SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: Vivid
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 8/30/1957
WEBSITE: http://www.juliepaschkis.com/
CITY: Seattle
STATE: WA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 305
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born August 30, 1957; married Joe Max Emminger (a painter).
EDUCATION:Attended Cornell University; Rochester Institute of Technology, B.F.A.; University of Washington, teaching certificate.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, poet, children’s book illustrator, painter, educator, and artist. Art teacher, 1983-91; freelance painter and illustrator, beginning 1991. Textile designer for In the Beginning; designer of greeting cards for Artists to Watch and Trader Joe’s. Instructor at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Exhibitions: Work included in solo exhibitions at Mia Gallery, Seattle, WA, 1991, 1993, 1996; Portland Community College Gallery, Portland, OR, 1994; Davidson Gallery, Seattle, 1998, 2000-01; Alysia Duckler Gallery, Portland, 1999, 2001-02; Grover/Thurston Gallery, Seattle, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010; Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Bainbridge Island, WA, 2014; Bitters Co. Studio, Mount Vernon, WA, 2016; and i.e., Edison, WA, 2016.
AVOCATIONS:Reading, drawing, spending time outdoors.
MEMBER:Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (Western WA chapter).
AWARDS:New York Times Ten Best Illustrated Books inclusion, 2000, for Night Garden by Janet Wong; Notable Children’s Books designation, American Library Association (ALA), 2003, for Head, Body, Legs by Won Ldy-Paye and Margaret H. Lippert; Aesop Accolades, American Folklore Society, 2004, for Bottle Houses by Melissa Eskridge Slaymaker; Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor Book designation, 2006, for Yellow Elephant by Julie Larios; Américas Award, Consortium of Latin-American Studies Programs, and Orbis Pictus Award Honor Book selection, National Council of Teachers of English, both 2012, both for Pablo Neruda by Monica Brown; Gryphon Award Honor Book selection, Center for Children’s Books, Notable Children’s Books in the English Language Arts selection, Children’s Literature Assembly, and ALA Notable Children’s Books designation, all 2016, all for Flutter and Hum/Aleteo y zumbido.
WRITINGS
Works featuring Paschkis’s illustrations have been translated into several languages, including Catalan, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish.
SIDELIGHTS
A former art teacher, Julie Paschkis illustrates stories for children as well as nonfiction books for adults. Regardless of theme, Paschkis consistently pairs vibrant colors and intricate patterns in most of her artwork, and her folk-art-inspired images have brought to life stories by writers that include Margarita Engle, Paul Fleischman, Janet S. Wong, and Monica Brown. She also has several self-illustrated stories to her credit, among them Mooshka: A Quilt Story, P. Zonka Lays an Egg, and the bilingual verse collection Flutter and Hum: Animal Poems/Aleteo y zumbido: poemas de animales.
Called a “creative exploration of color” by School Library Journal contributor Carol L. MacKay, Paschkis’s illustrations for Julie Larios’s Yellow Elephant: A Bright Bestiary feature vibrant, stylized animal images within a “visually stimulating” folk-art-inspired design. Another book to feature the creative team of Paschkis and Larios, Imaginary Menagerie: A Book of Curious Creatures focuses on beings from myth and legend, such as unicorns, mermaids, and the immortal Phoenix. In bringing to life what Booklist critic Gillian Engberg described as “accessible, atmospheric poems full of sounds and rhythms,” the artist’s “beautifully patterned” images here include design elements from a range of cultures. “As in an illuminated manuscript, the artwork shimmers,” asserted a Publishers Weekly critic in praise of Imaginary Menagerie.
Paschkis’s work for Rachel Rodríguez’s Through Georgia’s Eyes reveals her versatility as an artist because it required her to recreate paintings by noted twentieth-century painter Georgia O’Keeffe. The picture book recounts O’Keeffe’s early influences, including her upbringing on a Wisconsin farm and her metamorphosis into an artist. In her illustrations for the book, Paschkis embeds cut-paper collages within paintings rendered in blues and reds. In School Library Journal Carolyn Janssen cited the illustrator’s use of “bold shapes of flowers, skulls, and mountains” as a way of revealing the images emblematic of O’Keeffe’s work. In her Horn Book review of Through Georgia’s Eyes, Lolly Robinson lauded Paschkis for her ability to capture the shapes typical of the artist’s work and cited her use of “sweeping arcs” to convey O’Keeffe’s unique “way of seeing the world around us.”
