Category: Toronto

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Festival of Trees 2011


The Ontario Library Association hosted another successful Forest of Reading Festival of Trees at the Harbourfront Centre on May 11 and 12th. It is always one of our highlights of the year to see hundreds of readers cheer for their favourite books.


As usual, the yellow school buses line up along Queens Quay West after delivering students from all over Ontario to the festival.


Tundra went in with four nominated titles this year. In the Blue Spruce category, we have Jane Barclay and Renné Benoit’s Proud as a Peacock, Brave as a Lion. Can you spot Jane Barclay on stage? She’s the author taking a photograph of the audience.

Congratulations to Dave Whamond, My Think-A-Ma-Jink was named the winner of the Blue Spruce Award.


Another rewarding parts of the festival are the author and illustrator signings. Just look at the number of readers lining up!


We found Monica Kulling signing autograph sheets and copies of It’s a Snap! George Eastman’s First Photo, illustrated by Bill Slavin. Bill wasn’t able to attend, but he and Esperança Melo lent Monica their Brownie camera (made by George Eastman) to show all the kids.

Congratulations to Ashley Spires, Binky the Space Cat won the Silver Birch Award – Express category!


Ann Love and Jane Drake were there to sign Talking Tails: The Incredible Connection Between People and Their Pets. Their book was nominated for the Silver Birch Award – Nonfiction.

Congratulations to Valerie Wyatt and Fred Rix, their book How to Build Your Own Country was named the winner!


S&B Books also had a tent to sell all the nominated titles. They are the official sponsor and wholesaler for the Forest of Reading program.


We also noticed that the children could leave little notes and messages for their favourite authors and illustrators. Very cool idea!


Thank you to all the organizers, volunteers, authors, illustrators, teachers, and students for all their work! Again, congratulations to all the authors and illustrators! Until next year!

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Keep Toronto Reading 2011

Keep Toronto Reading starts tomorrow! Start celebrating books and reading! The festival is a month long, April 1-April 30, with events in many of the library branches. You can view the full schedule of  programs on the Toronto Public Library’s website. Here are some events featuring Tundra authors and illustrators from the KTR page:

Meet Author Robin Muller
Friday, April 01, 2011 from 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
At Albert Campbell (496 Birchmount Road, Toronto, ON M1K 1N8)
How did author and illustrator Robin Muller become a children’s book star? Come find out! For more information, contact the branch at 416-396-8890.

Get Creative with Robin Muller
Saturday, April 09, 2011 from 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
At Fairview (35 Fairview Mall Dr., Toronto, ON M2J 4S4)
Wanna be an author or illustrator? Get the ins and outs of the creative process from a pro. Ages 6 to 12.

BOOK BASH!! Children’s Literature Festival

Writing Workshop with Marthe Jocelyn
Saturday, April 30, 2011 from 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
At Northern District, Program Room (40 Orchard View Blvd., Toronto, ON M4R 1B9)
Meet Marthe Jocelyn, winner of the first TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and the Vicky Metcalf Award for Children’s Literature, and get creative in this hands-on writing workshop. Ages 10 and up. Space is limited.

Meet Author Richard Scrimger
Saturday, April 30, 2011 from 1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
At Northern District, Urban Living Room (40 Orchard View Blvd., Toronto, ON M4R 1B9)
Richard Scrimger is the winner of the Mr. Christie Book Award for The Nose from Jupiter, a book about a wise-cracking alien who inhabits a little boy’s nose. Many of his other books have also been nominated for awards. He wrote a series of picture books starring baby Bun Bun, and also writes novels for young adults. Ages 8 and up.

Meet Author Cary Fagan
Saturday, April 30, 2011 from 1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
At Northern District, Urban Living Room (40 Orchard View Blvd., Toronto, ON M4R 1B9)
Cary Fagan is an award-winning children’s author, a writer of adult novels, an editor and a contributor to a number of magazines and newspapers. Cary has written several picture books, including Gogol’s Coat and The Market Wedding. Daughter of the Great Zandini, winner of a Mr. Christie Silver Medal, was Cary’s first novel for children and The Fortress of Kaspar Snit was his second. Ages 8 and up.

Meet Author Shane Peacock
Saturday, April 30, 2011 from 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
At Northern District, Urban Living Room (40 Orchard View Blvd., Toronto, ON M4R 1B9)
Shane Peacock’s books are peopled with high-wire walkers, sumo wrestlers, the world’s most dangerous man and literature’s most famous detective. To research his books, he learned the art of tight-rope walking and sumo eating. His latest novel is The Secret Fiend: The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His 4th Case. The Boy Sherlock series has garnered multiple awards. Ages 9 and up.

Tundra is having fun transforming into books too:

Let books transform you this April! Take your photo and share it with the Toronto Public Library on twitter or facebook.

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Invite: “Scribbling Women” Book Launch

You are invited to the launch of Marthe Jocelyn‘s “Scribbling Women” True Tales from Astonishing Lives. Bring your friends and family members! Marthe will be doing a short reading, Q&A, and a signing.

