{"id":4748,"date":"2018-10-28T00:01:48","date_gmt":"2018-10-28T06:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4748"},"modified":"2018-11-03T13:58:15","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T19:58:15","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-610-featuring-arthur-geisert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4748","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #610: Featuring Arthur Geisert"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nArthur Geisert’s latest book, Pumpkin Island<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Enchanted Lion, October 2018), is set in the very place the author-illustrator calls home \u2014 Elkader, a small city in northeast Iowa. In this story, a storm arrives, sweeping a pumpkin down the river. After it breaks into pieces and arrives on a small island, the seeds sprout, vines stretch, and before anyone knows it, the vines have stretched across the bridge and into town \u2014 and pumpkins begin to appear everywhere. <\/p>\n

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To say the townsfolk are excited by the appearance of so many pumpkins is an understatement. They do fun and “sometimes, even dangerous things” with the pumpkins; they even build catapults and fling them across town. They decorate with them, cook with them, build a festival around them, build with the biggest of them (some become boats and “little houses”), and more: “The pumpkins were everywhere!” Right after they become problematic, they are gathered and lit for the “biggest Halloween celebration ever.” <\/p>\n

If the legendary Geisert is new to you, by chance, he is \u2014 as this newspaper piece<\/a><\/strong> (local to Iowa) notes \u2014 77 years old and has been creating children\u2019s books for more than 40 years. The illustrations in this book were made from copperplate etchings (first hand-printed and then hand-colored with watercolors), and they include buildings he passes every day. (I love how in that piece, he says about his city: \u201cI\u2019m able to walk to everything, grocery store, drugstore, post office, bank, everything is easy walking distance. That\u2019s why I\u2019m here.”)<\/p>\n

I like this strange, sprawling story, one that includes elements of the fantastical and magical, about a town overrun by orange, and the spread in which we see that Halloween has arrived is striking. Below is a bit more art from the book.
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“The pumpkin broke into pieces when it hit a small island. The soil there was very rich,
so before long, the pumpkin’s seeds began to sprout.
Vines grew and stretched across the river, all the way to the bridge.”<\/em>
(Click either image to see spread in its entirety)<\/center>
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“When Main Street was all filled up with pumpkins, the town held its very first
pumpkin festival. People made pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie,
and sweet pumpkin spice to serve with their coffee.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread)<\/center>
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“And they just kept growing. They became such a problem that people started
carting them away to the abandoned stone quarry.”<\/em>
(Click either image to see spread in its entirety)<\/center>
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\nPUMPKIN ISLAND. Text and illustration copyright \u00a9 2018 by Arthur Geisert. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, Enchanted Lion, 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>
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I’m typing this on Saturday, having just read the news about the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. It is so, so sad, and the President’s toxic response (more guns, more guns, more guns) is no help.<\/p>\n

May some of the music I heard this week do some small part to bring comfort. <\/p>\n

1)<\/strong><\/font> Here is a group of talented musicians (Brandi Carlile, Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, and Jerry Douglas) covering a song I’ve loved a (very) long time, “Calling All Angels” by Jane Siberry:
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