Rodríguez’s Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudí again focuses on a noted artist. A nineteenth-century Spanish architect, Gaudí injected his love of organic, natural forms into each of the buildings he designed, rejecting the harsh Gothic architecture of his day and leaving behind an easily recognizable legacy. Reflecting the playfulness exhibited by her subject, Paschkis paired Rodríguez’s brief, easy-reading text with “gouache illustrations [that] playful recreate Casa Batllo, Casa Mila, and other [Gaudí-designed] structures,” according to School Library Journal contributor Lisa Glasscock. A Kirkus Reviews writer also recommended Paschkis’s illustrations for Building on Nature, writing that she effectively “captures the crazy curves and elaborate detail of Gaudí’s buildings.”
A Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet and diplomat is the subject of Brown’s picture-book biography Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People. “Paschkis’s signature effusions of color and stylized forms are embellished with effusions of words—in English, Spanish, and other languages,” commented Joanna Rudge Long in Horn Book. A writer in Kirkus Reviews wrote that the “lush, earth-toned paintings … teem with the florid stream of words and images populating the inner world of the budding poetic consciousness.” Engle explores the life of a pioneering seventeenth-century naturalist and botanical artist in Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian, and “Paschkis’s brilliantly colored and patterned paintings are an exuberant counterpoint to the minimal words,” as Engberg stated.
Paschkis has also contributed artwork to Albert the Fix-It Man, the story of a helpful handyman that was written by her sister, Janet Lord. A Publishers Weekly critic noted that “Paschkis favors flat shapes filled with decoration, using geometric patterns to adorn curtains, tablecloths and dresses,” while landscape elements are presented as “stylized ornaments” within her colorful images. Another collaboration between the sisters, Lord’s Where Is Catkin? focuses on an energetic feline that encounters a host of creatures while out hunting. “Paschkis’s bright, peasant-style illustrations bring cheery liveliness to Catkin’s world,” wrote a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. As a Kirkus Reviews critic notedthat the artist’s characteristic “folk-art-inspired gouache illustrations” are also a perfect match for “the simple language” in Who Put the Cookies in the Cookie Jar?, George Shannon’s lyrical ode to the value of hard work.
In her originals story Mooshka, Paschkis offers a tribute to the power of imagination. Young Karla cherishes her patchwork quilt, nicknamed Mooshka, and insists that the fabric can talk, each square telling a story about the history of her family. Karla’s life changes dramatically after her baby sister arrives, however, and Mooshka falls curiously silent. While trying to comfort the crying infant one night, the girl cuddles the quilt around her young sibling, in the process taking on Mooshka’s role as storyteller. “Vivid artwork, a lively, endearing heroine and a warm, loving look at a pivotal experience give this one classic potential,” asserted a writer in appraising Mooshka for Kirkus Reviews.
Another self-illustrated work, Apple Cake: A Recipe for Love “exudes a pervasive sense of magic,” in the words of a Publishers Weekly critic. When romantically inclined Alfonso cannot capture the attention of Ida, a bookworm of the highest order, he bakes her a delicious cake made from the most extraordinary ingredients, including butter scooped from the sun and salt harvested from the sea. To tell this story, Paschkis employs a “minimal text and airy, delicate folk art-like tableaux set against generous white space,” as Kristen McKulski remarked in Booklist.
A barnyard nonconformist is the focus of Paschkis’s engaging story in P. Zonka Lays an Egg. Unlike the other hens, which produce eggs on a regular basis, P. Zonka prefers to explore the world and its poetic beauty. Finally giving in to pressure from her feathered fellows, P. Zonka lays a truly remarkable egg that incorporates spectacular colors and patterns from nature. “Every page turn reveals a stunning new composition of fowls with personality, baskets of eggs and floral design elements evocative of” Ukrainian pysanky Easter eggs, wrote a contributor to Kirkus Reviews. A writer in Publishers Weekly also applauded P. Zonka Lays an Egg, calling it “a lyrical and lushly illustrated allegory about creativity and taking time to notice beauty.”
Kalinka and Grakkle, another self-illustrated work, tells the story of a well-meaning friend whose efforts to help may not be either helpful or appreciated. Kalinka is a small yellow bird who wants to be helpful to the creatures who live around her. Grakkle, her neighbor, is a sometimes grouchy green monster whose messy house and gruff personality lend themselves perfectly to Kalinka’s efforts to help. Or so Kalinka thinks.
When the little bird flies into Grakkle’s house and starts to clean up the mess, she causes more problems than she solves. She hangs Grakkle’s socks from the rafters, slips pencils into a spaghetti box, and slots mail into the toaster. She puts Grakkle’s cookies away by eating them. As Kalinka continues to work, Grakkle gets more and more irritated, uttering the only sound he can make: a noisy “Grakk!” Kalinka interprets the noise to mean that Grakkle is pleased and is encouraging her to continue, but the monster is actually trying his best to convince the bird to leave him alone. When he’s finally had enough, Grakkle gets a little wild, and his vigorous expression of anger knocks the well-meaning Kalinka into a big pickle bucket he uses for soaking his feet. Afraid for what he might have done to his friend, Grakkle rescues Kalinka, and the pair soon realize that they have more in common than they realized and that they should be friends despite everything that has happened.
