{"id":5594,"date":"2022-05-22T00:01:26","date_gmt":"2022-05-22T06:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5594"},"modified":"2022-05-21T11:21:38","modified_gmt":"2022-05-21T17:21:38","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-795-featuring-wanda-gag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5594","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #795: Featuring Wanda G\u00e1g"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThe great and groundbreaking picture book artist Wanda G\u00e1g<\/a><\/strong> published The ABC Bunny<\/em> in 1933, and it went on to win a Newbery Honor the following year. It’s an alphabet book, and it includes hand-lettering by G\u00e1g’s brother. Also, music for the text (“ABC Song”)<\/a><\/strong> is included in the back of the book in the form of a score. This was composed by G\u00e1g’s sister. Clearly, it was a family affair. <\/p>\n

Last month, the University of Minnesota Press \u2014 G\u00e1g was a Minnesotan from an immigrant family \u2014 released a board book edition<\/a><\/strong> of the book. Though many picture books don’t translate well to board book form, I think this one works. <\/p>\n

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The original book is a tall one, and the board book, of course, is a much smaller trim size, one made for the hands of wee ones. (Let’s expose them to Wanda G\u00e1g’s artwork as soon as we can, yes?) The board book edition also does not include the score. Everything else is all G\u00e1g, all the way. G\u00e1g’s striking and eloquent lithographs take up much of these compositions, with the letters of the alphabet featured in a large red type and the text following them in a smaller, black type. <\/p>\n

The story with its rhyming text, gently flowing, is about a bunny who goes from “snug-a-bed” to fleeing after an apple crashes near him. The bunny leaves Bunny Town for Elsewhere and meets all kinds of creatures on the journey \u2014 and back. The final spread, the “Y” and “Z” one, suddenly addresses reader in a direct way: “Y for You, take one last look \/ Z for Zero \u2014 close the book!” I love this abrupt switch. <\/p>\n

And I love seeing G\u00e1g’s exquisite artwork made available for the youngest of children. Here is another spread. You can click each of these spreads to enlarge them and, if you’re like me, sit and stare at them for a while, appreciating what G\u00e1g does with line and shape and movement. Ah. Beautiful. …
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\nSpreads from the 2022 board book edition of THE ABC BUNNY by Wanda G\u00e1g reproduced by permission of the University of Minnesota Press.<\/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.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve had one of those work weeks with a pretty wacky schedule and lots of work, so this week was about adjusting sleep and, essentially, getting it all done. My kicks, one to seven, are that my daughters both wrapped up school for the year (and one of them, all of high school<\/em>), and summer greets us. <\/p>\n

Also, Wanda G\u00e1g’s artwork. Always. <\/p>\n

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

(Click to enlarge)   The great and groundbreaking picture book artist Wanda G\u00e1g published The ABC Bunny in 1933, and it went on to win a Newbery Honor the following year. It’s an alphabet book, and it includes hand-lettering by G\u00e1g’s brother. Also, music for the text (“ABC Song”) is included in the back of […]<\/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-5594","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\/5594","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=5594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}