Category: author

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A TINARS Weekend

On Saturday, it was “Look Again Day” at This Is Not A Reading Series for Tots, presented by Pages Books & Magazines, Bunch, Gladstone Hotel, and the Little Paper. Marla Stewart Konrad presented her two books, Getting There and Mom and Me:

Marla Stewart Konrad at TINARS for Tots
Marla Stewart Konrad

Also at TINARS for Tots that day was Rebecca Upjohn presenting Lily And The Paper Man and there was a tribute to Tomi Ungerer of The Three Robbers & Moon Man.

Then on Sunday, it was the TINARS Literary Arcade! TINARS set up listening stations in the ballroom of the Gladstone Hotel as part of Doors Open Toronto. Featured authors and illustrators included: Joanne Schwartz, Laura Beingessner, Claudia Dey, Lisa Foad, Stacey May Fowles, Hilary Leung & David Bruins, Ibi Kaslik, Damian Rogers, Zoe Whitall, and Nathan Whitlock.

Authors and Illustrators at TINARS Literary Arcade

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Window Display and Weekend Events

Pages Books May 2009 Window Display

Pages Books May 2009 Window Display
Check out the window display at Pages Books & Magazines, located at 256 Queen Street West, Toronto,  M5V 1Z8. Photos courtesy of Pages Books & Magazine.

This is going to be a busy weekend for Toronto!

From 10:00-1:00pm on Saturday May 23, Pages Books will be hosting “Look Again Day” for TINARS for Tots at the Gladstone Hotel. Doors open at 9:30am, so get there early for a good seat! Marla Stewart Konrad will be presenting Getting There and Mom and Me.

Then, as part of Lit City and Doors Open Toronto, two of our authors will be reading at Canada’s National Ballet School. On Sunday May 24, at 11:00am, we have Linda Maybarduk (former Soloist with The National Ballet of Canada) reading James the Dancing Dog. Right after at 11:30am, Cary Fagan will be reading Beyond the Dance (co-authored with The National Ballet of Canada Principal Dancer, Chan Hon Goh). At 12:30pm Veronica Tennant reads from On Stage Please.

Another event hosted by Pages Books is the TINARS Literary Arcade this weekend! This will also be part of Doors Open Toronto on May 24 from 12:00 to 4:00pm at the Gladstone Hotel. Joanne Schwartz and Laura Beingessner of Our Corner Grocery Store fame will be in attendance!

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Day 2: Festival of Trees 2009

Here is the second day of the 2009 Festival of Trees! You can read about Day 1 here. On day 2, the Silver Birch Awards were announced.

Silver Birch Award: Ages 7-11, Grades 3-6

Fiction Winner: The Third Eye by Mahtab Narsimhan
Fiction Honour books: Eye of the Crow – The Boy Sherlock Holmes by Shane Peacock and Swindle by Gordon Korman

Non-Fiction Winner: Gold Medal for Weird by Kevin Sylvester
Non-Fiction Honour books: Everything But the Kitchen Sink: Weird Stuff You Didn’t
Know About Food by Frieda Wishinsky and Elizabeth MacLeod and Brave Deeds: How One Family Saved Many by Ann Alma

Express Winner: Dear Sylvia by Alan Cumyn
Express Honour books: Feather Brain by Maureen Bush and Boy in Motion – The Rick Hansen Story by Ainslie Manson

Shane Peacock signing Eye of the Crow
Shane Peacock signing Eye of the Crow.

Line Ups
Just look at the line-ups for autographs!

Games and Activities
More games and activities for the students.

Once again, congratulations to the authors and illustrations and a big thank you to everyone made the event such a success! Until next year!

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Day 1: Festival of Trees 2009

The Ontario Library Association hosts the Forest of Reading Programs  where readers vote for their favourite books. There are 7 different reading programs, categorized by grade level and age. The winner for each award were announced at the Festival of Trees at the Harbourfront Centre on May 13 and 14th. Honour books, books that also received a high number of votes, were also announced. Over 250,000 students in Ontario voted! More than 70 authors and illustrators attended, along with over 6,000 young readers in the audience. These kids know how to make their favourite authors and illustrators feel like a rockstar!

Forest of Reading 2009

The Blue Spruce Award: Ages 4-7, Kindergarten to Grade 2
Winner: Chester by Melanie Watts
Honour books: Such a Prince by Dan Bar-El and Stanley at Sea by Linda Bailey, illustrated by Bill Slavin

The Red Maple Award: Ages 11-15, Grades 7-8
Fiction Winner: Out of the Cold by Norah McClintock
Fiction Honour books: Egghead by Caroline Pignat and Frost by Nicole Luiken
Non-Fiction Winner: Elizabeth MacLeod’s Royal Murder: The Deadly Intrigue of the Ten Sovereigns
Non-Fiction Honour books: Ed Butts for SOS: Stories of Survival and Fire on the Water by Wendy Lewis

The White Pine Award: Grades 9-12
Winner: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Honour books: After River by Donna Milner and Gravity Journal by Gail Sidonie Sobat

The Blue Spruce
Cary Fagan and DuÅ¡an Petričić‘s My New Shirt was nominated for the Blue Spruce Award.

The Red Maple

Ed Butts
Congratulations to Ed Butts for SOS: Stories of Survival being named an Honour book! Student volunteers held signs and gave a small introduction before the authors and illustrators came up.

Forest of Reading 2009
After the award ceremonies, students and teachers can meet the authors and illustrators, have their books signed, do arts and crafts, play games, and participate in various activities. Basically a literary fairground!

Giant Jenga
That is one giant Jenga!

The Stanley Cup
The Hockey Hall of Fame had the Stanley Cup on display!

Forest of Reading 2009

Congratulations to all the authors and illustrators! Thank you to all the organizers, volunteers, authors, illustrators, teachers, and students for all their work!

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Open Book Toronto: New Episode of Type

Artist, Leanne Davies and Tundra author, Linda Zeman-Spaleny interview each other on the latest episode of Type.

What is Type?

Type is an Open Book series of “co-interviews” in which authors are paired with creative people in other fields of art and culture such as fashion, art, culinary arts, music, film/TV, theatre, dance and more.

In each segment, our guests open up a discussion by asking each other about their respective work and inspirations. Full of natural curiosity and without any pre-set questions or previous encounters, this series is filled with the type of spontaneous, engaging conversation that can happen at really good dinner parties, cocktail parties and other chatty gatherings…and then stick in your head for days.

Type is presented on Novel-tv, a new web channel offered exclusively by Open Book and produced by Matt Austin of Spontaneously Combusted Films. The new episode can also be viewed on Open Book Toronto or on their YouTube channel.

Thank you to the Open Book Toronto team and to Matt for their wonderful work!

Tundra Book Group