“Humorous monster details will pull in readers for this lighthearted tale of an unusual friendship,” commented Booklist reviewer Lucinda Whitehurst. “Paschkis’ colorful and quirky illustrations, rendered in ink and gouache, heighten the supreme silliness of her tale,” observed a Kirkus Reviews writer.
Inspired by her work on Pablo Neruda, Paschkis began learning Spanish, going so far as to take immersion classes in Mexico and Guatemala, and she drew on this knowledge in producing Flutter and Hum/Aleteo y Zumbido. In the dozen verses, which Paschkis first wrote in Spanish and then translated into English, she “shows herself to be a sensitive observer of the animal kingdom,” according to a Publishers Weekly contributor. In School Library Journal, Teresa Pfeifer explained that “the folk-art inspired illustrations are at times dazzling,” and Deborah Stevenson observed in the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books that Paschkis’s images “wittily weave relevant words in English and Spanish into the landscape and even the animals, often creating a poem all their own.”
In her book of poetry Vivid: Poems & Notes about Color, Paschkis “has created a book of color poems that also ponders the science and art of color,” noted Carole Phillips in a School Library Journal review. Each of the fourteen poems in the book address a particular color, with the final poem considering all the colors of a rainbow. The author also incorporates interesting facts and historical information about the colors she writes about. For example, she notes that in the far past, snails were used to make the dye for the color purple—and it took some 243,000 snails to make a single ounce of the colorant, making purple dye more valuable than gold. A Kirkus Reviews writer noted that, throughout the book, “Paschkis’ gouache-on-paper illustrations are elegant, playful, and expressively variable from page to page.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, December 1, 1996, Julie Corsaro, review of Happy Adoption Day!, p. 667; May 15, 1998, Kay Weisman, review of Play All Day, p. 1633; November 15, 2001, Helen Rosenberg, review of Fat Cat: A Danish Folktale, p. 577; August, 2002, Gillian Engberg, review of Head, Body, Legs: A Story from Liberia, p. 1968; November 15, 2003, Gillian Engberg, review of Knock on Wood: Poems about Superstitions, p. 596; March 1, 2004, Jennifer Mattson, review of Bottle Houses: The Creative World of Grandma Prisbrey, p. 1206; October 1, 2005, Jennifer Mattson, review of Here Comes Grandma, p. 64; February 15, 2006, Carolyn Phelan, review of Through Georgia’s Eyes, p. 109; March 15, 2006, Gillian Engberg, review of Yellow Elephant: A Bright Bestiary, p. 49; September 15, 2006, Ilene Cooper, review of I Have a Little Dreidel, p. 60; November 1, 2007, Gillian Engberg, review of The Great Smelly, Slobbery, Small-Toothed Dog, p. 47; March 15, 2008, Gillian Engberg, review of Albert the Fix-It Man, p. 52; October 1, 2008, Ilene Cooper, review of The Night of the Moon: A Muslim Holiday Story, p. 51; February 15, 2010, Hazel Rochman, review of Where Is Catkin?, p. 82; March 15, 2010, Gillian Engberg, review of Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian, p. 43; January 1, 2011, Gillian Engberg, review of Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People, p. 86; March 1, 2012, Francisca Goldsmith, review of Mooshka: A Quilt Story, p. 77; September 1, 2012, Kristen McKulski, review of Apple Cake: A Recipe for Love, p. 125; March 1, 2013, Ilene Cooper, review of Who Put the Cookies in the Cookie Jar?, p. 72; March 15, 2018, Lucinda Whitehurst, review of Kalinka and Grakkle, p. 76.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Deborah Stevenson, review of Flutter and Hum: Animal Poems/Aleteo y Zumbido: poemas de animales, p. 533.
Horn Book, May-June, 2002, Lauren Adams, review of Head, Body, Legs, p. 340; September-October, 2003, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Knock on Wood, p. 624; July-August, 2004, Lolly Robinson, review of Bottle Houses, p. 470; May-June, 2006, Lolly Robinson, review of Through Georgia’s Eyes, p. 347; March-April, 2007, Bridget T. McCaffrey, review of Twist: Yoga Poems, p. 210; January-February, 2008, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal, p. 99; March-April, 2011, Joanna Rudge Long, review of Pablo Neruda, p. 135; May-June, 2012, Robin L. Smith, review of Mooshka, p. 69; March-April, 2013, Julie Roach, review of Who Put the Cookies in the Cookie Jar?, p. 90; March-April, 2015, Robin Smith, review of P. Zonka Lays an Egg, p. 79; September-October, 2015, Celia C. Perez, review of Flutter and Hum/Aleteo y Zumbido, p. 123.
