{"id":3801,"date":"2015-07-26T00:01:44","date_gmt":"2015-07-26T06:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3801"},"modified":"2015-07-31T20:01:05","modified_gmt":"2015-08-01T02:01:05","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-442-featuring-beatrice-alemagna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3801","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #442: Featuring Beatrice Alemagna"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“This morning I heard my sister says these words:
‘birthday—Mommy—fuzzy—little—squishy.’
‘Oh, no!’ I thought. ‘She’s going to give Mom the most amazing present!’
I had to do something too. But what?”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread)<\/center>
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\nToday I’ve got some illustrations from Beatrice Alemagna’s<\/a><\/strong> The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. Originally published in France last year, it’s coming to American shelves in September from Enchanted Lion Books. <\/p>\n

Look closely on the title page spread, and you’ll see a quote from Fifi Brindacier (a.k.a. Pippi Longstocking, as she’s known in France):<\/p>\n

It’s best for young children to live an orderly life. Especially if they order it themselves.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I love this, and it’s the perfect fit for this story, in which a five-and-a-half-year-old girl named Edith (but her friends call her Eddie) sets out to find a fuzzy little squishy. <\/p>\n


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\nEddie has overheard her sister talking about their mother’s birthday, while using the words “fuzzy—little—squishy.” Not to be outdone, Eddie heads out to find a spectacular present. She asks the baker for help — and then she heads to the florist, Mimi’s clothing shop, the antique dealer, and the butcher shop. After all, each of these friends (even the very grouchy butcher) has fluffy and\/or little and\/or squishy items in their shops. Just when she’s about to give up, she sees it — “an adorable little creature! … A true FLUFFY LITTLE SQUISHY, at last!” She’s found the present for her mother, and as it turns out, a fluffy little squishy has “a thousand uses.” (Anyone other librarians thinking how great it would be to pair this book with Charlotte Zolotow’s<\/a><\/strong> Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, illustrated by Sendak<\/a><\/strong>?) <\/p>\n

There’s a lot to like here, including Alemagna’s vivid mixed-media illustrations (or what appear to be mixed-media to me), as well as the cast of characters in Eddie’s community that she visits on her quest. Eddie leaps off the page in her neon pink jacket, and she brims with character. Best of all, she manages to find precisely what she’s looking for—rather, she manages to create<\/em> just the gift she wants—-and this is especially triumphant, given that she says on the book’s first spread, “I don’t know how to do anything.” This is one girl’s journey of self-discovery — and along the way she picks up a bit of self-confidence to boot. <\/p>\n

Here are some more of the colorful illustrations to pore over. …<\/p>\n


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“So off I ran to Mr. John the baker.
With all of his wonderful squishy things, he had to be able to help me.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread)<\/center>
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“I went to every shop in the neighborhood, but nobody knew anything.
In the center of town was Theo’s butcher shop. The big grump was my last hope.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread)<\/center>
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\nTHE WONDERFUL FLUFFY LITTLE SQUISHY. Copyright \u00a9 2015 by Enchanted Lion for the English-language translation. Illustrations reproduced by permission of Enchanted Lion, Brooklyn.<\/em><\/p>\n

* * *<\/center><\/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

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
<\/center><\/p>\n

1)<\/strong><\/font> Picture book imports like this one. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> Invitations. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> A bit of home decluttering that really needed to happen. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> New tracks<\/a><\/strong> from Laura Marling. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> I got a late start to the show Veep<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, but my God, it’s funny. <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> A crisis averted and … <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> … the kindness of strangers. <\/p>\n

What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“This morning I heard my sister says these words:‘birthday—Mommy—fuzzy—little—squishy.’‘Oh, no!’ I thought. ‘She’s going to give Mom the most amazing present!’I had to do something too. But what?”(Click to enlarge spread)   Today I’ve got some illustrations from Beatrice Alemagna’s The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy. Originally published in France last year, it’s coming to American […]<\/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-3801","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\/3801","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=3801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}