{"id":5119,"date":"2020-06-07T00:01:52","date_gmt":"2020-06-07T06:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5119"},"modified":"2020-07-13T14:41:58","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T20:41:58","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-694-featuring-the-2020-bghb-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5119","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #694: Featuring the 2020 BGHB Winners"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nIf you are familiar with the book Saturday<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, written and illustrated by Oge Mora, you’ll recognize the characters in this image above. It’s Ava and her mother, the unforgettable duo of the story. Oge posted this image on Instagram<\/a><\/strong> recently, and she wrote: “Um…look what rockstar librarian @lizzeppelinii made!! Bout passed out when I saw it. SO COOL.”<\/em> The librarian’s name is Liz Braithwaite, and she’s a children’s librarian in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She also sewed Pokko<\/a><\/strong>! I’m in love. <\/p>\n

I’m sharing this, because on May 27 the winners of the 2020 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards<\/a><\/strong> were announced, and Saturday<\/em> won in the Picture Book category. I always<\/em> look forward every summer to the announcement of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winners, but I’m feeling especially celebratory this year, because I had the pleasure of chairing this year’s awards with fellow judges Sujei Lugo and Leo Landry. Last Sunday, I had wanted to do a bit of celebrating of the winners, but I posted something else<\/a><\/strong> instead. But here’s some celebrating at 7-Imp today \u2014 a short something about each book. Come October, they will all be celebrated at the Horn Book’s<\/em> (online) awards ceremony. Details on that later.
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\nNormally on Sundays here at 7-Imp, I list my “kicks” and ask people to join me. Kicks are defined as: “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.” Anyone visiting today is more than welcome to list their seven separate kicks, but I’m going to use my seven spots (plus two) to show you the books that won. Congrats to all the winners!<\/p>\n

Before I get to that, I’d like to say: I know it’s been one hell of a week. I hope everyone reading this is doing as well as can be expected. A couple of things that impacted me this week are: This piece<\/a><\/strong> from Kekla Magoon at the Horn Book<\/em> and this<\/a><\/strong> from author Kimberly Jones. Two kicks have been seeing this street paint<\/a><\/strong> (thank you, Muriel Bowser) and the music of Jake Blount<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As promised, a celebration of nine excellent books: <\/p>\n

1)<\/strong><\/font> Winner in the Picture Book category, Saturday<\/em> by Oge Mora<\/a><\/strong>:
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“Saturdays are wonderful … because I spend them with you.”<\/font><\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

You can head to this 2019 7-Imp post<\/a><\/strong> to see illustrations from the book, as well as some preliminary images from Oge.
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\n2)<\/strong><\/font> Picture Book Honor, Birdsong<\/em> by Julie Flett<\/a><\/strong>:
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“… Agnes says it’s like a poem for her heart.”<\/font><\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

You can visit this 2019 7-Imp post<\/a><\/strong> to see some illustrations from the book.
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\n3)<\/strong><\/font> Picture Book Honor, Pokko and the Drum<\/em> by Matthew Forsythe<\/a><\/strong>:
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“No more eating band members or you’re out of the band.”<\/font><\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

You can visit this 2019 7-Imp post<\/a><\/strong> to see some illustrations from the book, as well as some early images from Matt (including the three coaster paintings that represent the birth of Pokko<\/em>).
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\n4)<\/strong><\/font> Winner in the category of Fiction & Poetry, Kacen Callender’s<\/a><\/strong> King and the Dragonflies<\/em>:
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“The spirits of this world, they don’t stay dead for long.”<\/font><\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Such a beautiful novel. Such eloquent writing. <\/p>\n

You can read the Horn Book<\/em> review of this book here<\/a><\/strong>. Here’s<\/a><\/strong> a Q&A they did with Kacen. Here’s<\/a><\/strong> a recent piece Kacen wrote for the Horn Book<\/em> (their latest issue).
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\n5)<\/strong><\/font> Fiction & Poetry Honor, Elizabeth Acevedo’s<\/a><\/strong> Clap When You Land<\/em>:
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“… all these women \/ here to take me \/ home.”<\/font><\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

A story about loss, grief, devastation, forgiveness, and female badassery. <\/p>\n

Here<\/a><\/strong> is the Kirkus<\/em> review of this free verse novel. Here<\/a><\/strong> is Elizabeth’s 2018 speech for winning the 2018 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (Fiction & Poetry) for The Poet X<\/em>.
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\n6)<\/strong><\/font> Fiction & Poetry Honor, Tae Keller’s<\/a><\/strong> When You Trap a Tiger<\/em>:
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“The world is bigger than what we see.”<\/font><\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Heart. Lots of humor. Korean folklore. And more female badassery. (The fierce, brave girls and women in this book will stay with you.) <\/p>\n

Here<\/a><\/strong> is the Kirkus<\/em> review of this one. Here<\/a><\/strong> is a Horn Book<\/em> Q&A with Tae.
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\n7)<\/strong><\/font> Winner in the Nonfiction category, Ashley Bryan’s<\/a><\/strong> Infinite Hope: A Black Artist’s Journey from World War II to Peace<\/em>:
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“… what is life, if not a voyage of endless discovery.”<\/font><\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

A superb book about what it means to be Black in America \u2014 as a soldier and as an artist. <\/p>\n

You can visit this 2019 7-Imp post<\/a><\/strong> to read more about this book and see some of the interior images.
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\n8)<\/strong><\/font> Nonfiction Honor, It Began With a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way<\/em>, written by Kyo Maclear<\/a><\/strong> and illustrated by Julie Morstad<\/a><\/strong>:
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“But babies cannot wait.”<\/font><\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Somehow, I missed this last year and didn’t blog about it here at 7-Imp. It’s fabulous. Read the Horn Book<\/em> review here<\/a><\/strong>.
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\n9)<\/strong><\/font> Nonfiction Honor, Nikki Grimes’s<\/a><\/strong> Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir<\/em>:
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“Pain can sully your soul, \/ if you let it, \/ and rage held in reserve \/ will turn to sludge, \/ will obstruct the passageway \/ to your heart.”<\/font><\/em><\/center> <\/p>\n

A masterpiece. Read the Horn Book<\/em> review here<\/a><\/strong>. Go to this link<\/a><\/strong>, scroll down, and read even more from and about Nikki. <\/p>\n

* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

Again, all of these books will be celebrated in October. <\/p>\n

If you have kicks to share, please do so in the comments. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  If you are familiar with the book Saturday, written and illustrated by Oge Mora, you’ll recognize the characters in this image above. It’s Ava and her mother, the unforgettable duo of the story. Oge posted this image on Instagram recently, and she wrote: “Um…look what rockstar librarian @lizzeppelinii made!! Bout passed out when I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3,2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-intermediate","category-picture-books","category-young-adult"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5119","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=5119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}