Kirkus Reviews,October 15, 2001, review of The Nutcracker, p. 1484; August 15, 2003, review of Knock on Wood, p. 1081; March 1, 2004, review of Bottle Houses, p. 229; February 1, 2006, review of Yellow Elephant, p. 294; March 15, 2006, review of Here Comes Grandma, p. September 15, 2006, review of The Talking Vegetables, p. 963; November 1, 2006, review of I Have a Little Dreidel, p. 1126; January 15, 2007, review of Twist; September 15, 2007, review of The Great Smelly, Slobbery, Small-Tooth Dog; February 15, 2008, review of Imaginary Menagerie: A Book of Curious Creatures; August 15, 2009, review of Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudí; January 15, 2010, review of Where Is Catkin?; March 1, 2010, review of Summer Birds; February 15, 2011, review of Pablo Neruda; February 15, 2012, review of A Quilt Story; July 15, 2012, review of Apple Cake; February 1, 2013, review of Who Put the Cookies in the Cookie Jar?; January 15, 2015, review of P. Zonka Lays an Egg; February 15, 2018, review of Kalinka and Grakkle; June 1, 2018, review of Vivid: Poems & Notes about Color.
Publishers Weekly, August 5, 1996, review of Night Garden: Poems from the World of Dreams, p. 84; March 13, 2000, review of Here Comes Grandma; April 1, 2002, review of Head, Body, Legs, p. 82; April 26, 2004, review of Bottle Houses, p. 65; February 20, 2006, review of Through Georgia’s Eyes, p. 156; April 10, 2006, review of Yellow Elephant, p. 71; September 25, 2006, reviews of Through Georgia’s Eyes, and I Have a Little Dreidel, both p. 68; November, 2006, Susan Scheps, review of The Talking Vegetables, p. 122; September 3, 2007, review of Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal, p. 58; March 17, 2008, review of Imaginary Menagerie, p. 70; July 7, 2008, review of The Night of the Moon, p. 58; January 4, 2010, review of Where Is Catkin?, p. 44; January 16, 2012, review of A Quilt Story, p. 53; July 16, 2012, review of Apple Cake, p. 168; February 4, 2013, review of Who Put the Cookies in the Cookie Jar?, p. 67; January 15, 2015, review of P. Zonka Lays an Egg, p. 63; December 2, 2015, review of Flutter and Hum/Aleteo y Zumbido, p. 55; June 27, 2016, review of First Light, First Life: A Worldwide Creation Story, p. 82; January 29, 2018, review of Kalinka and Grakkle, p. 187.
School Library Journal, July, 1998, Judith Gloyer, review of Play All Day, p. 81; March, 2000, Barbara Chatton, review of Night Garden, p. 232; April, 2002, Susan Helper, review of Head, Body, Legs, p. 140; July, 2003, Susan Oliver, review of Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile, p. 116; December, 2003, Margaret Bush, review of Knock on Wood, p. 140; June, 2005, Steven Englefried, review of Head, Body, Legs, p. 56; September, 2005, DeAnn Tabuchi, review of Here Comes Grandma!, p. 177; March, 2006, Carolyn Janssen, review of Through Georgia’s Eyes, p. 212; March, 2006, John Peters, review of Bottle Houses, p. 89; April, 2006, Carol L. McKay, review of Yellow Elephant, p. 127; October, 2006, Teri Markson, review of I Have a Little Dreidel, p. 94; February, 2007, Susan Oliver, review of Twist, p. 114; September, 2007, Miriam Lang Budin, review of Glass Slipper, p. 182; April, 2008, Teri Markson, review of Albert the Fix-It Man, p. 116; June, 2008, Margaret Bush, review of Imaginary Menagerie, p. 127; September, 2008, Fawzia Gilani-Williams, review of The Night of the Moon, p. 151; September, 2009, Lisa Glasscock, review of Building on Nature, p. 147; April, 2010, Maggie Chase, review of Where Is Catkin?, p. 134; June, 2010, Carol S. Surges, review of Summer Birds, p. 74; February, 2011, Wendy Lukehart, review of Pablo Neruda, p. 94; June, 2012, Joan Kindig, review of Mooshka, p. 94; July, 2012, Marianne Saccardi, review of Apple Cake, p. 62; February, 2013, Jenna Boles, review of Who Put the Cookies in the Cookie Jar?, p. 96; February, 2015, Kathy Piehl, review of P. Zonka Lays an Egg, p. 75; May, 2015, Teresa Pfeifer, review of Flutter and Hum/Aleteo y Zumbido, p. 135; March, 2018, Andrea Jamison, review of Kalinka and Grakkle, p. 89; July, 2018, Carole Phillips, review of Vivid, p. 98.
