{"id":2603,"date":"2013-07-17T00:01:43","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T06:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2603"},"modified":"2013-07-17T00:01:48","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T06:01:48","slug":"a-peek-at-the-desk-of-vanessa-brantley-newton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2603","title":{"rendered":"A Peek at the Desk of Vanessa Brantley-Newton"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Last week at Kirkus<\/em>, I chatted with author\/illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton<\/a><\/strong>. That link is here<\/a><\/strong>. Today, I share some of her sketches and final art from both Amy Novesky’s<\/a><\/strong> Mister and Lady Day: Billie Holiday and the Dog Who Loved Her<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Harcourt, June 2013)—the above sketch is from that one—as well as Marie Harris’s<\/a><\/strong> The Girl Who Heard Colors<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (to be released by Nancy Paulsen Books in September). <\/p>\n

I also include here the response to one question that didn’t quite fit in last week’s Q&A. <\/p>\n

Enjoy. <\/p>\n


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Cover sketch for Marie Harris’s <\/em>The Girl Who Heard Colors<\/center><\/p>\n


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“Jillian loved the world with all<\/strong><\/font> her five senses. She loved the tickling touch<\/strong><\/font>
of her bunny’s whiskers on her cheek.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“She loved the taste<\/strong><\/font> of warm maple syrup on waffles.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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Early sketch: “‘Whatever could be wrong with Jillian?’ everyone wondered.
Jillian whispered softly to herself: ‘I am as sad as a cloud.'”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“Her teacher was worried, so she told Jillian’s parents. Jillian’s parents were worried, so they took her to the doctor. The doctor examined her eyes and ears.
There was nothing wrong with them. …”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“Except Jillian. She covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut.
‘What’s the matter?’ asked the children. ‘What’s the matter?’ asked her teacher. ‘What’s the matter?’ asked the musician.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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* * *<\/center>
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“…and a star she became—the great Lady Day. But sometimes stars don’t feel like shining. They need someone to listen. That’s what friends are for.
Lady Day’s dogs were her best friends of all.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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Early sketch: “There were lots of dogs in Lady Day’s life…”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“And then there was a boxer named Mister. Mister and Lady Day were rarely apart. She knit him sweaters and cloaked him in a mink coat. She cooked for him and
took him on midnight walks.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“She sang to him. Mister was Lady’s favorite. Someday, she’d have a house in the country filled with dogs. Life would be good.
Mister would be there. He always was.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“Then, just when her career was at the top, Lady got into trouble. She had to leave home for a year and a day. And Mister couldn’t come. Lady knew what it was like to be left, and it made her heartsick. She promised Mister she’d be home soon. But when she looked into his sad eyes, she wasn’t sure she’d ever see him again.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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Early sketch: “On the night of the big show, the concert hall glowed. At midnight, the houselights dimmed and a spotlight as full as the moon appeared. Slowly, Lady walked to center stage—the hall so quiet you could hear her heels click. Lady trembled. Where was Mister? Was he waiting in the wings? As the band’s notes began, Lady lifted her chin. And when the great Billie Holiday sang…”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“…everyone and a dog held their breath and listened.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As for the question I didn’t have room for in my Q&A last week: I asked Vanessa what is next on her plate. Her response?<\/p>\n

“My desk is always full. I am currently working on a book for Scholastic, called A Cake for George Washington<\/em>, and my ‘first’ Golden Book, called Molly Can Do It<\/em>. I am also working on a line of greeting cards for multicultural\/bi-racial families, called LoveMix. I feel that bi-racial families rarely get to see themselves represented through greetings and special occasion cards. It is my desire to create greetings that reflect a rainbow of people.”<\/p>\n


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

All artwork is \u00a9 2013 by Vanessa Brantley-Newton and used with her permission.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week at Kirkus, I chatted with author\/illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton. That link is here. Today, I share some of her sketches and final art from both Amy Novesky’s Mister and Lady Day: Billie Holiday and the Dog Who Loved Her (Harcourt, June 2013)—the above sketch is from that one—as well as Marie Harris’s The Girl […]<\/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-2603","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\/2603","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=2603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}