Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast (page 8)

Where does art come from? I’m not an artist, but I suspect those who do create art get asked that question quite a lot, just as authors often get asked where their story ideas originate. Two new picture books on shelves—Mordicai Gerstein’s The Sleeping Gypsy and Klaas Verplancke’s Magritte’s Apple—not only take a look at this question but also very specifically look at iconic painters and the legendary images for which they are known. If I were an artist ...

I’m generally pretty lousy at noting trends in the picture book world, but one thing I’ve noticed lately is the publication of several new picture books, all within a two-month span, about evolution. Depending on where an author lives, to even write about evolution is inviting complaints. I live in the South and still run into creationists. Just the other day I read about an educator wanting to take students on a field trip to Kentucky’s Creation Museum, built by ...

The way Coretta Scott King Award-winning illustrator Michele Wood approaches her picture books is a bit unusual, compared to the traditional way most picture books are made, and her newest book is but one example. Like a Bird: The Art of the American Slave Song was her concept, and for it she created 13 striking original paintings. She then submitted the images, as she explains to me below, to author Cynthia Grady, who wrote text to accompany the artwork. Millbrook ...

The bond with a grandparent can be one of the most powerful ones in the lives of children, and there’s no shortage of picture books on shelves about intergenerational ties. I’ve seen a few new ones I want to discuss today, though the last one is actually a slim novel. One thing I like about all of these books is the way the elderly characters are conveyed in the illustrations. It’s hard to get it right; I know I’ve seen ...

Last week, I read two books that wow’ed me. I knew I wanted to write about them, but it wasn’t until just now that I realized (I may need some more coffee) that they share something in common: Both are here because of the Brothers Grimm.

First up is Shaun Tan’s The Singing Bones, which has an interesting publication history. You can read details here at Shaun Tan’s site, but essentially it goes like this: After Philip Pullman’s 2012 publication ...

It’s probably daunting to take on the life of actor and director Leonard Nimoy and attempt to fashion it into a picture book biography for children. (Talk about boldly going where no man has gone before.) But it’s also perhaps a little less intimidating if you were his dear friend, as author and poet Richard Michelson was before Nimoy’s death last year in February.

Yet even Michelson himself is surprised he didn’t think to write Fascinating: The Life of Leonard ...

It’s a good time to be a Beatrix Potter fan. This year marks the 150^th anniversary of her birthday, and given that her books have entertained readers for more than a century, making her one of children’s literature’s most beloved authors, celebrations abound. Much of the buzz has been around the publication of The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, a new story from Ms. Potter herself, found in an archive collection two years ago.

The publication tale goes like this: Jo ...

Fictionalized picture books for young readers about the plight of refugees aren’t exactly crowding the shelves. Last year, readers saw the candid Two White Rabbits from Mexican author Jairo Buitrago and Colombian illustrator Rafael Yockteng. In October of this year, Lee & Low Books will release LaTisha Redding’s Calling the Water Drum, illustrated by Aaron Boyd – a book (I have yet to see) about a boy, as the Kirkus review notes, whose parents have died in an effort ...