ONLINE
Cybils, http://www.cybils.com/ (March 8, 2016), “Interview with Julie Paschkis.”
Julie Paschkis website, https://www.juliepaschkis.com (August 15, 2016).
Peachtree Publishers website, http://www.peachtree-online.com/ (October 3, 2018), “Author-Illustrator Interview: Julie Paschkis.”
Seven Impossible Things before Breakfast website, http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/ (May 14, 2008), Julie Danielson and Eisha Prather, interview with Paschkis.
Contact/Bio
Paschkis point no point
Julie Paschkis
telephone: 206-525-5205
jpaschkis@comcast.net
Paschkis happy family
Biography:
I was born in 1957 and grew up in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. I have a brother and two sisters. My parents encouraged us to make things, to read, to draw and to play outside.
I attended Germantown Friends School, Ringerike Folkehogskole in Norway, Cornell University and the School for American Craftsmen at RIT, where I got a BFA. I have a teaching certificate from UW and I taught art to children for several years, mostly at the Bush School.
Since 1991 I have been painting and illustrating full time. I have had many shows of my paintings and of various other work (including cut paper, embroidery and bread). I illustrate books. I design fabric and make quilts. My work flows in many directions, but all of the ideas and creations are connected. The work I do in one area inspires the work in others. Ideas beget ideas.
I live in Seattle with my husband Joe Max Emminger. He is a painter.
I still like to make things, to read, draw and play outside.
Author-illustrator Interview: Julie Paschkis
Kalinka wants to be a helpful bird and clean up her friend’s chaotic clutter, but Grakkle definitely does not want help, and does not want Kalinka to tidy up his things. They simply aren’t on the same wavelength. Can an unfortunate accident plus a little humor and empathy help this little bird and big beast see eye to eye? Author-illustrator Julie Paschkis delves into her writing and illustrating process and explains what inspired the humorously contradicting characters in Kalinka and Grakkle.
Q: What inspired you to write this tale of unexpected friendship?
A: I was fooling around, rewriting “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” I’ve never understood—in the original Goldilocks—why it was OK for her to walk into someone else’s home. So I turned Goldilocks into an officious little bird who thinks she is more helpful than she actually is, and thinks it is her right to do whatever she wants. In her helpful way she turned the story into one that was more about her and not a Goldilocks story.
Q: Where did you come up with the idea of Grakkle?
A: Originally I had a family of beasts—like the three bears—but I found the story more interesting if it was about the relationship between two characters. First I thought of him only making one sound “Graak” and then that became his name.
Q: Are you more like Kalinka or Grakkle at home?
A: I am a bit of both. Like Kalinka I tend to value my own ideas quite highly; sometimes I need to back off and listen. Like Grakkle I place housecleaning low on my list of priorities when I am busy (or not busy).
Q: How did you get into the world of children’s book illustration?
A: My first introduction was a reader/looker when I was a child. It was something I always wanted to do. In 1991 I took a class from Keith Baker and learned about how to illustrate children’s books—how to make a storyboard, a dummy etc. It changed my life—I’ve been making books for a living ever since.
Q: What is your process as both the author and illustrator of a book? How is your process of writing and illustrating different from only illustrating a book?
A: The process is pretty similar. I usually paint one or two sample paintings in the style that I envision for the whole book. Then I divide the story into pages and make a storyboard with very rough sketches. Then I refine the sketches and send them in and get feedback. Then I paint the rest of the pictures. I try to make the art tell the story as well as the words. When I have written the words I can sometimes change them if I feel it improves the overall tale. When I am not the author I only change the art!
Q: When you are writing and illustrating a book, do you think about the text or the illustrations first?
A: I toggle back and forth between them. Sometimes the first thing I see is an image, sometimes it is a verbal idea. When I am creating a storyboard—figuring out the flow of a book—I divide up the text and figure out the pagination before doing any drawing. Sometimes the page divisions change as I work. My goal is to create a book where they are indivisible.
Q: What influences your artistic style?
A: Everything I see influences my artistic style: nature, other artists, books, thoughts, trying new things. I try to stay open. In the illustration class I took years ago, Keith Baker said “Take other people’s vegetables, but make your own soup.”
Q: What are your favorite colors or shapes to use in illustrations? How do you come up with all of the patterns and designs used throughout the book?
A: I love color and pattern. I don’t have one favorite color. I want to make the colors sing. That comes from putting colors next to each other and trying different hues until they work together—until they sing. One combination of red and green can look dead; another combination with slight changes can be lively. As to patterns, in addition to illustrating children’s books I also design fabric. I could draw patterns forever; it is harder for me to leave space open than to fill it up with pattern.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from this book?
