{"id":3864,"date":"2015-09-27T00:01:13","date_gmt":"2015-09-27T06:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3864"},"modified":"2015-09-26T19:24:58","modified_gmt":"2015-09-27T01:24:58","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-451-featuring-joyce-wan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3864","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #451: Featuring Joyce Wan"},"content":{"rendered":"


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“Ten! Ugh!”
A final spread, followed by its sketch<\/em><\/center>
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\nWe’re going to say goodbye to summer today, dear kickers, with a book I had meant to post about during the summer months — but better late than never. We’ll use this opportunity to wave farewell to swimming outside and lounging in the sun, since this past week marked the first day of Autumn. <\/p>\n

If you read about picture books as often as I do, you may have seen the New York Times<\/em> coverage<\/strong><\/a> in May of Joyce Wan’s<\/a><\/strong> The Whale in My Swimming Pool<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Farrar Straus Giroux, April 2015), where Emily Jenkins wrote, in part:<\/p>\n

Wan is a greeting card designer and the creator of many board books. Her curvilinear and comforting style recalls Hello Kitty and other Japanese pop art in its fat dark lines and squat characters, but the hero has an antic physicality and a wide range of emotional expressions. Her world feels safe and joyful, even as the hero experiences anger and frustration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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This is the story of a boy who heads out on a warm summer day to the tiny kiddie pool in his yard, only to find a whale occupying it. (“Never has a young child shared anything so awesome as a kiddie pool completely without conflict,” wrote Jenkins.) It’s funny stuff, as you can see in the illustrations here today: The mammoth whale is perched atop the wee pool, balanced perfectly. The boy tries various ways to get the whale out of the pool — to no avail. But that doesn’t mean there’s not a happy ending. There’s, to be exact, a happy ending followed immediately by a bit of a comic rimshot, which you can see below. <\/p>\n

It’s a funny book with an endearing main character children will root for, and I thank Joyce for visiting today to share some art from it. <\/p>\n

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Opening endpapers<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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“Whoa . . . A whale?!”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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“Mooooooom, there’s a whale in my swimming pool. …”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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“Why <\/em>my pool? Why not the pool next door?
They have the best pool on the block!”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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“Wouldn’t you rather swim with other whales? What if we taken turns? …”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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“I give up. Wait a minute. I have an idea! …”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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“Oh, great. He snores!”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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Closing endpapers<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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\nTHE WHALE IN MY SWIMMING POOL. Copyright \u00a9 2015 by Joyce Wan. Published by Farrar Straus Giroux, New York. Illustrations used by permission of Joyce Wan.<\/em><\/p>\n

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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>
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1)<\/strong><\/font> The intro to this post makes me think of “Olivia” from Lowland Hum<\/a><\/strong>, where they sing “get your body in the water before it turns Fall.” <\/p>\n