{"id":5503,"date":"2022-01-16T00:01:53","date_gmt":"2022-01-16T06:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5503"},"modified":"2022-01-15T12:42:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-15T18:42:13","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-778-featuring-ashley-lukashevsky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5503","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #778: Featuring Ashley Lukashevsky"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nClaire \u2014 the narrator of Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s<\/a><\/strong> Snow Angel, Sand Angel<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Make Me a World, January 2022), illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 lives in Hawai’i and is dismayed when, for a school project, she must make a diorama about winter. “I’ve never even seen<\/em> real snow!” she thinks. This is a sore point for her; she longs to experience winter and play in the snow. So she’s delighted when her father tells her he’ll show her and her brother, Timbo, some snow up on Mauna Kea, “the top of the tallest mountain in the world, if you measure from seafloor to summit.”<\/p>\n

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There is<\/em> snow up there, but Claire is disappointed to see it’s more like blocks of ice. In her mind’s eye, she sees a “yard piled up with white snow.” This is not that. On top of this mountain, she has to be careful about running too much so that she doesn’t get altitude sickness, and she doesn’t have real<\/em> mittens or a wool scarf. (She and her brother wear her father’s old socks on their hands, and their mother cuts a beach towel in half to serve as makeshift scarves.) <\/p>\n

She doesn’t have a real sled; she’s on a sugarcane truck inner tube, navigating her way between pointed rocks. She can only imagine making a snowman; the one her brother builds is, as she sees it, more like “lumps of ice.” She dreams of growing wings and becoming a “real<\/em> snow angel.” Someday, she thinks …<\/p>\n

I will see snow falling from the sky and be like the Inuit, who can name a hundred different kinds of snow.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The book shifts in its second half. The family visits Hapuna Beach the day before the New Year. Throughout the book, Claire’s father \u2014 probably sensing her disappointment \u2014 consistently points out to her the beauty of the land they live on and the immense knowledge of the natural world that native Hawaiians possess, and this day is no different: “The beach is always right in your own backyard,” he tells her. They spend a day in the sun, building a sandman and making sand angels. This part of the book’s text especially sings \u2014 though the entire story is marked by Yamanaka’s lyrical writing and nuanced, never heavy-handed, observations. Once again with her sugarcane truck inner tube, this time floating on waves, Claire listens as her mother names the sea creatures she sees and her father names the “hundred winds that carry the fragrance of these waters to us near the far reef.” Her father reminds her, while they make sand angels: “You can grow wings in this place, this very beautiful place that we know so well.” <\/p>\n

It’s a well-crafted story on many levels, but it’s one that, best of all, brings readers to a specific place. Both author and illustrator are from Hawai’i, and they vividly capture the physical locale. Lukashevsky’s illustrations are brightly colored and possess a boundless energy. They are in constant movement, with flowing lines and abundant details. (As always, you can see some spreads below.) The story will also resonate with readers on a more universal level: There are lots of children out there who long for a life they don’t have. (I think of my daughter, currently looking at colleges, who would love to go to a school that sees snow, since middle Tennessee doesn’t see it often, and I think of a friend whose daughter in the Northeast chose a school with warm weather \u2014 Florida, no less.) Claire longs for weather she considers exotic, but she also learns to appreciate her homeland, “the mountains and waters of this island, singing the names of a hundred winds.” <\/p>\n

An ebullient story. Here are some more spreads. …
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“‘Some birds fly away because it gets too cold.’ And then I stop.
‘The birds don’t fly <\/em>away from Hawai’i in the winter. They come home.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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“But this all makes me sad. I have never seen snow. …”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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“Someday, I won’t have to wear my father’s old socks,
loose and wet, over my cold hands. …”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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“My mother tells us the names of the sea creatures. Hinalea, beautiful green wrasse. Manini, striped convict tang. Lauhau, golden butterflyfish.
Humuhumunukunuku\u0101pua\u02bba, painted triggerfish. She shows us the rise and fall of
honu’s tiny head and the glide of his shiny turtle shell. …”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center><\/p>\n

SNOW ANGEL, SAND ANGEL. Text copyright \u00a9 2021 by Lois-Ann Yamanaka. Jacket art and interior illustrations copyright \u00a9 2021 by Ashley Lukashevsky and reproduced by permission of the publisher, Make Me a World, New York.<\/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> Possible snow. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> Walks. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> I found a piece of paper on my desk with chicken-scratch notes from about two years ago of books I wanted to read. I’m glad I found it, because I’m reading this<\/a><\/strong> now and it’s so good. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> Author-illustrator Steve Jenkins died this week<\/a><\/strong> \u2014 VERY MUCH NOT A KICK \u2014 but it got me thinking about how much his books have meant to me as a former school librarian and parent. My oldest daughter, in particular, loved nonfiction as a child and looooved his book. I got out our copy of Down Down Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, and there is still a piece of paper in there with her kid-handwriting. She had copied the names of the creatures in the book. She read it over and over …. So grateful for his contributions to children’s lit. I interviewed him in 2008<\/a><\/strong>, and his answer to the last Pivot Questionnaire question (“If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?”) was: “Have you decided in which form you’d like to return?” So … maybe, one day, we’ll see him again. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> Clint Smith<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> This new song from Mitski<\/a><\/strong>: <\/p>\n