{"id":5086,"date":"2020-04-19T00:01:17","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T06:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5086"},"modified":"2020-04-18T15:30:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T21:30:15","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-687-featuring-henry-cole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5086","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #687: Featuring Henry Cole"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nHave you seen Henry Cole’s<\/a><\/strong> Nesting<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Katherine Tegen Books, March 2020) yet? The story follows a robin, whom we meet on a spring morning when the ground is covered in frost. The robin sings, calling forth a female robin \u2014 and the two birds build a nest. Once they have finished creating the nest, the mother robins settles in and lays “smooth and blue” eggs. When they hatch, the parents feed their babies and protect them from storms and predators. (There is a satisfying and dramatic encounter with a snake.) Eventually, the baby birds take flight and “grow strong and can feed themselves. Their wings take them anywhere they want to go.” The close of the story, the nest now covered in snow, brings us to winter with the promise of spring arriving again, which is how we readers began this adventure. <\/p>\n

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Cole’s pen and acrylic illustrations use color sparingly; the blue of the eggs pops off the pages, and that same hue is used on the endpages and occasionally for the sky \u2014 but this blue is the only use of color. Cole’s eloquent drawings show much attention to detail, and he uses paneling to great effect in several illustrations. The book closes with facts about robins; Cole was once a science teacher, and his passion for the subject matter is evident here in this author’s note and the elegantly structured story that comes before it. Children will learn about robins (and never once are the birds anthropomorphized). But they can also be reminded of the lengths parents go to in order to take care of their young (whether feathered or not). <\/p>\n

Roger Sutton recently had a Horn Book<\/em> chat with Cole here<\/a><\/strong>. (They primarily discuss another 2020 book from Cole, called One Little Bag: An Amazing Journey<\/em>.) Here are some spreads from Nesting<\/em> so that the art can do the talking.
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“They begin to build a nest. …”<\/em>
(Click either image to see spread in its entirety)<\/center>
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“She lays an egg.
It is smooth and blue.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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“One afternoon, a storm comes! The wind blows and rain pours.
The babies are kept safe. The storm passes.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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“The robins fight back! They dive and swoop!”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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(Click cover to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
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* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

NESTING. Copyright \u00a9 2020 by Henry Cole. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, New York.<\/em> <\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
<\/center><\/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

1)<\/strong><\/font> This beautiful book. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> Reading reading reading … <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> I got to have (another) chat yesterday with author Lois Lowry. This time it was an online event at Brookline Booksmith, a bookstore in the Boston area. That was fun. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> New music. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> Catching up with friends. <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> Health. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Home. <\/p>\n

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

  Have you seen Henry Cole’s Nesting (Katherine Tegen Books, March 2020) yet? The story follows a robin, whom we meet on a spring morning when the ground is covered in frost. The robin sings, calling forth a female robin \u2014 and the two birds build a nest. Once they have finished creating the nest, […]<\/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-5086","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\/5086","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=5086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}