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Five questions for Sophie Blackall
by Kitty Flynn
Sophie Blackall's many children's book illustration credits include Annie Barrows's Ivy +
Bean chapter books (Chronicle, 6–9 years), Matthew Olshan's The Mighty LaLouche (Schwartz & Wade/Random, 5–7 years), and the 2011 Boston Globe–Horn Book Picture Book Honor–winning Pecan Pie Baby written by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam, 3–6 years; watch their award acceptance here). A book for adults, Missed Connections: Love, Lost & Found (Workman), features illustrations inspired by such personal ads as: "Saw you sailing up Jay Street around 4pm on the most glorious golden bike. I think I'm in love." If any of those "Missed Connection" couples end up connecting, Blackall's newest picture book, The Baby Tree (Penguin/Paulsen, 3–6 years), might come in handy. Her loose, fanciful illustrations lend humor to a young boy's interpretations of grown-up dodges to the question: "Where do babies come from?"
1. When the narrator receives "the news" from his parents that he's going to be a big brother, he has lots of questions, "but the only one that comes out is: Are there any more cocopops?" Were you consciously trying to take the edge off the subject matter with humor, or were you hoping to appeal directly
to your audience's love of sugar cereals?
SB: As a child in 1977, when our parents calmly told us they were getting divorced, my brother's first question was famously, "Can we have afternoon tea now?" Everyone knows you need to get the urgent matters of cocopops and cookies out of the way before you can focus on the more profound ones of life and death and birth and love. Read More...
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Sassy siblings
by Elissa Gershowitz
There's nothing like a sibling when it comes to trouble-making, attention-seeking, and one-upping. Also:
support, companionship, and giggle-sharing. These four new picture books feature brothers and sisters doing what siblings do best.
The star of Kelly DiPucchio's Gaston looms over his poodle sisters Fi-Fi, Foo-Foo, and Ooh-La-La. At the park, they meet a family like theirs but in reverse: bulldogs Rocky, Ricky, and Bruno and their petite sister Antoinette. Were Gaston and Antoinette switched at birth? Should they trade families? It seems like the right thing to do until they try it, only to discover that what looks right doesn't always feel right. Christian Robinson's expressive paintings elegantly illustrate this different-types-of-families story. (Atheneum, 3–6 years) Read More... |
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