We will be most delighted to see you there! The launch is on Thursday, March 24 from 5:30-7:30pm at Ben McNally Books (366 Bay Street). Please RSVP by e-mailing rsvptundra@mcclelland.com.

Also, stay tuned for the Blog Tour starting on Monday, March 28, 2011 and ending on Friday, April 1, 2011. There will be a huge giveaway!

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Strut It! with Jeanne Beker


In collaboration with H&M and Globe Recognition, we celebrated last night with fashion, shopping, and Jeanne Beker! Here, let me take you through the night:


The event was held at H&M on 15 Bloor Street West. The event officially started at 7:30pm, with doors opening at 7:15pm. Security was pretty strict, but luckily we were able to get in earlier to show you what happens “behind the seams:”


Thank you to the crew that had all the posters and signs up and ready.


Caterers standing by, some of the dressing rooms had to become coat checks and swag bag storage. Do you see the pink lichee drinks?


Gorgeous pink tulips to match the book.


Jeanne Beker also arrives early and is given the run down of events by Lindsay, Emily, and her amazing Publicist, Pamela!


Jeanne has a look through her “Jeanne’s Picks” with Emily.


Taking a peek on the second floor, it looks like guests are already lining up outside!


Doors open and guests come in to meet Jeanne and shop with an exclusive 20% off.


While all the guests were shopping, we thought it would be fun to find some of “Jeanne’s Picks” among the racks.

Later in the evening, Emily and Jeanne chatted about the season’s hottest trends and how to wear them. The models showed off the “Jeanne’s Picks” outfits:


Before the night ended, guests went to meet Jeanne and get their copy of Strutting It! signed.

We would like to thank Jeanne Beker, Globe Recognition, the team at  H&M, the  models, the caterers, and  all the guests who joined us last night. Randy, Pamela, and Alison – we tip our hats to you! It wouldn’t have been a celebration without you, now go and strut it!

We also posted an album on facebook, so check out more of our photos there! More photos can be found at Globe Recognition’s gallery and from the Globe and Mail.

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Guest Post: Intern Meets Superconference

Hi Everyone!

My name is Alison and I’m happy to introduce myself as Tundra’s new intern. I’m four weeks in and still excited to come into work to find myself surrounded by so many amazing children books! The walls here echo with stories….

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the OLA Superconference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on February 4th and 5th and help out at the Tundra stand. It was a great exhibition and an opportunity to get a peek at what’s new and exciting in the publishing world. It was also nice to meet so many friendly librarians and people who work so hard at getting the right books into the hands of the right kids!

OLA - the colourful worlds of publishers and libraries collide!

We had a lot of traffic at the Tundra booth for the author book signings. Marthe Jocelyn, Susin Nielsen, Heather Hartt-Sussman, Cyndi Sand-Eveland, Rina Singh, Farida Zaman, Monica Kulling, Ed Butts, and Christopher Moore signed copies of their latest Tundra books and answered questions about their stories and the inspiration behind them. (There were several requests for signed copies of Monica Kulling’s Merci Mister Dash! to be addressed to special friends of the canine persuasion, of which I’m sure Mister Dash would approve.)

I had created little signs announcing the time slots for the author signings. Of course, as a good little intern should, I made sure to double-check the spelling of all of the author’s names. But alas, there was one that slipped through, and I was quite embarrassed to realize at the last-minute that I had spelled Susin Nielsen’s name as “Susan.” Unfortunately, I’m sure she gets that a lot! I quickly turned that “a” into an “i” with a black marker but the mistake was pretty glaringly obvious (even little mistakes are scary when you’re an intern and you’re continually trying to prove your competence!). But, when Susin came around to sign Dear George Clooney, she was very sweet and not at all annoyed about it, and we joked that the now-massive “i” was done on purpose to remind others not to make the likely-common mistake. Oops!

Ed Butts signing copies of Shipwrecks, Monsters, and Mysteries of the Great Lakes

On Friday afternoon, the seventh annual CANSCAIP Mass Book Launch was held at the Expo. Twenty authors and illustrators went on stage to give pretty entertaining “infomercials” and insights into their latest titles. It was interesting to see the wide range of personalities going into the creation of current Canadian children books. From Tundra, Marthe Jocelyn (Folly), Richard Scrimger (Me & Death), Farida Zaman (Nearly Nonsense), and Veronika Martenova Charles (Easy-to-Read Wonder Tales), each did an excellent job giving a teaser snapshot of their books and describing what makes them relevant for young readers.

Marthe Jocelyn reading an excerpt from Folly at the CANSCAIP Mass Book Launch

This week Tundra’s going to another conference – Reading for the Love of It – February 10th and 11th at the Sheraton Centre. I’m looking forward to interacting with another incredibly important part of the kids + books equation: the teachers!

Tundra Book Group