{"id":4321,"date":"2017-04-16T00:01:24","date_gmt":"2017-04-16T06:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4321"},"modified":"2017-04-15T18:00:52","modified_gmt":"2017-04-16T00:00:52","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-530-featuring-sydney-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4321","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #530: Featuring Sydney Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"


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“We go so high I can see far out to sea.”<\/em><\/center>
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\nI’ve got a review over at BookPage<\/em> of Joanne Schwartz’s Town Is by the Sea<\/em> (Groundwood, April 2017), illustrated by Sydney Smith<\/a><\/strong>. You can head here<\/a><\/strong> to read the review, but let me say one more time here at 7-Imp: This is one of the most beautiful picture books you’ll see this year. In fact, this is one of the most beautiful picture books you’ll ever see. (Those are some serious words, but I mean them.) <\/p>\n

I’m following up here at 7-Imp today with some art from the book, and Sydney also sent what he calls some sketches and B-sides. I thank him for sharing. <\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n


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Sketches and B-sides:<\/em><\/font><\/strong><\/center>
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\n<\/a>
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Sketches of two spreads in the book<\/em>
(Click each to enlarge)<\/center>
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Early cover sketches<\/em><\/center>
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Underside of dust jacket (not used in final book)<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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Final Art:<\/em><\/font><\/strong><\/center>
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\n<\/a>
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“From my house, I can see the sea.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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“It goes like this — house, road, grassy cliff, sea.
And town spreads out, this way and that.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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“And I know my father is already deep down under that sea, digging for coal.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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“I don’t care. I stand in the baby one, and my friend swings on the big one.
We go so high butterflies rush through my stomach. …”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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\n<\/a>
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“It’s so sunny today. … the sea is sparkling.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge)<\/center>
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\n<\/a>
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“… I think about the bright days of summer and the dark tunnels underground.
One day, it will be my turn.”<\/em>
(Click either image to see spread in its entirety)<\/center>
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\n<\/a>
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(Click to enlarge cover)<\/em><\/center>
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\nTOWN IS BY THE SEA. Copyright \u00a9 2017 by Joanne Schwartz. Illustrations \u00a9 2017 by Sydney Smith. Published by Groundwood Books, Toronto. All images reproduced by permission of Sydney Smith.<\/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> This book, you all. I mean, it’s achingly beautiful. <\/p>\n

1\u00bd)<\/strong><\/font> MST3K<\/a><\/strong> is back! <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> We saw Kedi<\/a><\/em><\/strong> and enjoyed it. I was impressed by my cat-loving daughters’ abilities to not<\/em> squeal throughout the entire movie, given that it was a quiet, little movie theatre. (They squeal pretty much every time they see a cat.) Such restraint was required. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> The 11-year-old’s glee over getting glasses, which she has always wanted (not to mention it was definitely time<\/em>), as well as her glee when we stumbled upon a new Lumberjanes<\/a><\/strong><\/em> volume, as well as the first volume in the series where the Lumberjanes<\/em> and Gotham Academy<\/a><\/strong><\/em> unite. (How did I miss these had come out? Bad librarian. But seeing my daughter’s joy when she unexpectedly saw them at the bookstore was pretty great.) <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> Fifth-grade band concerts. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> Gearing up to teach my picture book grad course for the University of Tennessee this summer. <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> Friends who drop by. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> One of my kicks (always) is my friend, Susannah. She founded a fantastic non-profit organization here in middle Tennessee, called Plant the Seed<\/a><\/strong>. They’ve applied for a grant that would provide $100,000 smackaroos to help them do the good work they do, which is teaching children at under-resourced schools all about gardening and where their food comes from. You can see a video here<\/a><\/strong> all about what they do, and please consider voting! It’s so quick and easy, and you’ll be supporting an excellent cause. <\/p>\n

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

“We go so high I can see far out to sea.”   I’ve got a review over at BookPage of Joanne Schwartz’s Town Is by the Sea (Groundwood, April 2017), illustrated by Sydney Smith. You can head here to read the review, but let me say one more time here at 7-Imp: This is one […]<\/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-4321","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\/4321","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=4321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}