Tuesdays with Tundra is an ongoing series featuring our new releases. This title is now available in stores and online!
New in Paperback:
The Everlasting Road By Wab Kinew 272 Pages | Ages 12+ | Paperback ISBN 9780735269057 | Tundra Books Devastated by the loss of her beloved older brother to cancer, Bugz returns to the place where she can always find solace and strength: the Floraverse. Over the past year, she has gained back all that she had lost in that virtual world, and while the remaining ClanLess members still plot against her, she is easily able to overcome their attacks. Even better, she’s been secretly working on a bot that will be both an incredible weapon and a source of comfort: Waawaate. With the Waawaate bot looking exactly like the brother she misses so much – even acting so much like him – Bugz feels ready to show him off to Feng, who has become a constant companion in the Verse, and she cannot wait to team up with both friend and bot to secure her dominance once and for all. But Feng has his own issues to deal with, especially when news that his parents are alive and want to contact him threatens to send his new life on the Rez into upheaval. As they work through their complicated feelings of grief and loss, Feng and Bugz find themselves becoming ever closer. But disturbances in the Floraverse cannot be ignored, especially when Bugz realizes that her Waawaate bot is growing in powers beyond her control . . .
We can’t wait to see you reading this title! If you share this book online, remember to use #ReadTundra in your hashtags so that we can re-post.
2023 may be in the past, but ghosts are always in our present and future. Let’s celebrate and ring in the new year with a new BOO!
A Super Scary Narwhalloween: A Narwhal and Jelly Book #8 By Ben Clanton 76 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735266742 | Tundra Books In the hilarious eighth book of this blockbuster graphic novel series, Narwhal and Jelly celebrate the spookiest time of the year – Halloween – with a super twist! Dive into three new stories that are sure to fright and delight! Narwhal loves Halloween – it’s a great excuse to dress up in a spooky and silly costume, like a ghost, a mermaid, a banana or maybe even Marlow the Mustachioed Moose. It’s a skeleTON of fun! Jelly isn’t dressing up, though – he’s a little scared of this time of year, and would prefer to hunker down in a hidey-hole until Halloween is over. But when a scary sea monster makes an appearance and swallows Narwhal (gulp!), can Jelly, with the help of some super friends, pluck up the courage to save his best bud?
Funeral Songs for Dying Girls By Cherie Dimaline 280 Pages | Ages 14+ | Hardcover ISBN 9780735265639 | Tundra Books Winifred has lived in the apartment above the cemetery office with her father, who works in the crematorium all her life, close to her mother’s grave. With her sixteenth birthday only days away, Winifred has settled into a lazy summer schedule, lugging her obese Chihuahua around the grounds in a squeaky red wagon to visit the neglected gravesides and nursing a serious crush on her best friend, Jack. Her habit of wandering the graveyard at all hours has started a rumor that Winterson Cemetery might be haunted. It’s welcome news since the crematorium is on the verge of closure and her father’s job being outsourced. Now that the ghost tours have started, Winifred just might be able to save her father’s job and the only home she’s ever known, not to mention being able to stay close to where her mother is buried. All she has to do is get help from her con-artist cousin to keep up the rouse and somehow manage to stop her father from believing his wife has returned from the grave. But when Phil, an actual ghost of a teen girl who lived and died in the ravine next to the cemetery, starts showing up, Winifred begins to question everything she believes about life, love and death. Especially love.
Ghostlight By Kenneth Oppel 400 Pages | Ages 10+ | Paperback ISBN 9780735272354 | Puffin Canada The story of the tragic death of sixteen-year-old Rebecca Strand and her lighthouse keeper father is just an elaborate tale Gabe tells tourists for his summer job on the Toronto Island. Or so he thought. When his ghost tours awaken Rebecca’s spirit, Gabe is drawn into a world far darker than any ghost story he’s ever heard. Rebecca reveals that she and her father were connected to The Order, a secret society devoted to protecting the world from “the wakeful and wicked dead” – malevolent spirits like Viker, the ghost responsible for their deaths. But now the Order has disappeared and Viker is growing even stronger, and he’ll stop at nothing to wreak chaos and destruction on the living. Gabe and his friends – both living and dead – must find a way to stop Viker before they all become lost souls.
House of Ash and Bone By Joel A. Sutherland 336 Pages | Ages 12+ | Hardcover ISBN 9781774880968 | Tundra Books Seventeen-year-old Josephine Jagger is a talented writer with special abilities she doesn’t fully understand. Over the years she has developed methods to cope with the voices she hears in her head, but the old house her family has inherited in Vermont makes Josephine question what’s real and what’s not more than anything she’s ever encountered before. It’s filled with shadows, and whispers, and the unshakable feeling of being watched. Josephine then catches her first glimpse of a shadowy woman with long hair, pale skin, an impossibly wide smile and hollow pits for eyes. Her name is Dorcas, the ghost of a witch who died three hundred years ago. She has summoned the family to Vermont to ensnare them – then consume them – in order to rise from the grave and live again . . .
