Category: books

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BookExpo America 2010

Will you be going to New York for BookExpo America? If so, make sure to stop by these signing tables to meet our authors:

Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Signing Table 22 – 10:00
Rona Arato, author of Mrs. Kaputnik’s Pool Hall and Matzo Ball Emporium will be signing.
For ages 8-11

Treat yourself to a visit to the wackiest restaurant ever! Mrs. Kaputnik’s Pool Hall and Matzo Ball Emporium is a colourful tale that blends history and fantasy with a journey of discovery, adventure, and fun.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Signing Table 2 – 12:00
Tom Slaughter, illustrator of Which Way? will be signing
For ages 2-5

A new book from the team of Marthe Jocelyn and Tom Slaughter, Which Way? is an invitation to explore and understand the concepts we see every day in signs around us.

Thursday, May 27, 2010
Signing Table 1 – 11:00
Arlene Alda and Lisa Desimini, author and illustrator of Lulu’s Piano Lesson will be signing.
For ages 4-7

Who wants to practice the piano? Certainly not Lulu. She’d rather listen to her swing squeak, the bell on her bike ring, or the apples thump as she climbs a tree. Even her shoes play a tip-tap tune as she runs on the sidewalk. Before she knows it, it’s Friday afternoon and time for her piano lesson. Lulu’s heart sinks. She hasn’t practiced all week. Luckily, Lulu’s teacher knows how to inspire his small student.

Thursday, May 27, 2010
Signing Table 1 – 9:30
Dirk McLean, author of Curtain Up! A Book for Young Performers will be signing
For ages 6-8

Young Amaya is auditioning for a role in a professional play. Although she longs to perform, she is about to learn how much team effort and hard work is involved. As the reader follows her progress from a nervous hopeful at an audition through the fittings for costumes, the rehearsals, the memory work, and even stage fright, Dirk McLean introduces the many people and jobs involved in staging a play.

Don’t forget to visit Tundra Books at booth #4252 – Alison Morgan and Pamela Osti will be there to let you know about our new and upcoming books! Or if you’re shy, come say hi and pick up our catalogues, posters, bookmarks, and postcards.

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Launch of: Folly

Last night, we celebrated the launch of Marthe Jocelyn’s new releases at Ben McNally Books.

Here is Marthe Jocelyn before all the guests arrive. Please, look at all the lovely books!

The guests arrive and Marthe Jocelyn is busy, busy!

Busy signing books!

Group photo! Former Publisher of Tundra Books, Kathy Lowinger, is back from a vacation and came to say a few words about working with Marthe Jocelyn.

Marthe Jocelyn reading the first section of Folly.

Thank you to the wonderful team at Ben McNally Books! Thank you to everyone that came out to say “hello” to Marthe! It was nice seeing Gillian O’Reilly, Shannon Howe Barnes, and Meghan Howe from the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. They came with the new issue of Canadian Children’s Book News too! Here’s a little snippet of what the issue contained:

“…Rather than crafting a bleak, grimy and desperate tale, Jocelyn enriches her story with the inclusion of love and desire to paint a wonderfully textured portrait of some of England’s poor. Savvy teen readers will enjoy drinking from this sometimes saucy literary concoction. A toast to the spirited author and her great-grandmother….” – Lian Goodall

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Cool Woods

The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement has been signed by most of the Canadian forestry industry and environmental activists! Read the article from the Globe and Mail here or take your own trip around the world’s boreal forest:

Cool Woods
A Trip around the World’s Boreal Forest
Written by Jane Drake and Ann Love
Illustrated by Andrew Kiss
Hardcover | 80 pages | Ages 9+
ISBN 978-0-88776-608-4
The boreal forest is the last great forest wilderness on earth. It drapes across the subarctic right around the world. It pervades our myths and folklore. It provides us with wood and water. It freshens the very air we breathe.

  • Winner of the Skipping Stones Honor Award in the Ecology and Nature Books category

Praise for Cool Woods:

“…totally right on…” – The Globe and Mail

“…informative and beautiful…. The text conveys a sense of wonder along with its many facts…. [L]ovingly detailed paintings…teem with life…. [T]he authors provide a glossary, an index, and an indispensable map for this intriguing trip, and many young readers will be inspired to find out more.” – Quill & Quire

“[Andrew] Kiss makes visible just how magical the forest can be….” – Toronto Star

“…a remarkable look at the last great forest on Earth…each chapter is full of wonderful information…But the real merit of this book is the obvious passion that the authors feel for saving and preserving this unique and vital ‘lungs of the Earth’ environment” – Victoria Times Colonist

“Useful as an introductory resource…designed to pique curiosity and send learners off in search of more information – or a boreal forest in which to wander.” – Green Teacher

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2010 Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards

 

Congratulations to Eva Wiseman! Puppet is the winner of the 2010 Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards in Youth Literature.

Jury citations:
Puppet recounts the story of a blood libel trial that took place in Tisza-Eszlar, Hungary, in 1883, marrying historical accuracy seamlessly with dramatic events and rounded characters. Moral dilemmas are treated with subtlety: the chief witness against the Jews is a young Jewish boy, Morris Scharf, desperate to free his father and brainwashed by the authorities to believe his own lies. Meanwhile, his gentile friend. Julie, the story’s engaging young narrator, struggles with her own dilemma: Should she reveal evidence that will exonerate the Jews? Maintaining the suspense of a good detective story, Puppet keeps the readers on the edge of their seats until the truth comes out, dramatically, at the end of the trial. But Wiseman goes beyond plot, evoking the atmosphere of an impoverished Hungarian town whose visitors find relief in blaming Europe’s traditional scapegoat for their hardships. The Jury commends Puppet for introducing young readers to a relatively unknown event, and for broaching moral issues that will provoke intense discussions at home and in school.

Please join us at the award ceremony!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
8:00 PM | FREE
Al Green Theatre, Miles Nadal JCC
750 Spadina Ave (at Bloor Street)

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Day 2: Festival of Trees 2010

Here we are at day 2 (click here for Day 1) of the Forest of Reading’s Festival of Trees! Today we attended all three Silver Birch Award ceremonies to cheer for our authors and illustrators.

The day starts off with the Silver Birch Award’s Nonfiction category. Mark Thurman is busy watching the presenters talk about the authors. *Waving to the creators of Alien Invaders* Jane Drake spots us in the first photo and then Ann Love does!

Alien Invaders didn’t win, but congratulations to Larry Verstraete, his book At the Edge did!

Next up, Shane Peacock’s Death in the Air was nominated in the Silver Birch Award’s Fiction category.

Death in the Air didn’t win, but congratulations to Robert Paul Weston, his book Zorgamazoo did!

The last ceremony of the day, we had two nominees for the Silver Birch Award’s Express category. Cary Fagan with Ten Lessons for Kaspar Snit and Cyndi Sand-Eveland’s Dear Toni. Will we win anything?

Drumrolls and the finalists are announced, both of our authors are in it! Congratulations to Cary Fagan, Ten Lessons for Kaspar Snit was named a Silver Birch Express Honour Book! Listen to the scream, cheers, and chants!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqwN5YsOi6c]

Wait for it… Cyndi Sand-Eveland’s Dear Toni is the winner of the Silver Birch Express Award!!!

Doesn’t the award look great?

The instant stardom!

Congratulations to all our authors and illustrators, thank you to each and every one of you for coming out to the festival and the award ceremony! Most of all, thank you to all the readers who voted!

Tundra Book Group