A: I would like readers to realize that there are many ways to be in the world, and that we can get along with people who are different than us. Also, that it’s okay to argue and to work it out. And I want them to find the story funny.
Check out Julie Paschkis’s blog post to learn more about the creation of Kalinka and Grakkle and see the evolution of her illustrations! Find Kalinka and Grakkle at your local library, indie bookstore, or Barnes & Noble April 1!
Interview with Julie Paschkis
March 8, 2016
First off, congrats! We adored Flutter and Hum. Can you tell us a bit about how you came up with the idea for the book?
I started to learn Spanish when I was illustrating Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People which was written by Monica Brown. I illustrated that book with words and pictures and I fell in love with Spanish. There was something about not knowing the language that made me especially able to appreciate the words as sounds. I could see the words from the outside and the inside – my mind didn’t immediately jump to the meaning.
Flutter&Hum deerThe first poem that I wrote was El Venado. I heard the connection between the words the words ve, va and venado and the rest of the poem grew from there.
I wrote the poems in Spanish first and then in English because my English is more limber. Once I had written a poem I would go back and forth to make sure that the poem worked in both languages.
When I was done the Spanish versions were proofread by native speakers to make sure I hadn’t said something horribly wrong or obscene. But the poems are mine and it would probably be clear to a native speaker that they have some oddness to them.
mothHow did you choose which animals to include in the book Did the sounds and shapes of the words available in both or either language affect your animal choices?
First I chose an animal, then I explored all of the words that could be associated with that animal. The words and the animals were intertwined. For example I learned the words polilla (moth) and bombilla (light bulb) on the same day. The poems have meanings beyond the sounds of the words, but those sounds were often springboards for my thoughts.
Flutter&Humsnake (1)What came first? The poem or the picture of an animal in your mind?
The poems came before the pictures. The words that are woven into the illustrations came after the poems, although I worked from lists of words that I made while working on the poems. Those words are part of the art, but they are also echoes and amplifications of the poems. My hope was that the “extra” words would make the poems more open ended and allow you (the reader) to make your own connections between sound and meaning. I hope that the words and the pictures all work together so much that in the end they can’t be pulled apart.
For example, the Snake/ La Serpiente poem is illustrated with snaky words in snaky grass including sway, swivel and sly on the English side and saliendo (leaving), sombra (shadow) and seda (silk) on the Spanish side. All of those s words and shapes suggest the serpentine and add sensations and shadows to the original concept.
jpaschkisHave you continued to immerse yourself in Spanish, and to write in that language?
Yes, I continue to work on learning Spanish – talking, reading and writing. I skype once a week with my teacher in Mexico. I read Spanish books and news, and watch some TV in Spanish. My reading and writing are better than my talking and comprehension. I still love the sounds of the words and I also love the grammar and structure of the language. To become truly fluent I would need to go live in a Spanish speaking country and I don’t have plans to do that right now.
My hope is that Flutter and Hum/ Aleteo y Zumbido will inspire kids (and adults) to explore language,to delve into language and to play with language: English and Spanish, or any other language. You have to risk being foolish and making mistakes to learn a new language, and I think that is a healthy thing to do.
magic spell coverIf you don’t mind telling us, what are you working on next?
I have written the story and completed the art for a book called Magic Spell which will be coming out next year from Simon & Schuster. It also plays with language but it is all in English. It is about a magician and his assistant. They are both great at casting spells. For example he (Aziz) can turn a hose into a rose, or a wig into a pig. And she (Zaza) can turn a coat to a goat, to a boat, to a boot, to a book, to a rook. The story is about the balance of power between the two characters.
Thank you so much for your time!
Thank you so much for the Cybil award. I am truly grateful that you honored Flutter and Hum/ Aleteo y Zumbido. I have been working on children’s books for many years. But I have thought of myself as an artist first and a writer second. It means a lot to me to have the writing as well as the art recognized.
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Print Marked Items
Paschkis, Julie: VIVID
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Paschkis, Julie VIVID Godwin Books/Henry Holt (Children's Poetry) $17.99 7, 31 ISBN: 978-1-250-
12229-2
Poems and eclectic tidbits about colors.
