Happy Holidays and blog pause

Dear readers,

I take the chance of this post to beg your pardon for my almost total absence this December.

The truth is I've been working like crazy this last year and a half and I am now a bit tired. I need to take a few days off to reorganize my engagements and to properly plan upcoming news. I therefore take advantage of these Xmas Holidays to make a small pause, I shall be back on the January 10th week.

I've got plenty of surprises in the works and I can't wait to share them with you!!

Meanwhile I would like to wish, to those who actually celebrate it, a

MERRY CHRITSMAS

AND TO ALL OF YOU

A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Image ©copyright Andrea Marazzi, all reproduction is severely prohibited.

Salon de Montreuil (Book Fair)

Dear readers,

I'm back after a pause I hadn't announced, due to my participation to the famous Salon de Montreuil*. I do apologize for not having given an official notice. The truth is that maybe I have been a bit reticent in announcing a blog pause because I didn't really feel "paused", in fact all my actions were aiming these pages.

In the upcoming weeks I shall start analyzing in-depth some of the books I have found at the Salon, for the moment though I shall just make a short resumé of what I was able to see, hear and feel during the show, together with a short selection of masterpieces I found (of course the selection is limited for reasons of time and personal taste, many other books would have been eligible to make it to the list).

As usual the French scene is always rich in discoveries and stimulus even if, here as well, the wind is starting to blow a bit harder because of the new financial measures taken by the French Government. The debate upon the future of Children's Literature, and on culture in general, is therefore still actual and kicking: after the "end of activity" announcement given by Etre Publishing, as I had already explained here, and after the substantial fund-cut that is determining the end of the association Livres au Trésor with all its wonderful activities, France has to face an increasing dread that often resolves into a worrying incoherence when it's up to publisher's choices. Let me explain this better: I had the precise feeling that an increasing number of publishers have started to try to expand their horizons, which is not bad at all by itself, their action though is quite confused and confusing. To be short it's as if they were trying to avoid drowning by grasping the first life raft that comes at hand, no matter if it's not in line with their original plan. Now, I can't avoid to asking myself (and you of course): is it wise and fair that a publishing house moves away from its own original line of action? Is it correct if said publisher gathers under its roof a number of texts, projects and/or collections that have little to do with that starting point they themselves had traced? Of course I don't pretend I have an answer but, if you have any, I would be glad to host a little debate.

As regards children's literature perspectives, IBBY France together with BNF (Bibliothèque Nationale de France - Centre National de la littérature pour la Jeunesse La joie par les Livres) have organized a very interesting meeting titled: "2e Rencontres européennes de la littérature pour la jeunesse", during the meeting the discussion lead to analyze European creative paths (thanks to the participation of very important illustrators such as Dusan Kàllay, Arnal Ballester and Bernd Mölck-Tassel) and publishing, literary mediation and promotional practices related to kidslit, of course. The acts will soon be available, if you're interested in reading them you could get them here.

As I was saying above, despite all possible worries and doubts, the Salon remains an important moment of meditation and sharing that is really worthy if you're interested in this sector. Le latest piece of new from our French cousins is the future opening, in Montreuil, of a new school called: "L'Ecole du livre de jeunesse". The school aims to give resources and informations to the various parties involved in the diffusion and deepening of children's books at various levels, all this though without forgetting families: for them there will be special educational laboratories aimed to give parents new mwthods of approach to books and many other initiatives. Amid the fifteen amazing contributors of the school, that will open officially in 2011, there will be the dearest Christian Bruel too! I wish his genius and the experience he made as publisher along the years will contribute to the blossoming of many biting smiles**!

Time for some books signaling now!!! Some books are older but they are such wonderful books I couldn't avoid putting them in my list:

Monsieur Cent Têtes, by Ghislaine Herbéra, Edizioni MeMo, January 10th 2010. Prix Premier Album (First Picture Book Award) at the Salon.

L'Herbier, Petite Flore des bois d'Europe, by Emilie Vast, Edizioni MeMo, May 15th 2010.

Le Petit Homme et Dieu, by Kitty Crowther, L'Ecole des Loisirs - Pastel Publishing, September 2010

Diapason, by Laëtitia Devernay, La Joie de Lire Publishing, October 2010

Ici Londres, by Vincent Cuvellier, illustrations by Anne Herbauts, Rouergue Publishing, January 2009.

and, least but not last, some lovely poetry books:

published by Bayard Jeunesse from 2003 up to nowadays in the section "Hors Collection".

The books are not in a particular order, no favorites, no chronological order, let's say it's much more a random act of disorder! I shall tell you more about some of these books soon, therefore: stay tuned!


This is it for now.




* Important Kidslit fair, held in Paris every Fall/Winter, gathering almost all French Publishers of the sector. A reference show as for new trends in the sector and cultural debate.

** For those who don't know it yet, C. Bruel's first publishing house was called La Sourire qui Mord, meaning "the biting smile".

Il Grande Alfredo - Spider

Il Grande Alfredo, by Spider, Orecchio Acerbo Editore, 2010

If you're interested in reading more about this wonderful book...  

