Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

 
Hello from the past!

I’m drafting this post early in the week (last week, that is), because we’re off to take our oldest daughter to college. But I’ll be back on Sunday (today, that is). Pictured here is a work-in-progress image from one of my favorite illustrators, Sergio Ruzzier. Sergio says this is from an upcoming book he’s written, called The Real Story, which Abrams will publish in 2023.

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“Mom and Dad were so excited, moving from one end of the country to the other to trade our fast, busy city life for a small, quiet one far away. I wasn’t feeling it.” This — the opening spread of Theodore Taylor III’s Off the Wall (Roaring Book), coming to shelves in October — depicts the narrator, looking out the car window at a sign that says: “BUFFINTON Population 80, 723.” In speech-bubble dialogue, we read the child’s response: “Meh.”

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“Supposing I lived close to a circus and took scraps every day to my favorite lion and learned to speak Lion, and one night the lion escaped and frightened people and I ran up to the lion by myself and spoke to it in Lion until it went to sleep and the manager gave me a free ticket to the circus for the rest of my life…”
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Alastair Reid’s Supposing … was originally written in 1960. In a new edition from Enchanted Lion Books, on shelves now, JooHee Yoon interprets this playful text in dynamic ways.

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— From Gerda Muller’s The Musicians of Bremen

 

— From Holly Berry’s Told and Retold
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“Storytelling is as old as humankind. Before people could write or read, they entertained each other, taught lessons, shared information, and expressed universal truths by telling stories.” This is the introduction to Holly Berry’s picture book Told and Retold: Around the World with Aesop’s Fables (Philomel, August 2022). And it applies to the other book I’m featuring today, Gerda Muller’s The Musicians of Bremen: A Grimm’s Fairy Tale (Floris), originally released in France nearly a decade ago but coming to shelves next month in a (second) U.S. edition.

Let’s take a look at these two new picture books, celebrating traditional tales. …

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“Nina has two grandmothers who live on opposite sides of the world. …”
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)

 
Nana, Nenek & Nina (Dial, August 2022) is the debut picture book from author-illustrator Liza Ferneyhough. It is the story of Nina, who has a Nenek and a Nana who, as you can see above, live on “opposite sides of the world.” Nina is in San Francisco; Nana is in England; and Nenek is in Malaysia. “If she misses them and wants to visit,” we read, “there’s a lot of figuring out to do.” In the opening spreads, we see her packing. She’s on her way to visit both grandmothers. Ferneyhough — who created the warm, playful illustrations on “tea-stained paper, using watercolors, many tiny brushes, and a crow quill dip pen” — dedicates the book to her own British-Malaysian-American family.

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One of Chuck’s early illustration tests

 
Illustrator Chuck Groenink visits today to share some early sketches from Tanya Rosie’s Mum, Me, and the Mulberry Tree (Candlewick, July 2022), a book that both author and illustrator dedicate to their respective Mums.

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“and the sun shines”
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Antoinette Portis’s ebullient and sun-dappled A Seed Grows (Neal Porter Books, June 2022) is a thing of beauty. It captures the life cycle of a flower — in this case, a healthy, glowing sunflower. The entire text consists of one long sentence and then one final short one that brings everything full circle. The images — which feature visually rich colors, textures, and patterns — are bright and bold and will engage the young children, particularly the emerging readers, at whom this book is aimed.

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It may have been a ridiculously long time since I’ve done a regular 7-Imp feature with a student or unpublished illustrator (mea culpa), but today I’m going to do so again. It’s my pleasure to welcome Viola Ruzzier to 7-Imp. Viola, who recently completed college at a school in Canada, did not major in art or illustration (though her father, who is an award-winning illustrator, knows a thing or two about it). As you’ll read below, she studied science and embarked upon a book project that involves illustrated stories. It’s called Science Stories: A Little Volume for People Who Like Science and Stories. And it is, just as it sets out to be, informative and entertaining. (You will see in some of the pages below that Viola’s distinctive voice — particularly, her dry wit — is one of the best things about the book.)

I’m going to turn things over to her so that she can tell us more about this story collection. I thank her for visiting.

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Hello, Imps! I’m going to continue with a theme this week — I posted mid-week about a new children’s graphic novel that I love — and share some spreads today from yet another graphic novel, Kathryn Ormsbee’s Growing Pangs (Random House, May 2022), illustrated by Molly Brooks and colored by Bex Glendining and Elise Schuenke. This is the story of Katie, who is a rising sixth grader. She’s homeschooled (I love the way this graphic novel takes on the stereotypes that homeschooled students often face), and she struggles with worry — OCD, to be precise. It’s good stuff, and I have a review over at the Horn Book, should you want to read more about it.

That is here, and below are some spreads.

Enjoy!

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“Trace the drops … a dot-to-dot that
makes a secret map.”
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Meg Fleming’s meditative Wondering Around (Beach Lane, May 2022), illustrated by Richard Jones, is an ode to wondering at, observing, and engaging with the natural world and features children who “wander on the outside … and wonder on the in.”

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