{"id":5381,"date":"2021-07-18T00:01:38","date_gmt":"2021-07-18T06:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5381"},"modified":"2021-07-16T16:10:06","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T22:10:06","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-752-featuring-james-yang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5381","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #752: Featuring James Yang"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n
 

\nJames Yang’s<\/a><\/strong> A Boy Named Isamu: A Story of Isamu Noguchi<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Viking, June 2021) is an imagined story about a day in the life of Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi<\/a><\/strong>. The young Isamu spends his day exploring the world around him \u2014 and with a sense of astonishment. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“If you are a boy named Isamu …” the book opens (bringing to my mind the exquisite The Iridescence of Birds<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, written by Patricia MachLanlan and illustrated by Hadley Hooper). Young Isamu is at the market with his mother. It’s loud and crowded, so he wanders off to a “quiet space that feels more like you.” As you can see, the text is presented in an inviting and immediate second-person voice, putting readers into the shoes of the young boy. <\/p>\n

Isamu keeps walking and eventually stops to explore what he sees, marveling over textures, colors, etc. Almost trance-like, he ends up in the forest and wonders about the leaves and grass \u2014 but especially the stones (as pictured below). At the beach, the “ocean greest you with its quiet rumble. You feel like the only person in the world. If you are Isamu, you find a secret place so you can look at the ocean and see the shapes of things.” Here, Yang pictures the boy sitting on the kind of stone sculpture the adult Noguchi was known for creating. When his mother finds him, he thinks about how he was “alone but not lonely” all day: “The forest and beach were like friends giving you a gift.” Ah, lovely. <\/p>\n

It’s a book that not only serves as an introduction to Noguchi and his work \u2014 there is a short closing note about the artist \u2014 but that also truly sees<\/em> quieter, more introspective children. As Yang writes in the backmatter note, “[Noguchi] was interested in the essence of nature and that influenced his artwork” and<\/em> Noguchi believed “a child’s way of experiencing the world was an important part of being an artist.” This imagined day in his childhood elegantly captures both things. <\/p>\n

Here are some spreads so that the art and words can do the talking. …
\n
 

\n<\/a>
\n

“If you are a boy named Isamu …”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
\n
 

\n<\/a>
\n
“Children are playing loudly. You keep walking. When it is quiet, you wonder …
What kind of wood is this? How does fruit get its color?
Why does cloth feel soft? Who made the path with stone?”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
\n
 

\n<\/a>
\n
“If you are Isamu, stones are the most special of all. Time has carved each stone to be different. How can they be so heavy? Would they float if they had no weight?”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
\n
 

\n<\/a>
\n
“If you are Isamu, you wish every day could be this big.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
\n
 

\n<\/a>
\n
(Click cover to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
\n
 

\nA BOY NAMED ISAMU: A STORY OF ISAMU NOGUCHI. Copyright \u00a9 2021 by James Yang. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.<\/em><\/p>\n

* * * Jules’s 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.<\/em><\/p>\n

Keeping it very short this week, as my family and I are getting away on the day I normally type this up. Looking forward to a tiny trip. <\/p>\n

Also, it was not Tennessee’s best week, but I’m grateful that Dr. Michelle Fiscus is speaking up<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

And it was so sad to hear about the loss of illustrator Floyd Cooper<\/a><\/strong> as well as picture book scholar Barbara Bader<\/a><\/strong>, but I’m so grateful for their incredible work over many years. <\/p>\n

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

  James Yang’s A Boy Named Isamu: A Story of Isamu Noguchi (Viking, June 2021) is an imagined story about a day in the life of Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi. The young Isamu spends his day exploring the world around him \u2014 and with a sense of astonishment.<\/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-5381","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\/5381","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=5381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}