{"id":4121,"date":"2016-08-14T00:01:17","date_gmt":"2016-08-14T06:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4121"},"modified":"2016-08-14T08:19:42","modified_gmt":"2016-08-14T14:19:42","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-496featuring-jean-jullien-and-mathieu-lavoie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4121","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #496:
Featuring Jean Jullien and Mathieu Lavoie"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Pictured above: Illustration from Mathieu Lavoie’s <\/em>Toto’s Apple
and Jean Jullien’s <\/em>This Is Not a Book<\/center>
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\nI’ve got a bit of an international spin here at 7-Imp today with art from French graphic designer and illustrator Jean Jullien<\/a><\/strong>, as well as author and illustrator Mathieu Lavoie<\/a><\/strong>, who lives in Montreal. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Lavoie’s Toto’s Apple<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, which will be on shelves in October from Phaidon Press and was originally published last year in French, is the story of a determined worm. He spots an apple up high, though he is down low on the ground. He brainstorms various ways to get the apple, and in the end he succeeds (in a rather unexpected manner), but it’s his arduous trip there that makes the book entertaining. There’s a tragic, lamentable helplessness to some of these spreads that made me laugh aloud. (Note the “Toto is devastated” spread below.) There are also leaps in logic that are quite funny to me; you’ll see below that the worm can use a paintbrush. How he can do so without any appendages doesn’t really seem to matter. Children will run with the absurdity of it all. Kirkus<\/em> calls this one a “madcap miniodyssey.” <\/p>\n

Jean Jullien’s This Is Not a Book<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Phaidon, March 2016) is a board book — and a playful, wordless exploration of objects and places that makes effective use of the book’s gutter. There’s no narrative here — just the promise of the book’s title. Instead of a book, there’s a piano, the inside of a fridge, a tennis court, a tool box, and even (pictured below) a tent, which will make young readers want to instantly prop up the board book on its side. (Note the flowers on the right side of the tent spread; that’s because, at that point, the book opens into a gatefold.) <\/p>\n

There’s also this. I’ll leave it here without comment, except to say it could<\/em> be a tree, but I doubt it (given the aforementioned clever use of gutters):
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\n(I love this. Wait, I said “without comment.” Oh well. I do love it.)<\/p>\n

Here are some more spreads from each book. Enjoy!
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From This Is Not a Book<\/em>:<\/font><\/strong><\/center>
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From Toto’s Apple<\/em>:<\/font><\/strong><\/center>
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\n<\/a>
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(Click each spread to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
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\nTOTO’S APPLE. This edition copyright \u00a9 2016 Phaidon Press Limited. Illustrations used by their permission. <\/p>\n

THIS IS NOT A BOOK. Published copyright \u00a9 2016 Phaidon Press Limited. Illustrations used by their 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

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

1)<\/strong><\/font> A friend shared Naomi Shihab Nye’s “So Much Happiness”<\/a><\/strong> with me this week. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> Getting to spend time with this friend. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> Progress on unpacking. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> The house we moved from should go on the market this week. (Whew.) <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> The cat is speaking to us again. (He wasn’t happy about the move.) <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> The girls are excited that we’re reading aloud the new Harry Potter book (er, screenplay). <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Meeting a neighbor. <\/p>\n

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

Pictured above: Illustration from Mathieu Lavoie’s Toto’s Apple and Jean Jullien’s This Is Not a Book   I’ve got a bit of an international spin here at 7-Imp today with art from French graphic designer and illustrator Jean Jullien, as well as author and illustrator Mathieu Lavoie, who lives in Montreal.<\/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-4121","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\/4121","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=4121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}