{"id":5377,"date":"2021-07-11T00:01:35","date_gmt":"2021-07-11T06:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5377"},"modified":"2021-07-10T19:18:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-11T01:18:28","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-751-featuring-ramon-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5377","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #751: Featuring Ram\u00f3n Par\u00eds"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“Faoro made the wedding rings and a small surprise for Night: gold settings for her fangs. The alligator showed them off to the delight of the all the guests.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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\nToday’s featured picture book is a Venezuelan import. The Caiman<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (Amazon Crossing Kids, July 2021) \u2014 written by Mar\u00eda Eugenia Manrique<\/a><\/strong>, illustrated by Ram\u00f3n Par\u00eds<\/a><\/strong>, and translated by Amy Brill \u2014 was originally published in 2019 but has arrived on American shelves this month. <\/p>\n

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The author (also an artist) is one of the children portrayed in the book (as a child, her bio says, she rode the caiman), which tells the real-life story of Jos\u00e9 Faoro. A girl discovers a baby alligator, “a river caiman,” and the town jeweler and watchmaker, Faoro himself, decides to take the creature to his home in San Fernando de Apure. Naming the caiman “Night,” he tends to and essentially domesticates her, building a freshwater pond in his backyard for the creature. People from all over town come to see the pet caiman. Night is devoted to Faoro: “Each morning, Night climbed into Faoro’s bed to wake him up by resting her head on his lap.” The children in town are fascinated and come to visit Night often. <\/p>\n

When Faoro falls in love with a woman named Angela, she and Night meet. (“At their first meeting, Night wrapped herself around Faoro’s legs and stared at Angela. Angela was terrified. But Faoro took her hands between his own, and together they strokoed the alligator’s head.”) At the wedding, Faoro creates gold settings for Night’s fangs, who is a part of the ceremony (as pictured above). The book closes with, years later, Faoro’s death and Night’s subsequent grief. Backmatter includes a note about Faoro with a bit more information about him and the caiman he came to love. <\/p>\n

Par\u00eds, born in Venezuela and currently living in Barcelona, rendered these intricate, textured illustrations via markers, Chienese ink-brush, and digital media. His spreads are detailed and busy, but never too<\/em> busy \u2014 he knows just where to draw readers’ eyes. Manrique writes with a reverent tenderness of the special bond between Faoro and the caiman (as well as, later, Angela). Here are some spreads from the book so that you can see for yourself. …
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“Faoro took Night to his workshop with him each day. …”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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“Years passed. Night grew until she was ten feet long.
Ten feet of a quiet and happy life.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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(Click cover to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
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\nTHE CAIMAN. Text copyright \u00a9 2019 by Mar\u00eda Eugenia Manrique. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2019 by Ram\u00f3n Par\u00eds. Translation copyright \u00a9 2021 by Amy Brill. Originally published as <\/em>La caimana by Ediciones Ekar\u00e9 in Venezuala in 2019. First published in English by Amazon Crossing Kids in collaboration with Amazon Crossing in 2021. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher.<\/em><\/p>\n

* * * Jules’s Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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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> The robin’s nest on our front porch …<\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> … which is Kitty TV for our cat (who isn’t allowed to go outside and nab it). <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> New music coming from Courtney Barnett<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> Angel Olsen singing ’80s covers<\/a><\/strong>. I’m in. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> Visits with friends, both in-person and virtual. <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> A blog reader sharing this good piece<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Catherine Murdock’s<\/a><\/strong> Da Vinci’s Cat<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky) has been a fun read-aloud with my daughters:
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\nWhat are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Faoro made the wedding rings and a small surprise for Night: gold settings for her fangs. The alligator showed them off to the delight of the all the guests.”(Click spread to enlarge)   Today’s featured picture book is a Venezuelan import. The Caiman (Amazon Crossing Kids, July 2021) \u2014 written by Mar\u00eda Eugenia Manrique, illustrated […]<\/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-5377","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\/5377","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=5377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}