{"id":3928,"date":"2015-11-22T00:01:51","date_gmt":"2015-11-22T06:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3928"},"modified":"2015-11-22T09:19:47","modified_gmt":"2015-11-22T15:19:47","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-459-featuring-csil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3928","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #459: Featuring Csil"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>
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“Yes, but how? Traveling is out of the question!
Cathy is much too weak to go on an expedition.
What to do …? What to do …?
Cathy tries to laugh and tells Eiffel with a wink,
‘You could build us a railway that takes us up to the clouds in a blink.'”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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\nWhen the New York Times<\/em> Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2015<\/strong><\/a> were recently announced, I noticed Alice Bri\u00e8re-Haquet’s<\/a><\/strong> Madame Eiffel: The Love Story of the Eiffel Tower<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, illustrated by Csil<\/a><\/strong>, on the list. Published for English readers this year by Little Gestalten but originally published in French, this book has been sitting in one of many giant stacks of new picture books in my home for a while now, but there’s nothing like the NYT<\/em> list to make you sit up and pay attention and go pull a book out of its pile. <\/p>\n

I can see the pull the book must have had on this year’s judges, especially since the award is given for illustration — and the artwork is elegant, graceful. It’s the story of engineer Gustave Eiffel and his wife, Cathy, “the prettiest girl in Paris.” As the sub-title tells you, it’s a love story. Cathy gets ill, and Eiffel builds the tower in her honor. “Rumor has it that sometimes at night you can see their shadow appear in the street light.” <\/p>\n

Here’s what the judges wrote about Csil’s artwork: <\/p>\n

With a strict palette of black and white with dabs of light rosy red, Csil\u2019s intricate, lacy pen-and-ink illustrations convey Eiffel\u2019s keen attention to detail, along with the allure of Paris and the high-flying ambition of his tower. The effect is romantic and utterly charming, inviting you to look and look at the pages.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here are a couple more spreads from the book so that you can see for yourself. …<\/p>\n


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\n<\/a>
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“Eiffel runs to his workshop and stays there all day, all night, and all week,
only going home to hold Cathy, kiss her, and eat.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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\n<\/a>
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“Oh let her fight a bit longer! She must make it through, she must grow stronger.
But Cathy grows skinny and pale, and one day she feels it’s the end of her tale:
Soon there will be nothing left of the wonderful life that brought her
such joy, such peace, and so little strife.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
\n
 

\nMADAME EIFFEL: THE LOVE STORY OF THE EIFFEL TOWER. The French original edition was published by \u00c9ditions Frimousse \u00a9 2015. English edition published by Little Gestalten, Berlin. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher.<\/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> My ten-year-old’s piano recital. She plays so beautifully. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> What Colbert said. In this video<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> Reading some really great F&Gs of 2016 picture books. I mean, I have a giant<\/em> stack of them, but a couple of these are extra special. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> I forgot to say last week that author-illustrator-graphic novelist Gareth Hinds<\/a><\/strong> did sketches<\/a><\/strong> during the Politics & Prose picture book panel I moderated. Neat. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> MST3K is coming back!<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> Seeing great live music this week. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Baby steps on huge projects. Sometimes that’s all you can get, but it’s some<\/em>thing.<\/p>\n

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

“Yes, but how? Traveling is out of the question!Cathy is much too weak to go on an expedition.What to do …? What to do …?Cathy tries to laugh and tells Eiffel with a wink,‘You could build us a railway that takes us up to the clouds in a blink.’”(Click to enlarge)   When the New […]<\/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-3928","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\/3928","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=3928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3928\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}