{"id":4476,"date":"2017-10-22T00:01:36","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T06:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4476"},"modified":"2017-10-25T09:30:20","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T15:30:20","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-557featuring-natalia-and-lauren-ohara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4476","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #557:
Featuring Natalia and Lauren O’Hara"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nToday, I’ve an original, modern fairy tale for you, dear Imps. I’m featuring a story the creators, sisters Natalia and Lauren O’Hara<\/a><\/strong>, describe as “a dark fairy tale, inspired by the stories our Polish grandma told on snowy nights.” Hortense and the Shadow<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Little, Brown) will be on shelves early next month. <\/p>\n

The protagonist of this lyrical, atmospheric tale (which I think would make Florence Parry Heide<\/a><\/strong> proud) is a young girl named Hortense (I love this), and she lives “through the dark and wolfish woods” and “the white and silent snow.” Hortense is kind and brave, but she’s also sad and, to be precise about it, quite frustrated — because she would like to be sans shadow. Everywhere she goes, her shadow goes, “tall and dark and crooked,” and she’s weary of it. She even figures that her shadow hates her too. One day, she manages to cleave her shadow via slamming down the sash of a window. The shadow puts up a fight but eventually wanders off in the dusk.
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\nLater, thinking she’s safe, Hortense is accosted by bandits, but her shadow appears to save the day. I won’t ruin the surprise of how<\/em> for you (though there are hints in the art below), but it’s pretty flippin’ cool. <\/p>\n

Natalia and Lauren live in northern England. The book actually came with a note from the two of them—not a personal note to me, mind you, but one the publisher distributed with review copies—that I love. It explains more about how the two sisters knew they wanted to grow up to write (Natalia) and illustrate (Lauren) stories — and each other’s<\/em> stories, to be exact. I’ve linked to the letter here<\/strong><\/a>. “What if Hortense died, and became the shadow?” made me laugh out loud. I love their mother already.
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(Click either image to see spread in its entirety)<\/em><\/center>
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\nLauren’s illustrations, featuring dark, spectral, snowy landscapes (perfect for a Winter read), are lush and delicate, and observant readers will spot the bandits early in the story. It’s a promising debut. I hope we see more from the sisters, and maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll see further stories about Hortense. <\/p>\n

Here are some more spreads, since the beautiful art says much more than I can. …
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(Click either image to see spread in its entirety)<\/em><\/center>
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(Click either image to see spread in its entirety)<\/em><\/center>
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(Click either image to see spread in its entirety)<\/em><\/center>
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(Click either image to see spread in its entirety)<\/em><\/center>
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“‘Oh, shadow,’ said Hortense. ‘I saw things all wrong.
In the dark you were long to make me taller. …'”(Click to enlarge spread)<\/em><\/center>
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\nHORTENSE AND THE SHADOW. Copyright \u00a9 2017 Natalia O’Hara and Lauren O’Hara. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, Little, Brown and Company, New York.<\/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> Bike rides on beautiful days. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> The laughs and looks of utter delight I got at Parnassus story time yesterday when I read Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen’s The Wolf, the Mouse, & the Duck<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> Plus, a child at story time requested Where the Wild Things Are<\/em>. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> My daughters’ friends. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> This<\/a><\/strong> from Margaret Renkl (who lives here in Nashville!). <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> A Ghost Story<\/em><\/a><\/strong>. (I saw it two weeks ago, but it’s a movie that has lingered in my brain.) <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Subbing in my daughters’ school library. <\/p>\n

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

  Today, I’ve an original, modern fairy tale for you, dear Imps. I’m featuring a story the creators, sisters Natalia and Lauren O’Hara, describe as “a dark fairy tale, inspired by the stories our Polish grandma told on snowy nights.” Hortense and the Shadow (Little, Brown) will be on shelves early next month. The protagonist […]<\/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-4476","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\/4476","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=4476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}