{"id":5542,"date":"2022-03-08T08:10:07","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T14:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5542"},"modified":"2022-03-08T08:18:58","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T14:18:58","slug":"its-so-difficult-before-and-after-breakfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5542","title":{"rendered":"It’s So Difficult<\/em> (Before and After Breakfast)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThe endpapers of It’s So Difficult<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Eerdmans, March 2022) \u2014 written and illustrated by Ra\u00fal Nieto Guridi (also known as Guridi<\/a><\/strong>), originally released in Spain in 2020, and translated by Lawrence Schimel \u2014 depict a ledger filled with rows and rows of numbers. And that’s because the story’s protagonist, a child, finds it relaxing to count things or calculate numbers. And those attempts at relaxation are necessary, because …<\/p>\n

When I leave the house, everything is difficult for me. I feel a prickling that won’t go away, and every step I take is a triumph.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The child heads to school, Guridi’s scratchy, often broken lines communicating the unease felt and showing readers how the world appears from the point of view of someone anxious about socializing. The text (with the exception of two spreads) is placed on intermittent black spreads with white font \u2014 and no illustrations. We see the child pass the baker, who says “hello.” On the next spread we read that “I’d like to say ‘hello’ to the baker,” but it’s “so difficult to speak.” So the child starts counting things again. The next spread shows the page fill with calculations (though the child also finds it “so difficult to concentrate”). Arriving at school is “always complicated.” It’s loud, and though the child knows everyone’s names, it’s difficult to say them aloud. <\/p>\n

There’s mention of an understanding mother, who tells the child to be patient and that words will come in time. But the child even notes older people “who can’t say what they feel or what they think. People who prefer not to speak or smile.” The final spread, which is actually pictured below, conveys a breakthrough of sorts, one small moment of triumph. When you click on that spread to enlarge it, you may have to squint to see it, but the child releases a tiny, scratchy “hi” \u2014 to the surprise of the baker. What happens from there is up to readers’ imaginations. <\/p>\n

It’s an affecting story that sensitively captures how loud, overstimulating, and overwhelming the world feels for some children. And Guridi communicates this with remarkably expressive and spare linework and touches of color. Here are a couple more spreads so that the art can do the talking.
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“Right now, my hands are sweating. It’s hard for me to breathe. But, this time,
I’m going to manage to do it … But … It’s just that … It’s so difficult …”<\/em>
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IT’S SO DIFFICULT. Text and illustrations \u00a9 2020 Ra\u00fal Nieto Guridi. Copyright \u00a9 2020 Tres Tigres Tristes, an imprint of Publicaciones Ilustradas TTT, S.L. Originally published in Spain under the title <\/em>Lo dificil. English-language translation \u00a9 2022 Lawrence Schimel. First published in the United States in 2022 by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. Illustrations reproduced by permission of Eerdmans.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Click spread to enlarge)   The endpapers of It’s So Difficult (Eerdmans, March 2022) \u2014 written and illustrated by Ra\u00fal Nieto Guridi (also known as Guridi), originally released in Spain in 2020, and translated by Lawrence Schimel \u2014 depict a ledger filled with rows and rows of numbers. And that’s because the story’s protagonist, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5542","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=5542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}