{"id":5160,"date":"2020-08-09T00:01:32","date_gmt":"2020-08-09T06:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5160"},"modified":"2020-08-09T11:10:33","modified_gmt":"2020-08-09T17:10:33","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-703-featuring-jutta-bauer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5160","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #703: Featuring Jutta Bauer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“… play with my children …”<\/em>
(Click to see spread in its entirety)<\/center>
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\nI don’t want to say too<\/em> much about today’s book, a German import written and illustrated by Jutta Bauer<\/a><\/strong>. And that’s because Selma<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (Gecko Press), coming to shelves next month, is a slim, small book, and I don’t want to steal from you the wonders of reading it for the first time. And it’s a small book that asks a big question: What is happiness? <\/p>\n

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Selma the sheep has her basic needs met (spends her morning eating a little grass); enjoys her children and spends time with them; stays active and is healthy (she runs and jumps through grassy fields); has at least one friend (Mrs. Miller, the vulture); and gets plenty of sleep. If she had more time in life, she reports that she would do the same. If she won a million dollars? Why, she’d still do the same. (The Publishers Weekly<\/em> review<\/strong><\/a> of this one calls it a “charming antidote to the clamor of consumerism.” Yes. That!) <\/p>\n

All of this is laid out in a satisfying, perfectly paced text that uses repeition to make its point \u2014 and kicks off with a dog asking a question of a “wise ram.” The illustrations are dryly humored and subtly layered (with the inclusion of the aforementioned dog and a fox). There’s much humor in Bauer’s pen and ink and watercolor artwork with their muted colors; much of this humor is in Selma’s expressive face, but throw in the hand of a reporter, holding a mic, to ask Selma if she’d be happier under what most people would perceive as better conditions. These moments of absurdity also make me laugh. <\/p>\n

Bonus: There’s a lot in this story about contentment that will resonate with the adults sharing it with children. <\/p>\n

Here are some spreads from this pithy and thought-provoking little treatise on the state of well-being so that you can get a sense of the book, but I highly recommend you find your own copy on library or bookstore shelves.
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“Once there was a sheep named Selma.”<\/em>
(Click to see spread in its entirety)<\/center>
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“… exercise in the afternoon …”<\/em>
(Click to see spread in its entirety)<\/center>
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“… have a little chat with Mrs. Miller
in the evening …”<\/em>
(Click to see spread in its entirety)<\/center>
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“Asked what she would do
if she had more time,
Selma replied …”<\/em>
(Click to see spread in its entirety)<\/center>
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“… and finally, fall fast asleep.”<\/em>
(Click to see spread in its entirety)<\/center>
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\nSELMA. Text and illustrations (new edition) \u00a9 2017 LAPPAN Verlag, an imprint of CARLSEN Verlag GmbH, Hamburg, Germany. First published in Germany under the title <\/em>Selma. This edition first published in 2018 by Gecko Press. English-language edition \u00a9 Gecko Press Ltd 2006, 2018. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher.<\/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>
<\/center><\/p>\n

This past week has been an unusually long and tiring one. But much like Selma, my kicks are my health, happiness, and family. This book, in fact, makes me think of the way my husband sees the world, and it’s good to have a partner like that. <\/p>\n

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

“… play with my children …”(Click to see spread in its entirety)   I don’t want to say too much about today’s book, a German import written and illustrated by Jutta Bauer. And that’s because Selma (Gecko Press), coming to shelves next month, is a slim, small book, and I don’t want to steal from […]<\/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-5160","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\/5160","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=5160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}