Telling the story of the most incredible clown in the world....

please visit here.

Copyright© text and images by Orecchio Acerbo 2010. Images have been reproduced with the permission of the Publisher, all reproduction is prohibited.

A very sad day

Today is a very sad day, I have been long afraid it would come but I still hoped it wouldn't.

I just received a message by Christian Bruel, owner and soul of Editions Etre, I had tried to give an alert a few months ago but, to my utter regret, Editions Etre couldn't make it: they will be closing at the end of the year.

I'm very sad because I was unable to do more than what I actually did. Amid their artists are some of the most important on the international scene, their books are precious gems, gems that will find a home on a few lucky shelves but will be precluded to the most.

A brilliant and inspired light, a free voice that has gifted us with its beautiful books will soon be no more. Once again titans are winning and little ones are loosing, but I will not surrender and, once again, let me cry out loud that
CULTURE IS FREEDOM, LET'S FIGHT FOR IT!

The winners of the Salon di Montreuil 2010

Here are the winners of the prizes for the 2010 edition of the Paris Salon de Montreuil!!!


Let's start with the prestigious


Baobab de l'Album

La Règle d'or du cache-cache

by Christophe Honoré, illustrations by Gwen Le Gac, Actes Sud junior, 2010.

Other important prize

Prix du 1er album

Monsieur cent têtes

by Ghislaine Herbéra, Éditions MeMo, 2010.

let's continue with the

Prix de la presse des jeunes

Des hommes dans la guerre d'Algérie

texts by Isabelle Bournier, illustrations by Jacques Ferrandez, Casterman, 2010.

Prix Terre en vue

Petites et grandes histoires des animaux disparus

by Hélène Rajcak and Damien Laverdunt, with the collaboration of Cécile Colin and Luc Vives from the National Museum of Natural History, Actes Sud Junior, 2010.

Prix À l'abord'art

La Petite Galerie de Andy Warhol

by Patricia Geis, coll. La petite galerie, Editions Palette, 2010

Prix Coup de cœur de l'équipe du Salon

Le Petit Gibert illustré

by Bruno Gibert, Albin Michel Jeunesse, 2010

This is it for now, talk soon for more news!

Autumn Rain

In these days of pouring rain, let me sweep you away with these drops of colour and wisdom. It’s all “must have” books: some more recent, others a bit older.

To start our parade it could be none else than her: Suzy Lee, with her last masterpiece that has been published (more or less) contemporarily in three countries: United States, Italy and France!

Shadow, by Suzy Lee, Chronicle Books, Septembrer 2010

Ombres, by Suzy Lee, Editions Kaleidoscope, Septembrer 2010

Ombra, by Suzy Lee, Edizioni Corraini, Septembrer 2010

The story is simple and brilliant, as this wonderful artist has accustomed us to: leave a child alone in an attic with a few common objects, old and dusty; the first instinct, it’s clear, is to explore the place and the best way to give way to exploration is playing, better if all alone. The most simple objects as well, when filtered by a fervent imagination, take up the most unimaginable appearances (Le Petit Nicolas by Sempé is a good example) even truer for their shade’s reflex that will inspire unexpected sceneries. Just like in Wave, and in Mirror, Lee enjoys marking the boundary between real and imagined amid the two adjoining pages. Just like in the books I’ve mentioned before, in Shadow as well imagination assumes, at one point, a more concrete aspect, at times a menacing one, bursting physically into the space of real, as if to make it visible how much, in the end, real and imagined nourish one another. Briefly: another masterpiece by the chorean illustrator, accurate and sensible interpretation of a childhood lived on the thread of fantastic.

In an interesting article, the New York Times uses Shadow by Suzy Lee as an example to proof that printed page, in a digital era such as ours (in constant acceleration also thanks to tools such as Ipad), is all the same vital and to some extent irreplaceable.

Here is a beautiful interview with Suzy Lee, it’s a bit old but it’s all the same very good:

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1410

and also:
The DPI Magazine - don’t get scared by the writings in chorean, at the bottom there’s an English version of the interview
 http://suzyleebooks.com/zeroboard/zboard.php?id=misc&page=5&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=70

Reviews in English:
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=2023
You Know, For Kids - http://youknowforkidsblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-books-shadow.html
Publishers Weekly - http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/childrens-announcements/article/43866-wordless-wonders.html

Reviews in French:
La Citrouille - http://lsj.hautetfort.com/archive/2010/11/08/ombres.html

Reviews in Italian:
Letto fra Noi - http://www.lettofranoi.it/tag/suzy-lee/
Forkids - http://www.forkids.it/2010/07/09/ombra/

Another great international artist, from the States, with one of his last productions:

Lulu and the Brontosaurus, by Judith Viorst, illustrated by Lane Smith, Atheneum Books, September 2010



After It's a Book, an a solo project, the great Lane Smith delights us with this , an a solo project, the great Lane Smith delights us with this picture book with Judith Viorst. To be true, this picture book would have righteously had its place in the post I had titled Ugly, Dirty and Bad... guess why? Well, that's because Lulu, the main character of the book, ia a spoiled, a very spoiled kid who clearly recalls (at least to me) the character of Veruca Salt in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl: Lulu always obtains what she wants. One nice morning she wakes up and decides she wants a Brontosaurus for a pet. No matter if her parents deny her the permission to get one, she stays on the piece and decides for action: you know, she can’t accept a no! This scene somehow reminds me of Veruca, when she decides she’ll get her own squirrel, for the fear of children and adults present on the scene. To end with my comparison, there is as well a sort of tribal/rhythmic song that somewhat recalls the Umpa Lumpa’s songs:

"I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, gonna get
A bronto-bronto-bronto
Brontosaurus for a pet.
I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, gonna get
A bronto-bronto-bronto
Brontosaurus for a pet."

