Chris and Claudia at Camp Penguin

camppenguin_logoEvery year, we get new camp counselors at Camp Penguin to help run the program. As a way to introduce them to you campers, we like to do a few ice breaker activities!

We asked camp counselor Chris Rylander and Claudia Dávila today to tell us 2 Truths and 1 Lie. Use our drop-down menu to guess the false statement!  

[contact-form][contact-field label=”Chris Rylander” type=”select” options=”I recently discovered I’ve been pronouncing my last name incorrectly my whole life.,I once woke a sleeping monkey and then it attached me which led to one of my best bits of life advice – never wake a sleeping monkey.,I used to be an award-winning chef before I became an author.” required=”1″ /][contact-field label=”Claudia Dávila” type=”select” options=”When I was a kid my favourite colour was brown.,My right foot is bigger than my left foot.,I was born in a taxi on the way to the hospital.” required=”1″ /][/contact-form]

On the first night of camp, everyone is sitting around the camp fire playing Would You Rather? Here’s how our camp counselors responded:

Be stuck in a comic book or in a Where’s Waldo book?
Chris: Definitely Where’s Waldo. They’re relatively a lot safer, but still incredibly interesting. You’d never run out of stuff to see or do and the explosions would be kept to a minimum.
Claudia: I hate big, busy, noisy crowds so I’ll take a comic book any day … especially if there are no zombies.

Choose to live underwater or on land your entire life?
Chris: Underwater! In fact, I already wish this was true. I’d agree to a Reverse Little Mermaid in a heartbeat!
Claudia: I hate getting wet so I’m 100% a land lover!

Be able to predict the future or have a talking ax?
Chris: Definitely predict the future. Talking axes come with curses. And violence. Whereas predicting the future allows you to do almost anything you want in this world.
Claudia: I think if I had a talking ax it would just complain about a headache every time I used it! I’d rather predict the future – who wouldn’t want to know the winning lottery numbers?

Live in a cardboard box or be always wear a costume?
Chris: I’ve grown pretty fond of my bookshelves and video games, and so I’d have to choose the costume. But do I get to choose which one? I already sort of look like Hagrid from Harry Potter, so then there’d really be no change for me, anyway.
Claudia: I’ve made many cardboard houses in my life and they’re always fun to decorate, but I think I’d be pretty squished having to sleep curled up all the time, so I’ll say wearing a costume, especially if it could be something super comfortable like a Jedi costume (Rey is pretty cool)!

Ability to grow to a giant or shrink to a dwarf size?
Chris:
Though this world is easier for smaller things, a lifelong dream (I’ve long given up on) to play professional sports could finally be made possible as a giant. It’d sort of be cheating, I suppose, but hey, that hasn’t stopped the New England Patriots!
Claudia: I’d love to be as big as a giant, so I could walk around the country side and get amazing views of mountains and forests.

The Legend of GregThe Legend of Greg
By Chris Rylander
368 Pages | Ages 8-12 | Puffin Books
ISBN 9781524739744
Risk-averse Greg Belmont is content with being ordinary. He’s got a friend–that’s right, just one–at his fancy prep school, and a pretty cool dad. The problem is, Greg isn’t ordinary . . . he’s actually an honest-to-goodness, fantastical Dwarf!

Viminy Crowes Comic BookViminy Crowe’s Comic Book
By Marthe Jocelyn and Richard Scrimger
Illustrated by Claudia Dávila
336 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Tundra Books
ISBN 9781101918937
When Wylder Wallace spills lunch on Addy Crowe at Toronto’s Comicon, she dashes to the bathroom, leaving behind the latest issue of her uncle’s steampunk comic hit: Flynn Goster in God Rush Train. Wylder, a fan of the comics, opens this new one eagerly, astounded to see the girl who was just yelling at him inside the comic.

Win Your Kid’s Summer Reading List with #CampPenguin Contest of Chance
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter between June 6, 2019 and June 20, 2019. Open to residents of Canada (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory of residence at time of entry. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

Click here to enter for your chance to win a Camp Penguin prize pack – featuring a special bookmark, and your choice of three books from our list of recommended reads for summer camp! Click here for the full official rules.

Window Wednesday

#WindowWednesday: We are incredibly fortunate to have stores create window features of our books. We want to highlight their amazing work here on our blog for you to see (and perhaps you’ll discover a new local bookstore).

Moonbeam Books
335 Jane Street, Toronto, ON M6S 3Z3
Photography: Vikki VanSickle

Camp Penguin-Moonbeam Books

2019 Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Books Awards

The Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards were established in 1976 – each year, two awards are presented to recognize artistic excellence in writing and illustration in English-language Canadian children’s literature. The winners are selected by juries at dedicated schools. Tundra Books would like to congratulate Wab Kinew and Joe Morse! Go Show the World: A Celebration of Indigenous Heroes was awarded this year’s Children’s Picture Book award.

This year’s school, Scarborough’s Eastview Public School, has a large Indigenous community, offering Ojibwa language instruction and other Indigenous programming.

Go Show the World: A Celebration of Indigenous Heroes
By Wab Kinew
Illustrated by Joe Morse
40 Pages | Ages 5-9 | Tundra Books
ISBN 9780735262928

What the students said:
“This was my favourite book because it showed how to be positive and how to be a hero.”
“I loved the message of the book.”
“I liked that the first part of the book is a poem, and that the second part has information about the heroes’ lives.”
“The illustrations are beautiful. The artist made all the people in the story look like heroes!”

Joe Morse with the jurors of the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award picture book category.

Window Wednesday

#WindowWednesday: We are incredibly fortunate to have stores create window features of our books. We want to highlight their amazing work here on our blog for you to see (and perhaps you’ll discover a new local bookstore).

Brave + Kind Bookshop
722 West College Avenue, Decatur, GA 30030
Photography: Bunnie Hilliard, Owner of Brave + Kind Bookshop

GreatJobDad-window

2019 IODE Violet Downey Book Award for Children’s Literature

The National Chapter of Canada IODE Violet Downey Book Award is offered annually since 1985 for the best young children’s English language book containing at least 500 words of text. Tundra Books would like to congratulate Susin Nielsen! No Fixed Address was awarded this year’s prize.

No Fixed Address
By Susin Nielsen
288 Pages | Ages 10+ | Tundra Books
ISBN 9780735262751

From beloved Governor General Literary Award–winning author Susin Nielsen comes a touching and funny middle-grade story about family, friendship and growing up when you’re one step away from homelessness.

Felix Knuttson, twelve, is an endearing kid with an incredible brain for trivia. His mom Astrid is loving but unreliable; she can’t hold onto a job, or a home. When they lose their apartment in Vancouver, they move into a camper van, just for August, till Astrid finds a job. September comes, they’re still in the van; Felix must keep “home” a secret and give a fake address in order to enroll in school. Luckily, he finds true friends. As the weeks pass and life becomes grim, he struggles not to let anyone know how precarious his situation is. When he gets to compete on a national quiz show, Felix is determined to win — the cash prize will bring them a home. Their luck is about to change! But what happens is not at all what Felix expected.

Tundra Book Group