{"id":5576,"date":"2022-04-24T00:01:42","date_gmt":"2022-04-24T06:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5576"},"modified":"2022-04-24T07:41:07","modified_gmt":"2022-04-24T13:41:07","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-792-featuring-laura-dronzek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5576","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #792: Featuring Laura Dronzek"},"content":{"rendered":"


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“I’d like to know what a pelican thinks of a sandpiper …”<\/em><\/center>
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\n“When I visit my grandparents at the beach, we stay in a little house. It is so close to the water, you can hear the waves.” This is the voice of the protagonist of Kevin Henkes’s<\/a><\/strong> Little Houses<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Greenwillow, May 2022), illustrated by Laura Dronzek. She runs up and down the shore, explores shells, and wonders about the ocean \u2014 its surface (“how it can be blue and gray and green and silver and white and black, all at the same time”) and what’s underneath (“fish as big as cars”). She’s particularly fascinated by the shells, what her grandmother describes as “little houses.” <\/p>\n

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This nuanced tale eloquently captures one child’s wonder at and reverence for the ocean. She ruminates on the waves, the birds she sees, and what the “walls” of various shell houses are like (and who once lived in them). Over the sound of waves, she hears her grandmother say something about “things we cannot see.” Her Grandpa adds, “The world is so big and there is much to know.” Many of these spreads are full-bleed, panoramic ones, the wide ocean in nearly every shade of blue and the waves that hit the shore the objects of the girl’s astonishment. (Spreads that feature vignettes slow the pace when necessary.) There is a kind of hush over these spreads because of the girl’s reverence for the ocean and its vastness, but there is also a dynamic energy, as seen in the ocean life \u2014 captured by Dronzek with sure lines and rich colors. <\/p>\n

This is also a comforting intergenerational story, the girls’ grandparents a calming, loving presence. After telling the girl that “the world is so big,” her grandfather adds: “And someday you’ll know it all.” For now, though, she is content to think about everything she does<\/em> not know, the boundless and mysterious ocean a compelling reminder to her of that. <\/p>\n

Here are some spreads. …
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“Sometimes I think someone is calling me. But it’s just the waves coming in, going out.
A whisper or a roar. I run up and down to meet them.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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“Fish as big as cars, creatures whose names I don’t know,
lost toys, lost coins, lots of lost things that were cried over.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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(Two images above: Click either to see spread in its entirety)<\/em><\/center>
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(Click cover to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
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\nLITTLE HOUSES. Text copyright \u00a9 2022 by Kevin Henkes. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2022 by Laura Dronzek and reproduced by permission of the publisher, Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publisher, 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> Beautiful spring weather. <\/p>\n

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

3)<\/strong><\/font> Nancy Werlin’s<\/a><\/strong> newest novel:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> A purple iris in the front yard. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> Donald Antrim’s very moving memoir<\/a><\/strong> helping me make more sense of someone I once lost. <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> Chris Farren’s Bond-esque motion picture soundtrack<\/a><\/strong> for a motion picture that doesn’t exist. Track 6 is my favorite. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Crackling, popping chocolate<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n

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

“I’d like to know what a pelican thinks of a sandpiper …”   “When I visit my grandparents at the beach, we stay in a little house. It is so close to the water, you can hear the waves.” This is the voice of the protagonist of Kevin Henkes’s Little Houses (Greenwillow, May 2022), illustrated […]<\/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-5576","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\/5576","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=5576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}