Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“The next morning she heard knocking. No one ever knocked at her door.
Why would they? She certainly wouldn’t answer it. But the knocking didn’t stop.”
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Over at BookPage, I’ve a review of Antje Damm’s The Visitor (Gecko, August 2018), a German picture book import on shelves now.

The review is here, and below at 7-Imp today are some of Damm’s 3-D illustrations.

Enjoy!

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Are you all up for some magical doors this morning? Who isn’t up for a magical door, right?

If you read and enjoyed JiHyeon Lee’s Pool (which I blogged about here in 2015), you may be happy to know she has a new book, also wordless, coming to shelves next month, called Door (Chronicle Books). It’s the story of a boy who finds a key, walks through a door, and encounters a fantastical world of creatures alien, but friendly, to him.

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This morning over at Kirkus, I’ve got a picture book import from Spain.

That is here.

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Last week, I wrote here about Andrea Dorfman’s Flawed (Firefly, September 2018). I’m following up today with some art from the book.

Enjoy!

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Over at the Horn Book’s Calling Caldecott today, I talk to author Karen Blumenthal about Kidlitwomen*, which Karen co-founded with author-illustrator Grace Lin.

That is here. Read! Ponder! Follow them on social media!

Until tomorrow …

 

I just noticed that the Horn Book posted my review of Margaret Wise Brown’s A Home in the Barn (Harper, September 2018), illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. I love this one. If you’re so inclined to read more about it, the review is here.

Also, over at Calling Caldecott today (also at the Horn Book) we have a Matt Chat. That is, I talked to the 2018 Caldecott Medalist, Matthew Cordell, about life pre- and post-Caldecott. That is here.

Until later …

“And the ash of those dying stars gathered into planets, and the planets circled other stars. But still … no bluebirds, no butterflies, still no snails, no giraffes,
still no you, no me.”
(Click spread to enlarge)

 
Are you all ready to get cosmic? I’ve a review over at BookPage of Marion Dane Bauer’s The Stuff of Stars (Candlewick, September 2018), illustrated by Ekua Holmes. That is here.

Today here at 7-Imp, I’ve a bit of art from the book.

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Today over at Kirkus, I’ve got a graphic novel memoir that is marketed to adults but is a wonderful cross-over title for teens.

That is here.

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Last week, I chatted here with Jarrett J. Krosoczka about his new graphic novel memoir (it’s a very graphic-novel-memoir kind of day here at 7-Imp, isn’t it?), called Hey, Kiddo (Graphix/Scholastic, October 2018).

Today here at 7-Imp, I’m following up with some process and final images from the book. I thank Jarrett for sharing.

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Hey, everybody. We are kicking things off over at the Horn Book’s Calling Caldecott. Today, we share the list of 2018 books we’d like to cover this year (though it’s far from a definitive list), and we are asking readers to suggest the picture books they’d like to see discussed this Fall and Winter. It won’t be just Martha, Lolly, and me over there for the next several months. We plan to invite guest bloggers to keep the conversations fresh and to ensure diverse voices.

So, if you love picture books, head on over there today — here’s the link — and weigh in, if you’re so inclined.

Until tomorrow …

” … is me and my brothers’ bike.”
(Click to enlarge spread, which is sans text)

 
I’ve a bit of art today from Maxine Beneba Clarke’s The Patchwork Bike (Candlewick, September 2018), illustrated by Van Thanh Rudd. First published in Australia and New Zealand in 2016, this is the story of a young girl, her “crazy brothers,” their “fed-up mum,” and their desert “mud-for-walls” home in a third-world country. The “best thing of all in our village,” the girl tells us, “is me and my brothers’ bike.” It is, as the title says, a patchwork bike made of spare parts — tin-can handles, wood-cut wheels, branches for handlebars, and the like. Read the rest of this entry »

“The best I can describe it would be to tell you it was like the scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix where Professor Umbridge punishes Harry by making him write lines over and over with a Blood Quill. Every time Harry writes something on paper, the words get seared into the back of his hand. So there were moments when it was painful and difficult to make this book. My beautiful studio space would get transformed into that small kitchen in Worcester where difficult moments played out. That being said, there were also many wonderful moments to relive. Those scenes brought me great joy, and when the book was finished, I sort of had to mourn the loss of my grandparents all over again. It was truly a gift to spend that time with them again.”

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Over at Kirkus today, I talk with author-illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka about his graphic novel memoir, Hey, Kiddo, coming to shelves in October.

That is here, and next week here at 7-Imp, I’ll follow up with some more images from the book.

Until tomorrow …