Although it maintains a superficially traditional approach of highlighting one hue per spread--sort of!
sometimes!--this quirky colorfest is anything but standard. Free-spirited poems follow no particular
structure: "Loudly, rowdy / daffodils yell hello. / Hot yellow" is the short, tongue-twisty first. A blue bear
mourns spilled blueberries in patter that begs participation: "Oh, what did I do? / Blue-hoo, / Blue-hoo!" A
verdant expanse exudes warmth and the "Green smell of a summer lawn. / Damp dawn long gone." A
second green poem features a hilarious dragon-and-ogre food chain; equally funny, a paintbrush-holding cat
offers the esoteric terms "alizarin," "cadmium," and "quinacridone" to a dog in overalls, who responds,
pithily, "Red." Paschkis' gouache-on-paper illustrations are elegant, playful, and expressively variable from
page to page--each spread displays a new style and mood, including a wavy, all-encompassing ocean, a sad,
slightly eerie minimalist forest, and a sated pig reclining on a hillside after a mouthwatering picnic. Across
from the poems sit informational tidbits: etymology of "green" from "grene" and "growan"; the more yellow
plants a chicken eats, the deeper yellow their eggs' yolks are; where dye comes from. Hardcore science,
including light refraction, will float over many readers' heads, but there is no harm done. The assertion that
the "Himba tribe of Namibia still has no word for orange" verges on exoticization and, unfortunately, is
located on a spread with monkeys.
Full to bursting, juicy, never jammed. (author's note) (Picture book/poetry. 3-7)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Paschkis, Julie: VIVID." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A540723274/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2da6802e.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A540723274
8/29/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Kalinka and Grakkle
Lucinda Whitehurst
Booklist.
114.14 (Mar. 15, 2018): p76+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Kalinka and Grakkle.
By Julie Paschkis. Illus. by the author.
Apr. 2018.32p. Peachtree, $17.95 (9781682630303). PreS-Gr. 1.
Kalinka, a small yellow bird, desperately wants to be helpful. Her neighbor, Grakkle, is a grouchy, messy
monster. Despite his attempts to send Kalinka away, she stubbornly starts to tidy up, although her methods
are questionable. Hanging socks from the rafters, eating Grakkle's cookies, poking pencils in a spaghetti
box, sliding mail into the toaster, and even working to tame his matted hair are just some of the ways she
tries to improve Grakkle's personal hygiene and his cluttered home. Since Grakkle only says the word
"Grakk!" Kalinka decides he is pleased. Exuberant ink-and-gouache folk-art-style illustrations depict
Grakkle's growing frustration with his unwelcome guest. When he accidentally knocks Kalinka into the
pickle bucket he uses to soak his warty feet, however, Grakkle fears he has gone too far. After a successful
rescue, the two decide perhaps napping is a better shared activity for them than cleaning. Humorous
monster details will pull in readers for this lighthearted tale of an unusual friendship.--Lucinda Whitehurst
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Whitehurst, Lucinda. "Kalinka and Grakkle." Booklist, 15 Mar. 2018, p. 76+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A533094622/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=af33f92e.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A533094622
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Paschkis, Julie: KALINKA AND
GRAKKLE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Paschkis, Julie KALINKA AND GRAKKLE Peachtree (Children's Fiction) $17.95 4, 1 ISBN: 978-1-
68263-030-3
Neighbors who are as different as night and day can still be friends, once they understand each other.
Kalinka, a little yellow bird with a neat cap of red feathers, lives next door to Grakkle, a big green "beast
with bad habits, a bad temper, and bad hair" (an all-over pelt depicted as tight curls resembling a poodle's
coat and always referred to as "hair"). Kalinka flies through the open window of Grakkle's house one day
and declares with a chirp that the place could use some tidying up. Grakkle, who has only one word in his
vocabulary--"Grakk"--uses it quite expressively to reject Kalinka's help. But Kalinka pays him no heed; she
interprets "Grakk" as "Thank you." Grakkle grows more and more annoyed as Kalinka eats his favorite
cookies, stuffs all the loose pencils into a box of spaghetti, and ties a bow in Grakkle's unruly hair.
Overcome, the green beast throws a big angry tantrum, resulting in Kalinka's tumble into the pickle bucket
where Grakkle likes to soak his feet. It's the remorseful Grakkle to the rescue, and in short order a beautiful
new friendship is born. Kalinka's blithe cluelessness and Grakkle's grunting ire should tickle young
listeners. Paschkis' colorful and quirky illustrations, rendered in ink and gouache, heighten the supreme
silliness of her tale. Unfortunately, the depiction of Grakkle's repeatedly denigrated hair, green though it
may be, is close enough to depictions of Afro-textured hair that it may cause uncomfortable associations for
some readers.
Another cute odd-friendship story. (Picture book. 3-5)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Paschkis, Julie: KALINKA AND GRAKKLE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A527248190/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=982ac4c2.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A527248190
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Kalinka and Grakkle
Publishers Weekly.