As in Dahl’s best books, things won’t turn out so positively for Lulu either, in a cruel capsizing of events it’s
the Brontosaurus who will make of Lulu his pet.

Links to Lane Smith:
site  http://www.lanesmithbooks.com/Home.html
blog http://lanesart.blogspot.com/
 
Interviews with Lane Smith:
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1422 
Adventures Underground - http://www.advunderground.com/interviews/smith1106.php
Estrella's Revenge - http://estellabooks.blogspot.com/2009/02/authorillustrator-interview-lane-smith.html
The Wall Street Journal Speakeasy - http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/08/31/its-a-book-author-lane-smith-on-kids-and-technology/  (about It's a Book)
Housatonic Times - http://www.housatonictimes.com/articles/2010/10/15/entertainment/doc4cb70c1946b1b665670407.txt 
Reading Rockets - http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/smith (video)
Carnegie Corporation of NY (Teachers for a new era) - http://www.tne.uconn.edu/interviews/lane%20smith.mp3 (audio)
Just One More Book - http://www.justonemorebook.com/2008/08/25/interview-with-lane-smith/ (audio)
 
Interviews with Judith Viorst:
The Kennedy Center - http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/family/alexander/author.html
Book Page - http://www.bookpage.com/0711bp/judith_viorst.html
Dream Jam World - http://www.dreamjamworld.com/interview.html (audio)
ed un estratto da World Literature Today - http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-541123/An-interview-with-Judith-Viorst.html

Reviews:
Dog Ear - http://nicolepoliti.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/lulu-and-the-brontosaurus-by-judith-viorst-illustrated-by-lane-smith-2010/
Proseandkahn - http://proseandkahn.livejournal.com/131068.html?thread=28156
 

Let’s stop in America for a while, with a change of atmosphere though, with Peter Sis and his last Madlenka’s picture book:

 

Madlenka Soccer Star, by Peter Sis, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 28th September 2010

Madlenka's Dog was the first book by Sis I ever bought, during one of my trips to NY, since then I usually never miss one. Peter Sis has a refined sensibility he transposes in his works through rarefied and dreamy atmospheres: his The Wall (that won the Caldecott Honour Book mention, and to whom is devoted this beautiful article from the New York Times), Tibet Through the Red Box (a wonderful autobiographical work where he discovers the contents of the mysterious red box, the one his father carried from a stay in Tibet), The Tree of Life (forerunner of the many books on Charles Darwin published more recently).

But let’s go back to our book: Madlenka is a girl who lives in the big town and, like all kids living in the big town, she’s looking for a place of her own, she looks for it among cars, in the street, under the shade of trees growing in the suffocating asphalt. Like all kids living in the big town, her playmates could be other kids or, eventually trees, or objects, or animals. Today Madlenka leaves her flat with her brand new soccer ball, and she is uncontrollable, wild, irrepressible! She plays, she plays everywhere. Her team mates are a letterbox, a few cats, a parking meter, a dog, all unfailingly involved in a neighbourhood cup, reflexion of the recent African World Cup. But, to be truth, Madlenka is secretly training for the Women’s World Cup of 2011, in Germany!

Here is Peter Sis website: http://www.petersis.com/index2.html

Interviews:
On the Job, Mystery Man - http://www.zuzu.org/sisinterview.html
School Library Journal - http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6351977.html?q=under+cover+video (video)
Reading Rockets - http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/sis/transcript and http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/sis (video)
NPR - http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/sis (audio)

Reviews:
Books For Kids - http://booksforkidsblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/kick-off-madlenka-soccer-star-by-peter.html

And now let’s travel to England with:

 

The Rabbit Problem, by Emily Gravett, Macmillan Children's Books, 7th August 2009 

This book, published in 2009, is based on the Fibonacci Sequence. Gulp! Well not really: Emily Gravett, as usual, is able to make fun and adventurous every story she tells. Who doesn’t remember Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears? Well, in this book as well, the British author sets all her imagination free, producing a real masterpiece for inventiveness: the text substantially reproduces the calendar’s format where, at each month, there is the count of the number of rabbits joining Lonely, the solitary protagonist of the first table. As in Shadow by Suzy Lee, in The Rabbit Problem as well you’ll have to flip the book to read it, as you would do with a real calendar. To each table, executed with a rigorously mixed-media technique mixing watercolors and collage, Gravett adds little details: envelopes, instructions on how to make a warm jumper, a little recipe booklet, many notes scattered here and there (as you would do on your own home calendar). A book for all those kids who suffer an irresistible attraction for discovery and who love reading books over and over again, always searching for new details. (Watch out for the surprise at the end!)

