Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

It’s not easy, I’m sure, to make picture books that are entirely reliant on visual storytelling, featuring no dialogue whatsoever. But Gregory Rogers certainly makes it look easy.

For those not familiar with Rogers, he’s Australian and was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1995. For many years, he worked as a graphic designer before turning to illustration.

His newest book, The Hero of Little Street (to be released at the end of this month, though originally published in 2009 in Australia), is the third title in what Roaring Brook calls “the Boy Bear series.” The first two titles feature a young boy whose wayward soccer ball sends him on time-traveling escapades, what Publishers Weekly once called rambunctious silent comedies (or, if you’re Kirkus describing the new title in the series, a “wordless metafictive adventure”). For the first book, The Boy, The Bear, The Baron, The Bard (2007), he ends up on the stage of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, and in the second book, Midsummer Knight (also 2007), Rogers brought back the same cast of characters, this time for a romp through an Elizabethan fairy world, to put it simply, and this time with the Bear as a swashbuckling soldier. (The American covers are pictured here below, though all were first published in Australia.)

Read the rest of this entry �

I’ve got my best coffee mug out this morning for author Kate Coombs, who has two new picture book releases this year. The first release (January, Atheneum) is the re-telling of a classic Grimm tale, called Hans My Hedgehog, illustrated by John Nickle. The second, released this month from Chronicle Books, is a poetry collection, Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems, illustrated in shimmering watercolors by Meilo So. Kate’s here to talk a bit about each book and what’s next for her, and I’ve got art from each title. (Meilo will also be visiting soon for a breakfast interview, and I’m looking forward to that, too.) Read the rest of this entry �

A quick post to note that the International Board on Books for Young People today announced the short list for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. That list is here. The winning author and illustrator will be announced next week at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. (Oh, how I wish I were going back!) There are many good folks shortlisted here, so I shouldn’t single out anyone, but to say I’m a ginormous John Burningham fan doesn’t even quite cut it, so I’m particularly excited about that.

That’s it for now. Until tomorrow …

Here’s a picture book I’ve been enjoying for a while and am finally featuring here at 7-Imp. Ashley Wolff’s Baby Bear Sees Blue was released in February by Beach Lane Books. Have you seen it yet? Heavens, it’s cozy and wake-you-right-up beautiful is what it is. This morning, Ashley (who has written and illustrated more than sixty books for children) is sharing some images and early thumbnails from the book.

Read the rest of this entry �

This week at Kirkus, I write about Cynthia Rylant’s Brownie & Pearl series for very young readers, illustrated by Brian Biggs. (As in: I did not even know about this great series, so I contribute my own little barbaric yawp about it to help introduce it to others who also may not know about it. I also acknowledge, however, that I am often just VERY SLOW.) The link will be here on Friday.

Last week, I wrote about the very beautifully-designed and -illustrated Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature (Candlewick, February), written by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Mark Hearld. You can go read all about the book—and me gushing—at this link from last week, but today I share a couple of spreads.

And I just stumbled upon this video (which makes me so happy that I’m going to paste it here RIGHT NOW), which showcases LOTS of Hearld’s art. Read the rest of this entry �

I’m visiting this week (as a “special guest”) at a Highlights Foundation workshop in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Last night at dinner, my former career as a sign language interpreter came up, and before I knew it, the ever-effusive Katie Davis—who could probably talk a cat into a long, leisurely bath—had convinced me to interpret her latest picture book, Little Chicken’s Big Day, into American Sign Language, while she read it — all in the name of World Read-Aloud Day 2012, which is being celebrated today, in fact.

I haven’t interpreted in—gulp—nearly eight years (with the wonderful exception of having the opportunity to interpret for Walter Dean Myers’ 2009 Arbuthnot Honor Lecture at the Alex Haley Farm in East Tennessee). This is far from a perfect interpretation. There are even mistakes. I feel like I should point this out to any Deaf folks or interpreters watching. Did I mention it was very impromptu?

 

I hope to be back tomorrow with actual picture book art. Until then …

I’m away this week, speaking at this workshop in Pennsylvania, but here’s a quick post to mention two quick things…

Pictured above is illustrator R. Gregory Christie. That image comes from my 2009 breakfast interview with him. Greg has a wonderful and worthwhile new idea for which he needs financial backing from those so inclined to provide some support. Here’s all the information you need to know (don’t miss the video linked there at the top), but bottom line is that Greg has a children’s and young teens’ bookstore (in a mall) in Decatur, Georgia, that “needs a new look.” He writes at that link: Read the rest of this entry �

It’s the first Sunday of the month when I shine the spotlight on a student or debut illustrator, and this morning I bring you the latter.

Mississipian Sarah Frances Hardy will see her first picture book published this Spring. I haven’t seen a copy, but she’s here today to introduce herself and tell us a bit about it. And there’s even more information about her here at her site.

Without further ado, here’s Sarah Frances… Read the rest of this entry �

This morning over at my Kirkus column, I write about Nicola Davies’ Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature, illustrated by Mark Hearld. Heavens. It’s a beautiful book. That link is here. I hope to have art from it next week to share with you here at 7-Imp.

If you missed last week’s column, I wrote about the BolognaRagazzi Awards. That link is here.

I don’t have any art for my readers this morning, but here’s what I want to do, fingers crossed. Cristiana Clerici and I think it’d be super neato-skeeto (to put it all professional-like) to post all the book covers from the winning titles (and Mentions), along with at least one spread from each book. This is not a trivial task, though, given that many of these books are published in other countries, but we are going to try (after I get back in town next week from some more blogging-related travel).

So, we hope to have that for you one day in the near future — if we have our way, we’ll be sharing some international illustrations with you.

Until then …

In 2009, author/illustrator Taeeun Yoo visited for a cyber-breakfast, and it remains one of my favorite interviews. Not just because her response to the Pivot question about what turns her on was “Coffee. A sunny day. A stormy day, too. Music. Good conversations with friends. And cupcakes.” Mostly ’cause I love her illustration work.

Every now and then I like to check in with her, and it turns out she has at least (there could be more, for all I know) two titles out this year. And she’s here today to share some art from them.

Read the rest of this entry �