{"id":5572,"date":"2022-04-17T00:01:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-17T06:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5572"},"modified":"2022-04-17T10:04:56","modified_gmt":"2022-04-17T16:04:56","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-791-featuring-paloma-valdivia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5572","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #791: Featuring Paloma Valdivia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“What do you call a flower that flits from bird to bird?
C\u00f3mo se llama una flor que vuela de p\u00e1jaro en p\u00e1jaro?”<\/em>
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\nToday, let\u2019s enter the world of Pablo Neruda<\/a><\/strong>, as brought to us by illustrator Paloma Valdivia<\/a><\/strong>, translator Sara Lissa Paulson, and the team at Enchanted Lion Books. Book of Questions: Selections\/Libro de las preguntas: Selecciones<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, on shelves this month, is presented in both English and Spanish.<\/p>\n

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As a note in the book’s backmatter explains, Pablo Neruda, the great Chilean poet, completed Book of Questions (Libro de las preguntas)<\/a><\/strong><\/em> right before his death in 1973. It is comprised of 74 poems, all questions, and includes a grand total of 320 questions. \u201cIn a gracious and meaningful gesture,\u201d the Editor\u2019s Note states, \u201cwhat Neruda shares with us as an old man isn\u2019t an arrival at Truth, but the astonishing freedom of a curious mind that dares to reimagine a world again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n

This visually striking picture book includes 70 questions that come from 39 of the poems in Neruda\u2019s book, and they are arranged into \u201cthematic groups, informed by the relationship between humans and the natural world, mind and geography.\u201d All of the poems here are presented twice \u2014 once in English and once in Spanish.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere can you find a bell that rings inside your dreams?\u201d \u201cDo you hear explosions of yellow in the middle of the fall?\u201d Is the earth \u201cbriefly borrowing the sea\u201d and will we have to \u201creturn it, with its tides, to the moon?\u201d \u201cWho shouted for joy when the color blue was born?\u201d Neruda poses questions\u2014evocative, mysterious, and reverent\u2014to the heavens, our planet, and the creatures on it, while some questions dive into the interior world of humans. If I were asked to describe the book in one word, it\u2019d be wonder<\/em>. It\u2019s utterly wonder-filled. These questions marvel at the mystery of our world. They also play delightfully with language: \u201cAnd does a word not slither like a snake sometimes?\u201d asks Neruda.<\/p>\n

Valdivia\u2019s highly textured illustrations are mesmerizing dreamscapes in teals, vermilions, and yellows. They play with scale and perspective in visually rich ways. And the book’s thoughtful design includes more than one gatefold and endless visual surprises. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a book that young thinkers \u2014 deep thinkers \u2014 will savor. It\u2019s a book that demands time in the best way. It yields big rewards for readers who linger, taking in the wonder and curiosity of it all. Here are some spreads so that you can see for yourself. …
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“What news bursts forth from the leaves of those first days of spring?
\u00bfQu\u00e9 cuentan de nuevo las hojas de la reciente primavera?”<\/em>
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“If flies produced honey, would they offend the bees?
\u00bfSi las moscas fabrican miel ofender\u00e1n a las abejas?”<\/em>
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“Where does the rainbow end, in your soul or on the horizon?
\u00bfD\u00f3nde termina el arco iris, en tu alma o en el horizonte?”<\/em>
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“Might I ask my book if I’m the one who really wrote it?
\u00bfPuedo preguntar a mi libro, si es verdad que yo lo escribi?”<\/em>
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\nBOOK OF QUESTIONS: SELECTIONS\/LIBRO DE LAS PREGUNTAS: SELECCIONES. Copyright \u00a9 by PABLO NERUDA and FUNDACI\u00d3N PABLO NERUDA, 1926. First illustrated bilingual Spanish-English selection published in 2022 by Enchanted Lion Books, Brooklyn, NY. English-language translation copyright \u00a9 2022 by Sara Elisabeth Paulson. English-language edition cpoyright \u00a9 2022 by Enchanted Lions Books. Illustrations reproduced by permission of Enchanted Lion Books, 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> A visit to lovely Concord, Massachusetts, and a tour through Boston Harbor. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> Long walks with friends. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> I mentored a student at my daughters’ school, whose senior thesis was about increasing the collection of racially diverse books in the elementary school libraries in our county. And she did a greab job at her thesis defense. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> Watching the Christopher Reeve Superman<\/em> movies with our daughters. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> Oscar Isaac in Moon Knight<\/a><\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> New music from Joan Shelley<\/a><\/strong>, and Wet Leg’s new album<\/a><\/strong> is finally here. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Nimona<\/a><\/strong><\/em> coming to the screen! Finally. <\/p>\n

BONUS!<\/strong><\/font> The 18-year-old has chosen a college, and we are thrilled for her. <\/p>\n

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

“What do you call a flower that flits from bird to bird?C\u00f3mo se llama una flor que vuela de p\u00e1jaro en p\u00e1jaro?”(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)   Today, let\u2019s enter the world of Pablo Neruda, as brought to us by illustrator Paloma Valdivia, translator Sara Lissa Paulson, and the team […]<\/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-5572","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\/5572","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=5572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}