And for an on-line experience, here is Emily Gravett’s website: www.emilygravett.com/

Interviews:
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1606 
Booktrust Childrens Books http://www.booktrustchildrensbooks.org.uk/show/feature/Features%20Interviews/Interview-with-Emily-Gravett and http://www.booktrustchildrensbooks.org.uk/show/feature/Emily-Gravett-interview-2
The Telegraph UK - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3664140/The-road-less-travelled.html
Reading Rockets - http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/gravett and http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/gravett/transcript
Kids Book Review - http://www.kids-bookreview.com/2010/09/interview-emily-gravett.html

Reviews:
B is For Books - http://www.thaolam.com/blog/?p=476
Henrietta - http://henriettamouse.blogspot.com/2010/02/rabbit-problem-by-emily-gravett.html
The Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/19/rabbit-problem-emily-gravett-review
The Bookbag - http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=The_Rabbit_Problem_by_Emily_Gravett
Kirkus Reviews - http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/childrens-books/emily-gravett/rabbit-problem/
 
Let’s go back to the other side of the Ocean with the amazing Peter Brown, former author of  The Curious Garden, and his last work:

Children Make Terrible Pets, by Peter Brown, Little, Brown & Company, 7th September 2010

This is a really fun book! Little Rose finds a kid in the woods and decides to make him her pet. As he doesn’t speak but just squeaks, Rose will call it Squeaker. But, when she sees it, mother bear doesn’t agree with Rose as she explains very clearly because: "Children make terrible pets". As in Lulu and the Brontosaurus, in Children Make Terrible Pets as well there is a capsizing: the human becomes, despite his will, a pet while animals are portrayed as humans. With backgrounds reproducing wood’s grain and the images centered in warm colors screen-shaped, rounded at the corners, it seems as if the only things missing were knobs and here we would be in front of an old TV screen, ready to assist to the new adventures of those that (maybe because I’m just romantic, or maybe cos’ TV with knobs reminds me of when, kid, I used to look at them) recall so much Yogi Bear and Bubu, in their nice Yellowstone Park! Only intruders, as usual, men!


For more information about Peter Brown, here is his website: http://www.peterbrownstudio.com/
 
And some Interviews:
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1920
Into the Wardrobe - http://peteredmundlucy7.blogspot.com/2009/07/authorillustrator-interview-peter-brown.html
Giggle - http://ali.blogs.giggle.com/2010/07/15/an-a-list-interview-peter-brown/
Sory Sleuths - http://www.storysleuths.com/2010/04/interview-with-peter-brown-curious.html
Embracing the Child - http://www.embracingthechild.org/abrown.html
And a Video-interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w2vC-9An0k

Reviews:
100 Scope Notes - http://100scopenotes.com/2010/11/04/review-children-make-terrible-pets-by-peter-brown/
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=2025 (with many illustrations and sketches)
Children's Book Reviews - http://wordsbymom.com/authors/peter-brown/children-make-terrible-pets/
Twenty by Jenny - http://www.twentybyjenny.com/47Books/review/children-make-terrible-pets/
Kid's Book Buzz - http://kidsbookbuzz.blogspot.com/2010/10/children-make-terrible-pets-by-peter.html
 
Let's stay in America, to then move to Holland, with

Knuffle Bunny Free, by Mo Willems, Balzer & Bray, 28th September 2010
 

Knuffle Bunny Free is a sequel as well, to be precise it's the picture book closing the trilogy started with Knuffle Bunny, a Cautionary Tale, and followed by Knuffle Bunny, a Case of Mistaken Identity. Another book I had bought during a trip to NY, other case of love at first sight!

Trixie and Knuffle Bunny are inseparable, since Trixie was as big as this and Knuffle Bunny had just gotten out of his brand new box. For Trixie being at distance from Knuffle Bunny is unbearable (yesterday, the younger kid of my neighbour was desperately crying because he had temporarily lost his favourite game, how to blame him?). Though, if we think of it, from time to time it seems that Knuffle gets lost on purpose. And, to be completely honest, in his profound longing for exploration, he does have a weird taste when he chooses where to go: once he gets lost in the washing machine, then he lands in the arms of Trixie's worse enemy (leaving his double with Trixie)… and, least but not last, while he's on a trip to Holland with the whole family, he decides to make a detour in his own peculiar style (this is the starting point for Knuffle Bunny Free).
For all three books, Willems uses a mixed technique, with pictures (more or less urban) for the backgrounds, and linear drawings for the characters, mainly in pastel tones. All is played on a deliberate ambiguity: real/unreal in the backgrounds wisely in black and white, that make the setting almost universal and in any case knowingly suspended in time, modern interpretation of the old “once upon a time in a faraway land...”; real/unreal for the characters as well and their actions, always suspended amid concrete acts and imagined ones.

