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See that little girl above and the look on her face? That is not only how I feel in the mornings before I’ve had the life-blood that is coffee (apparently, I’m a clich\u00e9 of a coffee-drinker), but it’s also what happens when you have a pet raptor and they wake you up very early and reject the breakfast you put out for them. <\/p>\n
And this young girl would know. Or well … she hopes<\/em> to know. Her story, George O’Connor’s<\/a><\/strong> If I Had a Raptor<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Candlewick, May 2014), is written entirely in this subjunctive mood (“if I had a raptor …” — not when<\/em>). That is, we never find out if she actually gets one (though who knew raptors were so similar to cats in every way?). <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “If I had a raptor, I’d want to get her as a baby, when she’s all teensy and tiny and funny and fluffy,”<\/em> the girl tells us right off the bat. She’s thought long and hard about this, and she freely imagines her life with this new pet. There’s a lot of humor in the pet-owner relationship here, and O’Connor makes both the girl and the raptor thoroughly lovable and even downright adorable without being too saccharine about it. The Publishers Weekly<\/em> review writes: “A master cartoonist who strikes an ideal balance between visual sophistication and warmth, O\u2019Connor … does wonderful things with the gap between the hopes and dreams of the narrator, a small girl with wonderfully expressive pigtails, and the reality of pet ownership.”<\/p>\n It’s true, and one gets the sense that O’Connor had some serious fun<\/em> making these pencil and watercolor drawings (with a bit of what he calls “digital tweakery”). There is a looseness and energy to his line drawings that really make these cartoons kick<\/em>. <\/p>\n Here are a couple of spreads … <\/p>\n Photo (below) of M.T. Anderson is used with his permission.<\/em> <\/p>\n 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 1)<\/strong><\/font> It’s been wonderful to see the responses to the ongoing push for diversity in children’s literature. This booklist<\/a><\/strong> at School Library Journal<\/em>? YES. <\/p>\n 2)<\/strong><\/font> And this photo from M. T. Anderson<\/a><\/strong>? One of my favorite responses to the diversity meme:<\/p>\n 3)<\/strong><\/font> A friend sent me this Billy Collins poem, which I’d not read before — “On Turning Ten.”<\/a><\/strong> (I have a ten-year-old, so … well.)<\/p>\n Interesting that he chooses ten. Normally, you read so much about how pivotal age twelve is (and twelve’s inherent anxieties are well-represented in children’s literature). <\/p>\n 4)<\/strong><\/font> As of this week, my co-author and I are finally, fully, unimpeachably done with our work on the book—all permissions, all re-writes, EVERYthing—which is coming out in August. <\/p>\n 5)<\/strong><\/font> Willie Watson<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/ifihadaraptorcoveruse.JPG\")
O’Connor is well-known for his series of graphic novels from First Second Books about the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology — and mighty good books they are. (Here’s<\/a><\/strong> my 2011 Kirkus<\/em> Q&A with him.) But he’s also written and illustrated picture books, and this is his latest. <\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/9780763660123.int.1small.jpg\")
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\nIF I HAD A RAPTOR. Copyright \u00a9 2014 by George O\u2019Connor. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.<\/em> <\/p>\n
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