Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“Because once people have eaten apples and bananas, purple potatoes and
yellow tomatoes, kiwifruit and sugar snap peas and spaghetti squash …
who knows what they’ll try next?”
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The next time you eat passion fruit, a donut peach, or purple asparagus, you can give a note of thanks to produce pioneer Frieda Caplan, the subject of a new picture book biography from Mara Rockliff. Illustrated by Giselle Potter and arriving on shelves last month (Beach Lane Books), Try It! How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat is informative, eye-opening, and will have you reaching for the nearest fruits.

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“It is magic.”
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“Once I began focusing on Monet, I kept writing drafts that started in his childhood, which is a typical way to connect a young reader to historical biography. I soon realized that Monet’s childhood would bore children, because it was boring me! When I asked myself what I thought a young reader would find interesting, the answer was the boat.
Why would you paint on a boat? How do you paint on a boat?
What happens when you paint on a boat?”
— Barb Rosenstock

Over at BookPage, I’ve a Q&A with author Barb Rosenstock and illustrator Mary GrandPré about their newest collaboration, Mornings with Monet (Knopf, March 2021). It’s a nonfiction picture book, as Barb notes in our Q&A, that begins and ends in four hours and captures Claude Monet one morning (3:30 AM, no less) “on his way to work.” And “work” is painting, from his rowboat (his “studio boat”), on the Seine. It’s a beautifully crafted book, filled with vivid sensory language and richly imagined acrylic illustrations.

Here’s the Q&A, and below is another spread from the book.

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Get out your fountain pens! Steve Light is here.

Pictured above is an early character sketch from Steve Light’s Road Trip! A Whiskers Hollow Adventure (Candlewick, February 2021). This is a picture book with its own delightfully distinct world, one that Steve had fun building and tells me about below in our art-filled chat today. It’s a wooded world we enter, with animals zipping around in tiny cars on interconnected tree branches (there’s even an acorn car); characters with intricate homes in the trunks of trees; a heading dose of mud; and good friends. Oh, and there are endpapers that feature maps so that little hands can orient themselves — and, as Steve discusses below, even create their own imaginary adventures with locations not in this story.

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“[11th Street] had nature and her best friend, Ada.”

 
I’m gonna take us back to 2020 for a moment and show you some spreads from a book released back in September. My review of Everything Naomi Loved (Norton Young Readers), written by Katie Yamasaki and Ian ­Lendler and illustrated by Katie Yamasaki, is over here at the Horn Book.

And here today at 7-Imp are some spreads from this tender story.

Enjoy!

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I’ve a review over at BookPage of Phùng Nguyên Quang’s and Huỳnh Kim Liên’s captivating My First Day (Make Me a World, February 2021).

That is here, and below are a couple spreads from the book.

Enjoy!

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There are many things I like about following picture book imports, and one is that they often don’t shy from addressing some of life’s hardest challenges (even oftentimes exhibiting more of a willingness to let complex questions rest unanswered). Let’s look today at a picture book originally published in French about an extremely difficult topic — domestic abuse. Valérie Fontaine’s The Big Bad Wolf in My House (Groundwood Books), illustrated by Nathalie Dion, is a book that could be a lifeline for children experiencing this and a book that, at the very least, can help them feel seen. It was first published last year, will be on American shelves early next month, and has been translated by Shelley Tanaka.

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Author Leda Schubert shares a story based on her own family in Nathan’s Song (Dial, February 2021), illustrated by Maya Ish-Shalom — a picture book that is a valentine to family (and keeping family stories alive). I’ve got some spreads today from this spirited, big-hearted true tale.

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We’ve heard a lot lately in the field of children’s literature about books about “emotional intelligence” (the ability to identify and manage one’s emotions, while also respecting the feelings of others). Though I sometimes wince at buzzwords (or phrases, in this case), I’m all for this. It can be a cold, cruel world out there, and children who learn to manage emotions at a young age, and who continue to, will have better relationships, healthy coping skills, confidence in problem-solving — all good stuff to make it easier to live on this planet.

Enter Jane Porter’s The Boy Who Loved Everyone (Candlewick, January 2021), illustrated by Maisie Paradise Shearring. There’s a lot to love about this one.

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I’m happy to be a part of the Association of Jewish Libraries’ 2021 Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour with a visit today from author Jane Yolen and illustrator Khoa Le. Their book, Miriam at the River (Kar-Ben, 2020), won a 2021 Sydney Taylor Picture Book Honor.

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“I dream with Popo as she rocks me in her arms. She sings, ‘Beibei xin, beibei gan.’
In my heart I hear: My baby, my heart. My baby, my love.”
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I’m following up Thursday’s post about the tight bond and transcendent love between a granddaughter and grandmother with another post about the same. Today, it’s Livia Blackburne’s I Dream of Popo (Roaring Brook, January 2021), illustrated by Julia Kuo. And it is lovely.

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