As you might read in some of the interviews here below, Mo Willems has a background in television, theatre and animation, during his career he has obtained: 3 Caldecott Honors, 2 Geisel Medals, 2 Carnegie Medals, 6 Emmys! Amid his many books: very famous is Don't Let the Pidgeon Drive the Bus, and the beautiful  series of the books for younger kids Elephant and Piggie, Cat the Cat and Big Frog, just to mention a few. What strikes me about his art is the extremely linear and simple characters, on which he inserts themes that are deeply rooted in childhood.


To get to know Mo Willems a bit more:
Site  http://www.mowillems.com/
Blog http://mowillemsdoodles.blogspot.com/
 
Intervews:
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=863 - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=841
Book Trust Children's Books - http://www.booktrustchildrensbooks.org.uk/show/feature/Features%20Interviews/Interview-with-Mo-Willems
Trap Door Sun - http://www.trapdoorsun.com/literature/mo-willems.aspx
Scholastic - http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=7518
At Home Dad - http://www.athomedad.org/node/605
Babble - http://www.babble.com/content/articles/columns/5minutetimeout/mo-willems-a-chat-with-the-creator-of-knuffle-bunny-too/
Reading Rockets - http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/willems/transcript and http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/willems/transcript
Just One More Book - http://www.justonemorebook.com/2007/05/14/interview-with-mo-willems/ (audio)
School Library Journal - http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6304810.html (video)

Reviews:
Publishers' Weekly - http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/44415-mo-willems-on-knuffle-bunny-free-.html 
100 Scopenotes - http://100scopenotes.com/2010/09/07/review-knuffle-bunny-free/ 
The Seattle Times - http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2013051230_kidsbooksmowilliems02.html?syndication=rss
Flying Giggles and Lollipops - http://www.flyinggigglesandlollipops.com/2010/10/knuffle-bunny-free-giveaway.html
Brimful Curiosities - http://www.brimfulcuriosities.com/2010/09/knuffle-bunny-free-by-mo-willems-book.html 
Two Writing Teachers - http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/knuffle3/
Script PS News - http://www.scrippsnews.com/content/corner-mo-willems-knuffle-bunny-free-city-dog-country-frog
 
Let's stay in America with:

13 Words, by Lemony Snicket, illustrations by Maira Kalman, HarperCollins, 5th October 2010

13 Words is the newborn by Lemony Snicket, a.k.a Daniel Handler (author, scriptwriter and accordionist) and Maira Kalman (eminent illustrator and designer and cover-maker for the New Yorker)! Well, I guess it's already enough, isn't it? Are you wondering about the story? Which story? There's no story, there are just those thirteen words:

1. Bird
2. Despondent
3. Cake
4. Dog
5. Busy
6. Convertible
7. Goat
8. Hat
9. Haberdashery
10. Scarlet
11. Baby
12. Panache
13. Mezzo-Soprano

What do these words mean all together? I can't tell you, I'd otherwise reveal unmentionable secrets, and I would ruin the surprise!


The only treat I can grant is the book's trailer:

Wanna know more about author and illustrator?

Lemony Snicket - Site http://www.lemonysnicket.com/

Maira Kalman - Site http://www.mairakalman.com/

 
Interviews with Lemony Snicket:
Parent Dish - http://www.parentdish.com/2010/10/05/lemony-snicket-gets-persnickety-with-pdish/
Browse Inside: http://browseinside.harpercollinschildrens.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061664656 
About Creativity - http://about-creativity.com/2007/06/an-interview-with-daniel-handler-aka-lemony-snicket-part-1.php 
About.com - http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/interviews/a/lemony.htm
The Telegraph UK - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/7157019/Lemony-Snicket-Interview.html
The Washington Post, Kids' Stuff - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901307.html
Book Browse - http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm?author_number=500
Combustible Celluliod - http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/interviews/danielhandler.shtml

Interviews with Maira Kalman:
Inspiration Boards - http://inspirationboards.blogspot.com/2008/03/maira-kalman.html
Design Sponge - http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/10/whats-in-your-toolbox-maira-kalman.html
The Design Files - http://thedesignfiles.net/2008/03/maira-kalman/
Bygone Bureau - http://bygonebureau.com/2009/09/07/the-life-pursuit-an-interview-with-maira-kalman/
Nasheville Review - http://www.vanderbilt.edu/english/nashvillereview/archives/1305
10 Answers - http://10answers.net/2010/10/06/maira-kalman/

Reviews:
Flavorpill - http://flavorpill.com/sanfrancisco/events/2010/9/29/maira-kalman-and-lemony-snicket-13-words 
SFGate.com - http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-09-26/books/24097018_1_trade-books-lemony-snicket-schwartz-wade
TimeOut Kids - http://newyorkkids.timeout.com/articles/books/89124/13-words-by-lemony-snicket-and-maira-kalman-book-review
 
Since we're here, let's end our imaginary trip in the States with:

A Sick Day for Amos McGee, by Philip C. Stead, illustrations by Erin E. Stead, A Neal Porter Book/Roaring Brook Press, May 2010

