{"id":4989,"date":"2019-11-10T00:01:40","date_gmt":"2019-11-10T06:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4989"},"modified":"2019-11-09T14:12:16","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T20:12:16","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-663-featuring-angel-chang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4989","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #663: Featuring Angel Chang"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nDave Eggers’s<\/a><\/strong> Most of the Better Natural Things in the World<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Chronicle, November 2019), illustrated by Angel Chang<\/a><\/strong>, follows a white tiger. She carries a chair on her back, lugging it across the globe and across various landscapes \u2014 a gorge, a valley, a lagoon, an alpine lake, a chaparral, a tundra, and much more. Each spread contains the name of each geographic settting. She stops to sit and take in a breathtaking vista (pictured below) that appears in a dramatic double gatefold spread. The book closes with a four-page glossary that gives more information on each landscape. <\/p>\n

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Taiwanese illustrator Angel Chang makes her picture book debut here. Her author’s bio in the book notes that she illustrated it “with the hope that [it] will encourage people to see the world and to take care of our planet, so the beauty can be around for younger generations.” Chang’s palette is particularly striking \u2014 her cool blues and greens, rich purples, and glowing orange and red shades \u2014 but there’s a lot to love here. Playing with perspective and scale, she showcases the planet in all its glory. The tiger makes for a welcome companion, and the tale ends in a happy surprise when readers discover precisely why she is traversing the globe with a chair on her back. <\/p>\n

The starred Kirkus<\/em> review describes this one as an “artistic envisioning of a list poem, of sorts, about place”; I love that. Yes. Here are a couple more spreads so that the art can speak for itself.
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\nMOST OF THE BETTER NATURAL THINGS IN THE WORLD. Text copyright \u00a9 2019 by Dave Eggers. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2019 by Angel Chang and reproduced by permission of the publisher, Chronicle Books, San Francisco.<\/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> Saw Ta-Nehisi Coates<\/a><\/strong> speak on Wednesday night. Can’t wait to start the new novel. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> Watching Booksmart<\/a><\/strong><\/em> with my daughters. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> FIIINNNNAAALLLLYYYY showing them Pan’s Labyrinth<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, which I’ve wanted them to see for years<\/em>. (I was waiting till they were old enough for, you know, the violence in the film.) I. love. that. movie. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> A delicious meal and good conversation with friends. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> Starting this as a read-aloud with my daughters:
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\n6)<\/strong><\/font> His Dark Materials<\/em> on HBO! <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Andrew Bird<\/a><\/strong> released a Christmas EP<\/a><\/strong>. You don’t think you need to hear someone whistling “Oh Holy Night” \u2014 until you do. (My daughters let<\/em> me play the EP in the house, even though they strictly forbid all holiday stuff until after Thanksgiving.) <\/p>\n

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

(Click to enlarge spread)   Dave Eggers’s Most of the Better Natural Things in the World (Chronicle, November 2019), illustrated by Angel Chang, follows a white tiger. She carries a chair on her back, lugging it across the globe and across various landscapes \u2014 a gorge, a valley, a lagoon, an alpine lake, a chaparral, […]<\/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-4989","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\/4989","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=4989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}