{"id":4725,"date":"2018-09-23T00:01:07","date_gmt":"2018-09-23T06:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4725"},"modified":"2018-09-22T12:07:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-22T18:07:21","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-605-featuring-ethan-aldridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4725","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #605: Featuring Ethan Aldridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nI don’t want to tell you too<\/em> much about the plot of Ethan Aldridge’s<\/a><\/strong> graphic novel Estranged<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Harper, August 2018), because should you find a copy to read yourself, I don’t want to have ruined the plot for you. Regular 7-Imp readers may remember that Ethan’s artwork was featured here<\/a><\/strong> at 7-Imp when he was but a student. (EXCITING! to see his debut book be released.)<\/p>\n

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This is a fantasy adventure story, filled with an underground realm, dragons, witches, fairies, and much more. It’s the story of Edmund Carter, who is a changeling swapped for a human child as an infant, his family unaware he has fae powers. In the fae world below lives a human, whom everyone calls merely the Childe. His only friend is a wax golem, named Whick. After a sorceress named Hawthorne attempts to steal the throne, the Childe heads to the human world above him in search of his changeling, who is the real heir. Thus begins a dangerous journey for the child and his changeling \u2014 and Edmund’s sister, Alexis \u2014 who have to quickly<\/em> get to know one another, as well as learn to work together to right both worlds. <\/p>\n

Briskly paced and vividly imagined, this compelling changeling narrative in 15 chapters with small, detailed panels on each spread is captivating, and fantasy fans will be especially enamored. (I certainly hope a sequel follows.) The book’s watercolors are exquisite; this is intricate, thoughtful world-building. The boys’ struggles with identity and familial belonging will resonate with children. <\/p>\n

Today here at 7-Imp, I’ve some final pages, pages in progress, and sketchbook work from the book. I thank Ethan for visiting 7-Imp again and sharing. (And you can also see more here<\/a><\/strong> online.)
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Preliminary images, etc.<\/em>
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Some final art<\/em>
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Ethan: “This photo was taken at the HarperCollins offices and shows most (not all) of
the original pages from the book. (It took up three full conference rooms!)”<\/em>
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\nESTRANGED. Copyright \u00a9 2018 by Ethan M. Aldridge. Published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, New York. All images here reproduced by permission of Ethan Aldridge.<\/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>
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1)<\/strong><\/font> Fall is here!<\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> The poem Little Willow shared<\/a><\/strong> on Friday … <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> … which reminds me of this poem<\/a><\/strong> I saw last week. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> Lunchbox letters. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> New album from Villagers<\/a><\/strong>. (And the last song is called “Ada.” My twelve-year-old gets inordinately excited to hear her name in songs.) <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> My trip to beautiful East Tennessee last weekend. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> It is very exciting to see Ethan’s book. I still remember him emailing me out of the blue in 2012 \u2014 and being wow’ed by his artwork (AND pleasant manners AND bowtie). <\/p>\n

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

(Click to enlarge)   I don’t want to tell you too much about the plot of Ethan Aldridge’s graphic novel Estranged (Harper, August 2018), because should you find a copy to read yourself, I don’t want to have ruined the plot for you. Regular 7-Imp readers may remember that Ethan’s artwork was featured here at […]<\/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-4725","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\/4725","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=4725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}