Comedy of surreal the story of Amos McGee, guardian of the City Zoo, friend of the shy penguin, the elephant, the turtle, the rhino and the owl. Amos is a scrupulous guardian, every animal gets his attentions and care: he plays chess with the Elephant, makes races with the Turtle, sits close to the Penguin, blows the Rhino's nose and tells stories to the Owl when it's dark. Everything proceeds as established since, one morning, Amos gets up sick. And now? Well, the City Zoo animals decide to get the bus and go and see him, to take care of their friend. Comedy of surreal, true, but I shall say comedy on friendship as well, of that kind of friendship where you take care of one another without need to say much more. This reminds me of one personal episode: two years ago I fell and badly hurt my ankle, I couldn't walk for a while, and my friend Francesca came at my place, she set the table with care, she prepared a delicious meal (and who knows her well can see how exceptional this act was) and she kept me company happily twittering in the house. What else is friendship other than that?

The curious thing about this book is that author and illustrator are husband and wife, and they clearly share much more than a roof: fruit of two creativities and one clear empathy, this story is told with great harmony and sensibility, with a careful balancing between what is narrated and what is left unsaid. As Betsy Bird, in her A Fuse#8 Production Blog, righteously observes there is a wise balance in the script between the first and the second part of the book. Corollary of the main event, Erin Stead adds many little details in the background, almost invisible, that enrich the story on tiptoes. Erin E. Stead's illustrations are beautiful both for the persona's characterization and for the gentleness they communicate, sensible eye of a whole range of feelings that can't be told with words. A book you shouldn't loose!!!

Here the sites of Philip and Erin Stead:
Philip Setad - Sito http://www.philipstead.com/
Erin Stead - Blog http://blog.erinstead.com/

Interviews:
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1723
 
Reviews:
The New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/books/review/VonDrasek-t.html
A Fuse#8 Production - http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2010/04/07/review-of-the-day-a-sick-day-for-amos-mcgee-by-philip-c-stead/
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1950
Kids Lit - http://kidslit.menashalibrary.org/2010/05/07/sick-day-for-amos-mcgee/
SC Whiddon Art - http://scwhiddonart.blogspot.com/2010/06/illustrator-erin-e-stead.html

In an interesting article titled Reading Dogs and Untrained Boys, from the columns of The New York Times, Lisa Von Drasek analyzes two of the picture books I just told you about: A Sick Day for Amos McGee and Children Make Terrible Pets, emphasising the ironic side, comedy of the absurd, with that touch of inconsistency that never gets old, not even after the nth reading.

Some of the books I have mentioned appear in the New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2010 selection: http://events.nytimes.com/gift-guide/holiday-2010/best-illustrated-childrens-books-2010/list.html.


This is it for now!

Unexpected

Unexpected is this post, because I hadn't planned it in the least, but you know: love at first sight is always unexpected, and this was no exception.

As it always happens, because of ignorance, or for a cruel joke of fate or for others reasons I can’t think of right now, this time as well I am late. What really matters though is I am here, no matter if I got here following my shady and twisted paths or if I got lost in the seasonal (intellectual?) fogs, what matters is I’m here with my new discovery, which happens to be a MASTERPIECE

Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe, illustrated by Tullio Pericoli, Edizioni Adelphi, 2007

The passages contained in the book have been selected by Anna Maria Lorusso.

The very first edition of this book was the idea of Olivetti, they had the habit to gift their most prestigious customers with limited book editions conceived and printed on purpose for them: it was the 80’s, between 1982 and 1984 and, as Tullio Pericoli himself explains in the foreword, he was having a difficult transition: divided between illustrations for papers and art galleries, between the illustrator and the painter. The story he tells is charming, mostly interesting the way he explains how much, illustrating this book, helped him regaining a final artistic unity: up to that moment in fact, the expressive dichotomy that had kept the illustrator apart from the painter, as if they had to be separated from the start, had precluded to him to find a unitary expression. As he tells, Robinson Crusoe somehow included the two expressive worlds that, back then, were the object of his artistic research: man, the subject for his works in the papers, and nature, his favourite topic in his paintings. In Robinson Crusoe those two elements merge and become almost confused, this aggregation process is very clear in the tables that illustrate the novel.

In this new version by Adelphi, we find a great number of illustrations that weren't published in the original printed by Olivetti, showing an extremely interesting research.

My only regret, if a fault has to be found, is the almost total absence of Friday that, in the novel, still has some importance: I would have greatly enjoyed to see his equal representation as Friday is part of the island as much as trees, fish, birds and green peaks. Friday is the wild Caliban from Shakespeare's The Tempest, he is the perfect point of collision and fusion between man and nature: he represents the archetype of the wild to which a whole literary genre is devoted and, to my opinion, it deserved more attention. It is true that Pericoli explains how much, to him, Robinson and the Island were the two absolute characters of the novel and the perfect mean to complete the merging process between paper and art gallery, illustrator and painter, man and nature, gifting the first with characteristics from the other and vice-versa he thus obtained his purpose. True as well that in Defoe's novel, though as I just said he has some importance, Friday has a minor role, much less important if compared with the one Michel Tournier gives him in his wonderful novel Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique, where he has a supporting role, if not that of Robinson's own conscience.