265.5 (Jan. 29, 2018): p187.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Kalinka and Grakkle
Julie Paschkis. Peachtree, $17.95 (32p)
ISBN 978-1-68263-030-3
Kalinka is a flibbertigibbet with feathers, a butter-yellow bird with a red tuft on her head. Her neighbor, the
equally evocatively named Grakkle, is a grouchy green beast with a one-word vocabulary: "Gra-a-akk."
Kalinka decides to tidy up Grakkle's house ("No bother at all," she says obliviously. "I'm a very good
helper"), a misguided effort on several fronts: she stuffs dirty socks into the woodstove and sticks mail in
the toaster. She finally goes too far, sending Grakkle into a rage. The momentarily dire consequences and
subsequent detente are familiar, but Paschkis's innate effervescence more than compensates. She fills the
oversize pages with curly ink lines and folk art motifs and colors; it's cozy and cheery, yet it still delivers on
the big dramatic moment. While the narration tends toward the see-and-say, Paschkis writes with concision
and an ear for words that make for great readalouds ("Grakkle swatted at the bag. He belched and scratched
his head in confusion"). And her message is a sound one: good naps make good neighbors. Ages 4-8.
Agent: Linda Pratt, Wernick & Pratt. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Kalinka and Grakkle." Publishers Weekly, 29 Jan. 2018, p. 187. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A526116590/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=fa80799a.
Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A526116590
PASCHKIS, Julie. Vivid: Poems & Notes About Color
Carole Phillips
School Library Journal. 64.7 (July 2018): p98.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
PASCHKIS, Julie. Vivid: Poems & Notes About Color, illus. by Julie Paschkis. 32p. Holt. Jul. 2018. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781250122292.
PreS-Gr 3-Paschkis has created a book of color poems that also ponders the science and art of color. Fourteen poems highlight a variety of shades on the spectrum and culminate with a rainbow poem. Along the way, Paschkis shares facts and information about the colors chosen. The poems are short and clever. For purple, she writes, "I'm a Lilac Point Siamese with no fleas ... I purr: I am not purrple. I'm a lilac queen, serene." She then adds, "Violet is the color with die shortest wavelength of visible light. In ancient times ... it took about 243,000 snails to make one ounce of dye ... that sold for three times its weight in gold. Only kings and queens could afford to wear purple." Paschkis uses broad strokes of color to create her exciting watercolor illustrations. The lively verse and intriguing facts make vivid a most appropriate name for this collection. It is sure to delight lovers of poetry as well as collectors of fascinating facts and will make for an engaging introduction to science for younger readers. Teachers might pair this title with Mary O'Neill's classic Hailstones and Halibut Bones: Adventures in Poetry and Color or Jane Yolen's Color Me a Rhyme: Nature Poems for Young People. VERDICT This picture book will draw readers in with poetry and then provide the spark that may encourage both creative writing and scientific investigation. Recommended for sharing.--Carole Phillips, Creenacres Elementary School, Scarsdale, NY
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Phillips, Carole. "PASCHKIS, Julie. Vivid: Poems & Notes About Color." School Library Journal, July 2018, p. 98. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A545432547/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9bbec0a3. Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A545432547
PASCHKIS, Julie. Kalinka and Grakkle
Andrea Jamison
School Library Journal. 64.3 (Mar. 2018): p89+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
PASCHKIS, Julie. Kalinka and Grakkle. illus. by Julie Paschkis. 32p. Peachtree. Apr. 2018. Tr $17.95. ISBN 9781682630303.
K-Gr 2--Two mismatched acquaintances speak a language of their own in this fictitious tale that reads more like a modern-day fable. Kalinka, a small yellow bird, fancies herself to be a good helper. Grakkle, on the other hand, is a messy and burly beast. After flying into Grakkle's house uninvited, Kalinka unilaterally decides to tidy things up a bit. However, instead of putting things in order, she makes a mess of her own. From placing pencils into a spaghetti box, mail in the toaster, and placing a bow on Grakkle's head, Kalinka flutters around completing a series of self-gratifying tasks. A frustrated Grakkle tries to send her away to no avail. Kalinka continues to remain oblivious to her own brash behavior until one final event sends Grakkle into a fury and lands Kalinka in a world of trouble. Fortunately, they each receive an opportunity to learn an important lesson about the value of self-control and are able to coexist happily and/or "messily" ever after as friends. A strong emphasis on friendship provides a solid theme for this book. Of course, Paschkis's ink-and-gouache illustrations shine, but they do not make up for the predictable plot or flat humor. VERDICT A mildly entertaining choice with strong lessons about self-control, this book is an additional purchase but definitely not a top pick.--Andrea Jamison, Lincoln Elementary School, Calumet City, IL
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Jamison, Andrea. "PASCHKIS, Julie. Kalinka and Grakkle." School Library Journal, Mar. 2018, p. 89+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A529863502/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2ec54542. Accessed 29 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A529863502