{"id":2606,"date":"2013-07-23T00:01:37","date_gmt":"2013-07-23T06:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2606"},"modified":"2013-07-23T00:01:45","modified_gmt":"2013-07-23T06:01:45","slug":"catching-up-with-cordell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2606","title":{"rendered":"Catching Up with Cordell"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pictured above is author\/illustrator Matthew Cordell’s<\/a><\/strong> contribution to Peter Reynolds’<\/a><\/strong> International Dot Day<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Matt’s had a busy year, what with several illustrated picture book releases. I thought I’d give 7-Imp readers a sneak peek inside a few of them, as well as some ALA drawings. (I’ll explain below.) Let’s get to it. <\/p>\n

The latest picture book is What Floats in a Moat?<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Simon & Schuster, July 2013), written by Lynne Berry (who is evidently from middle Tennessee, just like Yours Truly) and all about … well, the displacement of water. Yep, it’s fun with physics — with what Publishers Weekly<\/em> in their starred review calls “eccentric and loveable” characters. Archimedes<\/a><\/strong>, the Greek physicist who experimented with and discovered the displacement of water, doesn’t appear in the story (though, as you can see below, he’s in the closing Author’s Note), but there is<\/em> a goat named Archie. He and his friend, Skinny the Hen, are trying to get across a moat. The Kirkus<\/em> review for the book praises Matt’s very funny and entertaining illustrations. In fact, I wish I had the book’s most colorful spread here to show you — where the hen and goat realize that their barrel of a boat both sank and<\/em> floated. This spread made me laugh outloud, but here’s some other art from the book:<\/p>\n


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“‘Heave, heave, heave-<\/em>UMPH!‘
The barrel, with goat, splashed into the moat—“<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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Tiffany Strelitz Haber’s<\/a><\/strong> Ollie and Claire<\/a><\/em><\/strong> was released in April by Philomel and tells the story of two dogs. Ollie and Claire do just about everything together, but when Claire starts to feel bored and yearns for an adventure, she figures she’ll embark on a journey and that Ollie won’t mind if she heads out — that is, until she starts to feel tremendous guilt for leaving him. I won’t give away the ending, should you want to read this yourself or with your favorite child, but here are some of what Publishers Weekly<\/em> calls Matt’s “typically energetic pencil-and-watercolor artwork”:<\/p>\n


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Title page illustration<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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“Ollie and Claire were a tightly knit pair, like hot buttered biscuits and jam.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\n


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“Dinner each night: bologna on white, promptly at 7:15.
But Claire was aware that she needed a change.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“I’m bored with this ho-hum routine.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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“Claire started dreaming of pirate-ship sightings and meeting a mermaid or two.
‘Ollie won’t mind if I leave him behind—this is nothing he <\/em>ever would do.'”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center><\/p>\n


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“…he said ‘I can’t play for a couple of days…
I’ve got to take care of some stuff.'”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“She penned him a note. <\/em>I’m so sorry, she wrote. <\/em>And maybe you aren’t aware.
But I’m going away, and I’ll miss you each day…”<\/center><\/p>\n


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Endpaper images<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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And Tamera Will Wissinger’s<\/a><\/strong> Gone Fishing: A Novel in Verse<\/a><\/em><\/strong> was also released earlier this year (March, Houghton Mifflin). This is Wissinger’s debut book and includes a wide variety of poetry, all telling the story of one boy’s day of fishing. This one was met with good reviews, all around. Here are some of Matt’s interior images from the book: <\/p>\n


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“Dark night. \/ Flashlight. \/ Dad and I hunt worms tonight. …”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“For fishing tomorrow \/ it’s just us two. … \/
Just Dad and me. \/ Fishing.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“This <\/em>princess doll does not belong!”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“Finally, Lucy completed her \/ Packing — at \/
Last we are all on the \/ Road to the lake. …”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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From a poem for two voices, “I See Something”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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From the free verse poem, “Crossing the Lake”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“Send me a fish that is lively and long. \/ One that is sturdy, stupendous, and strong. …”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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“Grandpa! Mom! We have a big surprise!
We’ve brought a feast—can you believe your eyes? …”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


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From a poem for three voices, “We Love Fishing”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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Finally, just for fun: <\/p>\n

Matt tells me he did a bunch of stream-of-consciousness pen and ink drawings at the recent ALA Annual in Chicago, drawings he then distributed at his book signings. “The ones attached here are some of my favorites,” he added. <\/p>\n

Oh, how I love these. Enjoy!<\/p>\n


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

All artwork is \u00a9 2013 by Matthew Cordell and used with his permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pictured above is author\/illustrator Matthew Cordell’s contribution to Peter Reynolds’ International Dot Day. Matt’s had a busy year, what with several illustrated picture book releases. I thought I’d give 7-Imp readers a sneak peek inside a few of them, as well as some ALA drawings. (I’ll explain below.) Let’s get to it.<\/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-2606","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\/2606","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=2606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}