In all cases this absence doesn't actually irreparably alter the beauty of this book that, to me, remains a masterpiece of rare beauty.


* Though there is not much in English about Tullio Pericoli, you can find some information about him on the following pages:

Life of Guangzhou - http://www.lifeofguangzhou.com/node_10/node_35/node_116/node_118/2009/11/02/125715172171163.shtml
Lambiek.net - http://lambiek.net/artists/p/pericoli_tullio.htm  (about his comics)

Also, publisher Corraini, has just published a brand new book tracing the evolution of his works devoted to landscapes, whose title is “L'Infinito Paesaggio”, you can find it here.

Walking in Macerata: interview with Eva Montanari

Dear readers, if you wish to read my interview with author/illustrator Eva Montanari, you can visit Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, right here.


You don't know Eva yet? Here's a sneak peek of her artwork...

Chasing Degas, Illustrations © 2009, Eva Montanari. Published by Abrams Books For Young Readers, an imprint of Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York. All rights reserved.

Chasing Degas, Illustrations © 2009, Eva Montanari. Published by Abrams Books For Young Readers, an imprint of Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York. All rights reserved.

A Very Full Morning, Eva Montanari, Houghton Mifflin Books 2006

Tempo d'Instabilità, Eva Montanari, Tricromia, 2010

Tempo d'Instabilità, Eva Montanari, Tricromia, 2010

All for one, one for all? No: All for All!

It rains, it’s a dull Saturday, damply meditative, what could I be talking about then if not POETRY!?!

Tutti per Tutti, by Julian Tuwim, Translation into Italian by Marco Vanchetti, project coordination by  Anna Niemierko. Graphic Projects by: 

Gosia Urbańska, Monika Hanulak, Gosia Gurowska, Marta Ignerska, Ania Niemierko, Agnieszka Kucharska – Zajkowska, Justyna Wróblewska. Orecchio Acerbo Editore, September 2010

My droll review:

What a nice, surprising book,

Are you waiting? Take a look!

With good Old Trallall-ild

you can make a happy child,

and for adults, good old boys,

birds are singing with great joy!

Everybody seems so happy,

they look beautiful and nappy:

all TV’s they have turned off

and nobody’s running off.

Trallallero, trallew,

what a nice, amazing new!

(Mr Trallallini, Graphic Project by Monika Hanulak)

Have I grown mad? Maybe... Or maybe this book is simply contagious! I just can’t get the  music of words out of my mind, any time I try to compose a sentence it comes out in rhyme, am I serious?

All right, I will try to be more polite though, my dear Orecchi Acerbi: you can’t publish a book like this and then pretend I can behave after reading it, this is what I call a fast one! This said, and given vent to my temporary folly, I shall move to a less humorous tone...

Julian Tuwim is a monument of Polish literature: born in Łódź in a family with Jewish origins, during World War II he emigrated to France first, then to Brazil and America last. He went back to Poland, where he died in 1953, only after the end of the big war.

If I had to tell you about Tuwim exhaustively a tome wouldn’t be enough, I therefore shall give you some basic information: in 1918, together with Antoni Słonimski, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Kazimierz Wierzyński and  Jan Lechoń, he founded the poetical group called Skamander through which they tried to release Polish poetry from the prominently patriotic role it had up to that moment, to make it more comprehensible to common people by simplifying language and rejecting cross-references to mythology and figures of speech traditionally used. Tuwim uses experimental poetry, inserting typical common situations and expressions with frequent dialectic contaminations,  to grow away – more than anyone else did – from predominating mannerism. His most known writings are probably "Bal w Operze" (The Ball at the Opera), and "The  Locomotive", together with his wonderful poems for kids, our main object today.

(The Locomotive, graphic project by Gosia Gurowska)

Tutti per Tutti, at first published by the Polish Publisher Wytwórnia under the title "TUWIM. WIERSZE DLA DZIECI", won the Special Section of the Bologna Ragazzi Award devoted to poetry, in 2008.

The accomplishment obtained with this volume is enormous, in fact it contains seven graphic projects edited by different artists who therefore gave seven different interpretations of Tuwim’s imagination, with results that are distant as much as surprising. Sole junction point: his poems.

Here below you can find some examples, you can click on images to observe them better:

Project 1 - by Gosia Urbańska

(Alphabet) 

As you can see Urbańska, who illustrated four poems "Un Conto Complicato", "L'Alfabeto", "Gelo" and "Le Verdure"⁽¹⁾, prefers using materials on a white background, no matter if its scrap materials, collage or images obtained by using moulds immersed in colour.

(Frost)

Her images seem to pop out of the page, together with words changing body and font to support the lyric’s rhythm.

Project 2 - by Monika Hanulak

(Bambo)

Hanulak gives a definitely more pictorial interpretation – hers the versions of "La Rapa" cover image is obtained from this poem, "Micio", "Bambo", "Il Signor Trallallini" and "Scherzetto"⁽²⁾ – with a taste that goes from retrò, obtained as well using old ruined papers as background and a two-colour print (La Rapa), to a modern tribal (Bambo) with a clean mark and backgrounds, to grotesque (Il Signor Trallallini, Micio and Scherzetto) that reminds me of some advertising campaigns from the 60’s and 70’s.

