{"id":3989,"date":"2016-02-14T00:01:55","date_gmt":"2016-02-14T06:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3989"},"modified":"2016-02-13T15:06:42","modified_gmt":"2016-02-13T21:06:42","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-470-featuring-benji-davies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3989","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #470: Featuring Benji Davies"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“It’s got bright, waving things attached to it like huge kites. It’s got colors.
It’s got sound. It’s got, it’s got—WHEELS!”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread)<\/center>
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\nI’ve got a review over at BookPage<\/em> (here<\/a><\/strong>) of Linda Sarah’s<\/a><\/strong> Big Friends<\/em> (Henry Holt, January 2016), illustrated by Benji Davies<\/a><\/strong> and first published in the UK in 2014 as On Sudden Hill<\/em>. And you all know I get twitchy when writing about picture books but not sharing art from the insides of them, so here today are a few spreads from the book. <\/p>\n

And here’s<\/a><\/strong> my March 2015 interview with Benji, if you want to see lots<\/em> more art. <\/p>\n


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“Sometimes they’re kings, soldiers, astronauts. Sometimes they’re pirates sailing wild seas and skies. But always, always, they’re Big friends.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread)<\/center>
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“Birt loves their time together, their Etho-Shu-Birt-iness.
He loves their three-by-three rhythm.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread)<\/center>
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BIG FRIENDS. Copyright \u00a9 2014 by Linda Sarah. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2014 by Benji Davies. First American Edition 2016. Illustrations used by permission of the publisher, Henry Holt and Company, New York.<\/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>
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My kicks 1 through 7 today are about my trip to Chicago last weekend. I was the keynote speaker at a conference on social media and blogging for the Center for Teaching through Children\u2019s Books<\/a><\/strong> at National Louis University. I got to see some old friends and colleagues — and meet new folks. The whole weekend was filled with wonderful conversations about children’s lit. The conference itself was attended by teachers, librarians, and academics. It was a great mix of people. Here’s<\/a><\/strong> a most excellent write-up by a fellow presenter, Mike Lewis. <\/p>\n

Best of all (after you see this photo, you’ll understand why it encompasses for me 7 kicks and beyond), the organizer of the event, the wonderful Junko Yokota<\/a><\/strong>, showed us the picture book library she and her husband, William Teale<\/a><\/strong>, own. It sits in the yard behind their home, and it’s dreamy, you all. It is what my home wants to be when it grows up — it is filled with picture book and picture book art. I’d heard about this legendary library. When I saw it, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. <\/p>\n

Here’s a photo Junko has on file (that I have permission to share), because I was too busy standing there drooling, when I first saw it, to even think<\/em> to take a photo. Here are two photos smushed into one:
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\nRight? Isn’t it incredible? <\/p>\n

Junko and Bill were such gracious hosts. It was a wonderful weekend. <\/p>\n

What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day, one and all. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“It’s got bright, waving things attached to it like huge kites. It’s got colors.It’s got sound. It’s got, it’s got—WHEELS!”(Click to enlarge spread)   I’ve got a review over at BookPage (here) of Linda Sarah’s Big Friends (Henry Holt, January 2016), illustrated by Benji Davies and first published in the UK in 2014 as On […]<\/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-3989","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\/3989","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=3989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}