Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Santa gets around any way he can, y’all.

And author-illustrator Brian Biggs proves this point in the newest entry in his Everything Goes series, called Everything Goes: Santa Goes Everywhere!, published by Balzer & Bray this September. This is actually a board book, and it’s good stuff. In fact, I did story time yesterday morning at Parnassus Books here in Nashville, and I brought this one along. The children there loved the book. There were many laughs, in particular, to see Santa on a speedboat. (And how much do I love the book’s cover? A whole heapin’ lot. Opening this post is the cover art.)

(By the way, that’s Brian pictured above and right. He painted himself into his new book about what goes on the sea, but more on that book below.)

I’ve posted before here at 7-Imp about this wonderful series (see this 2012 post in which I chat with Brian), which is perfect for the vehicle- and transportation-obsessed child in your life (or even growns-ups). I think it’d be unfortunate, though, to write about these books in such a way to imply they should be limited to only those who like moving vehicles of any sort. They’re such well-crafted books on many other levels, and they’re full of rewarding details. You will often hear Biggs compared to Richard Scarry when folks write about these books, and there’s a reason: They are spreads to pore over and take one’s time with, spreads full of many stories and running jokes and visual treats. Oh, and they’re educational too. Clearly. But, most importantly, they’re very fun. Read the rest of this entry »

Today over at Kirkus, I write about a new picture book from Uri Shulevitz. It’s called Dusk.

That is here this morning.

Last week, I wrote here about Isobel Harris’ Little Boy Brown (pictured left), illustrated by French graphic designer and illustrator André François and originally published in 1949.

I’m following up today with some art from the book, released by Enchanted Lion Books last month, which is below.

Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week at Kirkus, I chatted with publishing director Cecily Kaiser, who works with Appleseed, a fairly new imprint of Abrams Books for Young Readers. We chatted about board books and what makes a good one. All of that chit-chattin’ is here, and today I’m following up with art from some of the books she mentioned, including the re-boot (coming in 2014) of Chris Raschka’s Thingy Thing series, pictured above.

Enjoy the art.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hi, all.

You’re really gonna click on the image above and see that cardboard up close, right?

I recently reviewed Sam Zuppardi’s The Nowhere Box (Candlewick, November 2013) for the fine folks at BookPage. This is Sam’s debut picture book.

And, since you all know I get kind of twitchy when I don’t share art from the books about which I write, I’m following up here today at 7-Imp with some art from Zuppardi himself (pictured right). He has also sent along some early sketches and dummies from the book.

My book review is here at BookPage’s site (I give them seven points for the name they gave my review, “He’s a Real Nowhere Man”), and below are some more images from Sam.

I thank him for sharing.

Enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the first Sunday of the month, when I typically feature student illustrators or those brand-new to illustration, but I’m breaking the rules today.

And that’s ’cause, earlier this week, I was chatting with author-illustrator Carin Berger about how she turned in the art for her upcoming book, Finding Spring (Greenwillow Books), which is about a bear who doesn’t want to hibernate and, instead, goes in search of Spring. The art is what Carin describes as “somewhat 3D”—like her most recent illustrated children’s book, Jack Prelutsky’s Stardines Swim High Across the Sky: And Other Poems (Greenwillow Books, February 2013)—but “more like tiny toy theaters or Victorian raree shows.”

I haven’t seen an early copy of this book, which won’t be on shelves for a while, but I always enjoy reading about Carin and how she creates her artwork. In fact, Carin and I did this back in January of last year, way before Stardines came out. She visited back then to share images of her dioramas, her three-dimensional art from that book. Hmm. Maybe I can just make it a 7-Imp tradition to check in with Carin at the first (or nearly first) of every year. I’m a fan of her artwork. That’d make me happy anyway.

So, without further ado, here’s Carin, and I thank her for sharing. Read the rest of this entry »

Because Kirkus deadlines don’t stop for Thanksgiving, I decided to write about a book I thought might be a fitting Thanksgiving read. And that would be Isobel Harris’ Little Boy Brown, illustrated by French graphic designer and illustrator André François and originally published in 1949. My thoughts on that book are here, and next week I’ll follow up with some art from it (though one illustration, which is also the cover illustration, is pictured right).

