirdSketch2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V11_BirdSketch2small.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V11B_BirdInFlightzzz.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>This is cheating, but I made the birds different colors so the reader could tell them apart, which is important to the story. No reviewer has called me out for the ornithological inaccuracy, but I suspect it won\u2019t miss the scrutiny of some observant fourth-grader during one of my school presentations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V12_8-14Color.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V12_8-14Colorsmall.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Every book leads to vexing questions, such as: What\u2019s a bird look like when it\u2019s frustrated?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V13_Sing8-14.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V13_Sing8-14small.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>And should there be a dancing squirrel in the background?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V14_DancingSquirreluse.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>While exploring techniques, I considered using Photoshop more than usual, but I found the process less joyful than traditional media. Although I like the look of these experiments, I missed the feel of a paintbrush in my hand and the prospect of happy accidents, which are rare in the controllable world of digital art. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V15_Character3flat.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V15_Character3flatsmall.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>A few cover design sketches. At first I wanted to isolate the color to the birds, but once I tried the yellow, it was the clear winner.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V16_SingCovers1.jpg\" border=1><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V16_SingCovers2.jpg\" border=1><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V16_SingCovers3.jpg\" border=1><\/p>\n<p>I have a mediocre sense of color, so I\u2019m always looking for proven color schemes. In this case, the inspiration was garden design, where yellow and violet are frequently combined to good effect. I have my wife to thank for teaching me this bit of horticultural color theory.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V17_SingColors1.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>My favorite spread in the book. I like the way the tree reflects the bird\u2019s mood. Also, this is the rare case where I\u2019ve restrained myself and used white space, which I usually fill up with goofy sidebar drawings. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V18_SingSadSpread.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V18_SingSadSpreadsmall.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>After all the illustrations were done, I realized that an important part of the lyrics wasn\u2019t included, the \u201cla-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la-la\u2026\u201d part. It sounds like gibberish here, but if you sing the song to yourself, it\u2019s obviously an important part of the melody. But the story was complete, and there was no room in the book for any more lyrics, so I put them on the endpapers, which actually works perfectly.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V19_SingEndpapers.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V19_SingEndpaperssmall.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>This is my first book to have a fancy-pants embossed case!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V20_EmbossedCase.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V20_EmbossedCasesmall.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p>It was a big deal when the finished art went out the door, so my wife gave me this paper mache bird to celebrate. Thanks to her for all her support, and thanks to Christy Ottaviano for bringing this very special project to me.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V21_Bird.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/V21_Birdfinalfinaluse.jpg\" border=1><\/a><br \/>\n<center><em>(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/SingCover9finaluse.jpg\" border=1><br \/>\n<center><em>Final cover<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p><em>SING. Music and lyrics by Joe Raposo. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2013 by Tom Lichtenheld. Published by Christy Ottaviano Books\/Henry Holt, New York. All images reproduced with permission of Tom Lichtenheld.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><center>* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n<p>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<p><center><font size=3><strong>* * * Jules&#8217; Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font><br \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p>My kicks are all wrapped up in this post. I&#8217;m grateful that Tom sent such good images and a really fun and informative (for us picture book fans) text to describe the making of this book, which I like so much. <em>Publishers Weekly<\/em> describes this picture book as &#8220;an effective visual metaphor for the way that music can be a form of support.&#8221; I think that&#8217;s one reason I love it so. <\/p>\n<p>And I&#8217;ve actually only seen a PDF of the book. I look forward to holding a final copy in my hand. I&#8217;ll have to track down a copy. I am also particularly fond of what Tom calls fancy-pants embossed covers.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m pretty busy right now wrapping up prep for the grad course on picture books that I&#8217;ll be teaching not this week but <em>next week<\/em>. (GULP.) I&#8217;m looking forward to it, but I must get back to prepping for it. <\/p>\n<p>What are <strong><font size=4>YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m so pleased that author\/illustrator Tom Lichtenheld is visiting today. I&#8217;ve wanted him to visit the blog for a while, and we just haven&#8217;t pulled it off. (Till now!) I enjoy his work. Did you all see Exclamation Mark (Scholastic, March 2013), his most recent collaboration with Amy Krouse Rosenthal? It&#8217;s exceedingly clever, that one. [&hellip;]<\/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-2574","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\/2574","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=2574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}