{"id":4956,"date":"2019-09-22T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T06:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4956"},"modified":"2019-09-21T11:41:47","modified_gmt":"2019-09-21T17:41:47","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-656-featuring-zachariah-ohora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4956","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #656: Featuring Zachariah OHora"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nSee that guy on the right? That’s Reuben of Troop 73, and he’s not the most self-aware dude. He is, in fact, the king of false accusations. He’s peed his pants, blames it on everyone else, and never really comes to understand that it’s his own doing. In fact, in the end he blames his pants. (“Thanks for nothing, leaky broken pants! Making me blame all my super great friends.”) <\/p>\n

This is the story of Bob Shea’s<\/a><\/strong> Who Wet My Pants?<\/em> (Little, Brown, September 2019), illustrated by Zachariah OHora<\/a><\/strong>. Child readers looooove<\/em> to be one-up on the protagonist in a story. They’ll recognize that Reuben has \u2014 heaven bless him, it happens to the best of us \u2014 had an accident yet can’t accept it. He’d rather play the blame game, which … hey, it’s a tempting thing for even the non-narcissistic among us.
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\nCue hysterical laughter from preschool-age readers, especially those who have just nailed the whole potty thing. There’s a whole lot of hyperbolic humor here (“THESE PANTS ARE BROKEN!”), as only Bob Shea can deliver it, and OHora fills these illustrations with entertaining details, as only he can \u2014 the Scout badges on the opening and closing endpapers (“future podcaster” may be my favorite); the donut clock in the Silly Donuts shop; the board games at Reuben’s home (Clueless and Trivial Bearsuit); and even his dedication at the front of the book (“For everyone who remembered to lift the seat and close the lid when they were finished”). <\/p>\n

At the heart of this very funny story is … well, a lot of heart. But it’s not saccharine-sweet. (Bob Shea wouldn’t do that to us.) Reuben’s friends may recognize he’s got a few<\/em> issues with coping mechanisms (or as the cover says: “It’s not the crime … it’s the cover-up”) \u2014 we all<\/em> have a friend like that \u2014 but they’re still there for him in the end. And not just because he brings donuts. <\/p>\n

Below are some illustrations from the book, and Zachariah also shares some preliminary artwork. …
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Preliminary Images:<\/font><\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n

Zachariah<\/font><\/strong>: [This image below is] when we first envisioned the book. I thought it would be fun if Reuben and friends were meeting at a bookstore for their weekly book club. The bookstore was kind of a mash-up of some famous London bookstores, and it was called Doyle Books after Sir Conan Doyle. There\u2019s even a Sherlock hat as part of the logo, as this is clearly a mystery story. I can\u2019t remember who thought of it, but somewhere along the way it got switched so that it was a scout troop in the woods.
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\nThis is the first version where Reuben\u2019s friends see his wet pants:
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\n[These are] early versions of our bear hero. The little guy with the pink pants was named Spencer at the time.
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\nA sample for the pitch:
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(Click to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
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Some Final Art:<\/font><\/strong><\/center>
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* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

WHO WET MY PANTS? Text copyright \u00a9 2019 by Bob Shea. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2019 by Zachariah OHora and reproduced by permission of the publisher, Little, Brown and Company, New York. All other images reproduced by permission of Zachariah OHora.<\/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> Brunch with a friend on a weekday. I got behind on work that day, but it was worth it to catch up. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> THE. MOST. DELICIOUS. CUPCAKES. WITH CREAMY CENTERS.<\/strong><\/font> From a local bakery.<\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> This fabulous graphic novel, and now I’m so ready to visit a pumpkin patch:
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\n4)<\/strong><\/font> Could it be?!!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> The 2019 National Book Awards longlist was announced this past week, and as it turns out, I’m currently reading and enjoying two of the books listed in the category of Young People’s Literature<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> Greta<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Making a playlist of my favorite songs from high school. It does make me feel old. But as someone I love always says, getting old is better than the alternative. <\/p>\n

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

  See that guy on the right? That’s Reuben of Troop 73, and he’s not the most self-aware dude. He is, in fact, the king of false accusations. He’s peed his pants, blames it on everyone else, and never really comes to understand that it’s his own doing. In fact, in the end he blames […]<\/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-4956","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\/4956","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=4956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}