Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

 

Every year that the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art hosts the Carle Honors, I long to snap my fingers and be in Massachusetts so that I can attend. This year, attending is easy: The celebration will happen online. No, the Carle Musuem is not paying me to share this, nor did they ask me to do so. It’s just that I’m super excited they will be online this year and free for everyone — though you can always make a donation to the museum, become a member, or become a sponsor — and I figure that 7-Imp readers are fans of picture books and may want to know this too.

The celebration is online tonight! Here’s the info, and here is where you can register.

Please forgive me for skipping picture-book art today, but I’m taking a moment to share, here at 7-Imp, that we have kicked things off over at the Horn Book’s Calling Caldecott, a place to visit for anyone out there who enjoys geeking out over picture books and illustration.

Our kick-off post, which is here, was this past week. And to keep following along — we have some very talented guest posters lined up to write about some spectacular books — Calling Caldecott is here, always there, in cyberspace.

Read the rest of this entry �

 

I’m taking a small break from sharing picture book art to signal-book this excellent opinion piece (from just yesterday) at the New York Times from Nashvillian Margaret Renkl, an essay that touches on children’s books too. Click on the image above to be taken to the piece, and if you can’t access it but you contact me, I’ll glady summarize it for you.

 

Today, I’m sending you over to The Book of Life, a podcast focused on Jewish children’s literature. I had a chat with Heidi Rabinowitz about the Sydney Taylor mock awards blog, which is called The Sydney Taylor Schmooze and was started in Spring 2020 by Heidi, Susan Kusel, and Chava Pinchuck. For the podcast episode, Heidi talked to me about Calling Caldecott (the Horn Book’s mock Caldecott blog that Martha V. Parravano and I co-run); Amy Seto Forrester about Guessing Geisel (the mock Geisel blog); and Steven Engelfried about Heavy Medal (School Library Journal’s mock Newbery blog).

Heidi asked us for advice on running a mock awards blog, and she also asked us about our favorite books, both secular and Jewish, from 2020.

The episode is here.

(Click image to enlarge)

 

This is a quick post to say happy holidays to all my 7-Imp readers. I will take some time off this week to spend the holidays with my family, but I’ll be back this coming Sunday.

I want to leave you with this beautiful image from author-illustrator Cindy Derby, who gave me permisison to post this here.

Merry merry! See you soon.

Head on over to the Horn Book’s Calling Caldecott today, if you’re so inclined, for a post about what it’s been like to read picture books during a pandemic—specifically, what it’s been like to read so many picture books on screens this year. (Oh, page turns, we miss you!) We also want to know what your year of reading and sharing picture books has been like. Have you seen less picture books this year because of social distancing? If you’re a teacher or librarian, how has the pandemic affected your reading this year? Are you a reviewer who has seen more picture books on PDFs this year? Come and join the conversation! We would love to hear from you.

That post is here. Hope to see you over there!

 
Hello, dear Imps. It seems like it wasn’t that long ago that I was saying that I had plans for a Sunday post that I was temporarily setting aside so that I could mark the death of an American luminary. I’d like to do this again. I’m taking this space here today, given the news of the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to mark this profound loss.

On social media, I noticed that various children’s book illustrators were paying tribute—with either previous illustrations of Ginsburg or ones they’d drawn on the spot when they heard the sad news this weekend. I’m sharing some of those here today. (I know there must be many, many more, but here is just a small handful.)

Pictured above is a painting from illustrator Rahele Jomepour Bell, who says this is “the piece of her I made while I was thinking about her.” Here are some more tributes. …

Read the rest of this entry �

A spread from Kwame Alexander’s award-winning The Undefeated,
illustrated by Kadir Nelson: “… who shine / their light for the world to see
and don’t stop / ’til the break of dawn.”
(Click to enlarge spread)

 
Here’s something a bit different today: I’m pleased to welcome a guest post from Dean Schneider, who teaches English and history at Ensworth School in Nashville, Tennessee. In his 45-year teaching career, Dean has taught in a variety of schools; served on several book award committees, including the Newbery and Caldecott; and written for several magazines.

Dean is a friend, and during a recent (socially-distanced, of course) visit, he told me about the books he has planned for a history course he’ll teach this school year. I am always interested in hearing Dean talk about his work—he’s an outstanding teacher, and his students are lucky to have him—but I was especially intrigued by what he had to say about teaching during a pandemic and how he wants books to remain in the forefront. As a school librarian by training, I often seek the thoughts of talented teachers like Dean. (For instance, see this recent piece from Donalyn Miller on the importance of continuing to read aloud to students during these uncertain, unsettled times of returning to school during a pandemic.) And when Dean agreed to let me host his thoughts here at 7-Imp, I was delighted.

Read the rest of this entry �

 

I’m taking this week off from blogging. I’ll be back on Sunday. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with two wonderful pieces to read:

First, the Horn Book has posted their annual piece in which they look back on the previous year in words and pictures. This one is titled “A Year with Words and Pictures — but No ALA Annual.” That is here.

And don’t miss this moving (and illustrated) New York Times piece by Christian Robinson, called “When ‘Keep Your Distance’ Has Been a Way of Life.” I hope you can access that link.

Until Sunday . . .

 
Many of you 7-Imp readers may know that I am part of a Facebook page and Twitter feed that serves as a resource page of sorts in the field of children’s literature. It’s called The Niblings, and I share it with other bloggers. Here’s the low-down (from back in 2013 when it was started).

We Niblings would like to welcome librarian extraordinaire Erika Long to our social media presence. This means that Erika will join us in sharing posts of interest in the field of children’s and YA lit. Erika’s social media presence is one of my favorites in this world, and I’m so pleased she’s joining us.

Read the rest of this entry �