{"id":5402,"date":"2021-08-15T00:01:55","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T06:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5402"},"modified":"2021-08-15T08:05:48","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T14:05:48","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-756-featuring-bob-shea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5402","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #756: Featuring Bob Shea"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nIt’s a good day to visit Chez Bob<\/em> by Bob Shea. <\/p>\n

Bob is a very hungry alligator, but he’s also lazy. His solution? He opens a birdseed restaurant on his nose in order to attract the birds he’d like to snack on. Birdseed may be the one and only thing on the menu, but Bob does<\/em> attract a visitor at Chez Bob. After that first bird tells all his friends about the new place, Bob becomes “the talk of the trees. Birds flew in from all over the world to eat on Bob’s face.” <\/p>\n

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Soon, an entire town springs up around Bob, and he finds himself becoming an integral part of the community. Readers are privy to Bob’s (very funny) inner thoughts, and we know he’s conflicted. He still plans on eating the birds (“It’s rewarding to be a positive role model for the birds I’m going to eat<\/em>, thought Bob”), but since he’s becoming friends with them, one suspects he just might find it difficult to devour them. (He has ample opportunities, after all, to chomp on some birds but keeps putting it off, since he’s too busy doing things like coaching the basketball team.) This proves to be true when a frightening storm has Bob inviting them all to hide in his mouth in order to escape the dangerous weather. <\/p>\n

It’s a sweet story with a touching ending, and it’s pleasing to see Bob’s transformation \u2014 but it’s never saccharine. (Shea wouldn’t do that to us.) There’s a lot of droll, understated humor in the text \u2014 “Welcome to Chez Bob, which is a real restaurant and not a trick,” Bob says to this first visitor \u2014 and exaggerated visual humor (primarily in Bob’s dramatic facial expressions and supremely sharp teeth), as you can see in the sketches and spreads below. <\/p>\n

Indicentally, on the copyright page, where we’d normally read about the medium used to create the illustrations, we read: “The illustrations for this book were done in a comfortable chair while listening to records.” However they were made, they are entertaining. <\/p>\n

The book will arrive on shelves<\/a><\/strong> early next month from Little, Brown. Today at 7-Imp, Bob (the non-reptile one) shares some early pencil sketches; images from two dummies (the first one done years ago, he says); some sketches from the book (the image opening this post is one of those, because yes, Bob even joins a book club with the birds); and some final illustrations. I thank him for sharing. <\/p>\n


 

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Early Pencil Sketches:<\/em><\/font><\/strong><\/center>
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Images from the Original Dummy:<\/em><\/font><\/strong><\/center>
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Sketches:<\/em><\/font><\/strong><\/center>
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From the Dummy Sent to the Publisher:<\/em><\/font><\/strong><\/center>
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Some Final Spreads:<\/em><\/font><\/strong><\/center>
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“Bob worked very hard at being lazy. ‘Being lazy is making me very hungry,’ said Bob
to no one. ‘Maybe if I ask nicely, a bird will fly in my mouth and down into my belly.'”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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“‘Welcome to Chez Bob, which is a real restaurant and not a trick.'”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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“Now is my chance to eat the birds, thought Bob.<\/em> I cannot wait to see the looks on their beaks when they check out my diamond teeth and solid-gold hat!
They will be jealous and amazed.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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“‘Yay! Bob saved us!’ cheered the birds that Bob probably was not going to eat. …”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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\nCHEZ BOB. Copyright \u00a9 2021 by Bob Shea. Published by Little, Brown and Company, New York. All images reproduced by permission of Bob Shea.<\/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> A delicious dinner with good friends. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> Getting a copy of Dustin O’Halloran’s<\/a><\/strong> new album. Double vinyl FTW. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> A long walk with my friend. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> Surprises in the mail. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> I finished Hamnet<\/a><\/strong><\/em> and didn’t want it to end. <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> Deep breaths. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Tonight is the last episode of The White Lotus<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. I’m a little bit obsessed with this show. <\/p>\n

Bonus kick)<\/strong><\/font> Bob Shea is a national treasure. <\/p>\n

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

  It’s a good day to visit Chez Bob by Bob Shea. Bob is a very hungry alligator, but he’s also lazy. His solution? He opens a birdseed restaurant on his nose in order to attract the birds he’d like to snack on. Birdseed may be the one and only thing on the menu, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-interviews","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5402","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=5402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}