Today, I’m giving some attention to board books, since those poor guys don’t really get enough attention (at least compared to picture books and novels). I’m chatting with the publishing director of Abram’s Appleseed Books, Cecily Kaiser, about board books and what makes a good one. That link is here.

Lastly, this week for Picture Book Month (which is coming to a close), I chat with podcaster Katie Davis about picture books. I might just ramble a bit about Uri Shulevitz, Maurice Sendak, Barbara Bader, Katherine Paterson, Harry Allard’s and James Marshall’s Grandfather Stupid, picture books as “acts of mischief” (as Patricia Lee Gauch describes it), favorite picture books of 2013, and more.

That is here.

Thanks to Katie Davis for dealing with my low-tech old-skool phone skillz.

LITTLE BOY BROWN. First American edition published in 2013 by Enchanted Lion Books. Copyright © 2013 by Enchanted Lion Books for this reprint edition. Illustration reproduced by permission of the publisher.

Since I wrote here last week at Kirkus about a new collection of fairy tales from The Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger and published by Minedition—it’s called Tales from the Brothers Grimm, and it’s beautiful—I’ve got some art from it today.

But I’ve got another treat.

Also from Minedition this December will be The Brothers Grimm’s Hansel and Gretel, illustrated by Sybille Schenker and adapted by Martin West. Now, to read about it, you can go here to Kirkus‘ starred review. (Yes, I’m kickin’ it over to them, ’cause I have a giant stack of work giving me the skunk eye.) They call it nothing less than “gorgeous” and “sumptuous.” It really is both things, more of a coffee-table book than one you want to give, say, a toddler — given things like its thick cover stitching, die cuts, and vellum pages. The stark, black silhouettes throughout the book set a splendidly eerie tone, and the highly-patterned color illustrations that appear (not pictured below) are striking. Below is some art from that book, too.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

Those of you who follow the wonderful blog Calling Caldecott over at the Horn Book site will recognize today’s book, since they recently posted about it. In fact, I first read about it over there and felt inspired to feature it here.

Written by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore and illustrated by Roth, Parrots Over Puerto Rico (LEE & LOW, September 2013) is an unusual book in that it serves as both a history of the island of Puerto Rico, as well as a history of the Puerto Rican parrot. This vertically-oriented book—and that’s the cover above, text-less and all—tells how they “lived on this island for millions of years, and then they nearly vanished from the earth forever.” The authors go back as far as 5000 BCE to document the first people on the island and those people, the Taínos in 800 CE, who named the parrrots iguaca after the cries the creatures make. As the authors continue to lay out with great clarity the history of the island and those who came to settle there, they highlight the threats the birds have faced over the years, including red-tailed hawks, black rats from settlers’ ships, honeybees, deforestation, hunters and trappers, birds called pearly-eyed thrashers, and more. By 1967, well after the island became a territory of the United States, only twenty-four parrots lived in El Yunque, a national forest in northeastern Puerto Rico:

Puerto Ricans looked up and saw that their iguacas were almost gone. People had nearly caused the parrots to become extinct. Now people started to help the parrots stay alive.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is how most of her fans, including me, respond when they hear she has a new book out. My Kirkus column today is about that and is here.

Last week (here), I wrote about Rachel Isadora’s newest picture book, Old Mikamba Had a Farm (Nancy Paulsen Books, October 2013). I’m following up with some illustrations from the book today, including the one pictured above.

Enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t know about you, but I could look at the illustrations of Lauren Castillo all day. So, I’m happy this morning to have some artwork from her here at 7-Imp.

Last week, I chatted over at Kirkus with author Kate Banks, whose latest picture book was illustrated by Lauren — City Cat, released by Frances Foster Books/Farrar Straus Giroux just this week. So, more on the book and my chat with Kate is here, but today I follow up with Lauren, who is sharing (in her words) “a little of everything: cat studies, on-location drawings, early sketchbook studies, some reference inspiration, final sketches, and final art.”

Incidentally, Lauren has also blogged about this book. She took a trip to Europe in 2009 to “gather inspiration through sketches and photographs.” Here are those posts. (Here also is the book’s trailer.)

Enjoy the art, and many thanks to Lauren for sharing. Read the rest of this entry »