Project 3 - by Gosia Gurowska

(Two Winds)

Gurowska gives a markedly graphic interpretation of the three poems she was assigned, "Pettegolezzi d'Uccelli", "Due Venti" and "Locomotiva"⁽³⁾. For all tables she uses a white background, images are extremely linear, a nice cross-reference with the text that results amplified and represented with great effectiveness.

Project 4 - by Marta Ignerska

 (Gabri)

Marta Ignerska, who moreover is the author of the beautiful L'Alphabet des Gens (People’s Alphabet) published this year by Le Rouergue has illustrated "I Due Gini", "Gabri", "Radio Uccello", "Gigio Sognatore" and "Sofia - Tuttoio"⁽⁴⁾.

(Radio Bird)

Her mark, often blunt and softened, gives an almost dreamlike vision of the texts she has been assigned. Great, to my opinion, the representation she gave of Radio Uccello (above): strict chromaticism with red, black and strokes of shades of blue and green, at times almost unperceivable others more evident. Compared to other tables, here there are fewer characters; images are therefore easier to read.

Project 5 - by Ania Niemierko

(Click)

The original cover of the book, in the edition by Wytwórnia, was by Niemierko: it had been taken by one of the tables of the poem "L'Elefante Trombettoni". Hers as well the illustrations of "Cecco Bugiardino e Sua Zia", "Gli Occhiali", "Click", "In Aero-plano" and "L'Usignolo in Ritardo"⁽⁵⁾.

(The Nightingale is Late)

Delicious those images with coarse-grained, at times scratched, backgrounds, a technique she sometimes uses for characters as well. Where Niemierko uses white backgrounds, as in "Click" (above) and "L'Elefante Trombettoni" for instance, heavy pencil marks or graphic signs intervene to trace evident points or zigzagging lines. Her characters, outlined with pronounced black or blue outlines, have rounded reassuring shapes. Colours, in this case as well, are very few: red, light blue, white, blue and black. Wonderful, to me, Click’s graphic!

Project 6 - by Agnieszka Kucharska – Zajkowska

(Mr Small and the Whale)

I am certainly wrong though, if I observe the backgrounds Agnieszka Kucharska–Zajkowska has used for her images, I have the clear impression I am looking at material surfaces’ pictures perfectly touched up, that almost give the impression of Moon’s surface. On those backgrounds, to which at times she adds touches of pencil and colour, she outlines characters with stereotyped features – as in "Il Signor Piccini e La Balena" (above and below) – or common objects and characters having a more graphical approach, almost recalling the rigid shapes of Lego – as in "Tutti per Tutti"⁽⁶⁾.

(Mr Small and the Whale)

Project 7 - by Justyna Wróblewska

(Drizzle) 

By Justyna Wróblewska are the illustrations of "Pioggerellina" (above), "Prodigi e Stranezze" and "Va Tobia" (below) ⁽⁷⁾. She has created three completely different tables: "Pioggerellina" has a strong graphic approach, obtained by adding superimpositions of letters, graphic characters and murkiness effects, simulating thunders and lightning, to small touches of blue (very well done to my opinion); "Prodigi e Stranezze" has a mixed technique, reworked at the computer, to create a rightly surreal atmosphere, almost tropical-dreamlike; last "Va Tobia" where the collage composing the village’s road is enriched by simply sketched pencil drawings and italic writings, this ensemble confers to those images a simple, rural characteristic.

(Tobia Goes)

Enormous as well the enterprise of translating those poems into Italian, translation was made by Marco Vanchetti to whom goes all my appreciation for having obtained such a good result in such a complicated task.

Shortly, this is a real poetical anthology with many faces and strong irony, Tuwim’s irony of course: he, who was able to grasp the comic side of life in an historical moment where everything was tragically real.

In a cultural – or better artless – moment like this, deciding to publish poetry is an act of courage, something that goes against the tide, an act I personally welcome with great joy and with the confidence that, were we able to make others love poetry, it would regain all the strength it used to have in past times.





(1) "A Complicated Calculation", "The Alphabet", "Frost" and "Vegetables"
(2) ”The Turnip", "Pussycat", "Bambo", "Mr Trallallini" and "Little Joke"
(3) "Birds’ Gossip", "Two Wind" and "The Locomotive"
(4) "The Two Gino", "Gabri", "Radio Bird", "Gigio the Dreamer" and "Sofia - Iknowitall"
(5) "Elephant Bigtrumpet", "Cecco Liar and His Aunt ", "Glasses", "Click", "In Aero-plane" and "The Nightingale is Late "
(6) "Mr Small and The Whale" and "All for All"
(7) "Drizzle", "Wonders and Strangeness " and "Tobia Goes"

The titles above are my translation, with all possible mistakes! Sorry for that!



Copyright© text and images by Orecchio Acerbo 2010. Images have been reproduced with the permission of the Publisher, all reproduction is prohibited.