How to Make Friends with a Ghost By Rebecca Green 40 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Paperback ISBN 9781774880401 | Tundra Books What do you do when you meet a ghost? One: Provide the ghost with some of its favorite snacks, like mud tarts and earwax truffles. Two: Tell your ghost bedtime stories (ghosts love to be read to). Three: Make sure no one mistakes your ghost for whipped cream or a marshmallow when you aren’t looking! If you follow these few simple steps and the rest of the essential tips in How to Make Friends with a Ghost, you’ll see how a ghost friend will lovingly grow up and grow old with you. A whimsical story about ghost care, Rebecca Green’s debut picture book is a perfect combination of offbeat humor, quirky and sweet illustrations, and the timeless theme of friendship.
Super Friends: Simon and Chester #4 By Cale Atkinson 152 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Hardcover ISBN 9781774880012 | Tundra Books Welcome to the world of Simon and Chester, ghost and boy duo extraordinaire. Chester lives with his Grandma, his cat Mr. Pickles and Simon the ghost. Simon and Chester are best friends. Their attic is the location for some of the best activities known to humankind: making up songs about passersby, acting out scenes from Simon’s exciting Dr. Darington novels and creating the incredible Treat-A-Matic snack dispenser. But Chester has also befriended a non-ghost named Amie, and she is coming over to work on their science fair project. Amie has a surprising idea for this project, and Simon and Chester’s friendship will be put to the test as a result. Will Simon behave? Will Amie come between the two friends? Will an invisible Simon make fart noises that Chester has to explain? All will be revealed . . .
The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt By Riel Nason Illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler 48 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735264472 | Tundra Books Ghosts are supposed to be sheets, light as air and able to whirl and twirl and float and soar. But the little ghost who is a quilt can’t whirl or twirl at all, and when he flies, he gets very hot. He doesn’t know why he’s a quilt. His parents are both sheets, and so are all of his friends. (His great-grandmother was a lace curtain, but that doesn’t really help cheer him up.) He feels sad and left out when his friends are zooming around and he can’t keep up. But one Halloween, everything changes. The little ghost who was a quilt has an experience that no other ghost could have, an experience that only happens because he’s a quilt . . . and he realizes that it’s OK to be different.
Preorder Today:
Lockjaw By Matteo L. Cerilli 328 Pages | Ages 14+ | Hardcover ISBN 9781774882306 | Tundra Books Release Date: June 4, 2024 Chuck Warren died tragically at the old abandoned mill, but Paz Espino knows it was no accident – there’s a monster under the town, and she’s determined to kill it before anyone else gets hurt. She’ll need the help of her crew – inseparable friends, bound by a childhood pact stronger than diamonds, distance or death – to hunt it down. But she’s up against a greater force of evil than she ever could have imagined. With shifting timeframes and multiple perspectives, Lockjaw is a small-town ghost story, where monsters living and dead haunt the streets, the homes and the minds of the inhabitants. For readers of Wilder Girls and The Haunted, this trans YA horror book by an incredible debut author will grab you and never let you go.
Tuesdays with Tundra is an ongoing series featuring our new releases. These titles are now available in stores and online!
Super Friends: Simon and Chester #4 By Cale Atkinson 152 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Hardcover ISBN 9781774880012 | Tundra Books Welcome to the world of Simon and Chester, ghost and boy duo extraordinaire. Chester lives with his Grandma, his cat Mr. Pickles and Simon the ghost. Simon and Chester are best friends. Their attic is the location for some of the best activities known to humankind: making up songs about passersby, acting out scenes from Simon’s exciting Dr. Darington novels and creating the incredible Treat-A-Matic snack dispenser. But Chester has also befriended a non-ghost named Amie, and she is coming over to work on their science fair project. Amie has a surprising idea for this project, and Simon and Chester’s friendship will be put to the test as a result. Will Simon behave? Will Amie come between the two friends? Will an invisible Simon make fart noises that Chester has to explain? All will be revealed . . .
Super Friends! is also available today in paperback!
New in Paperback:
Someone Is Always Watching By Kelley Armstrong 360 Pages | Ages 12+ | Paperback ISBN 9780735270947 | Tundra Books Blythe and her friends – Gabrielle, and brother and sister Tucker and Tanya – have always been a tight friend group, attending a local high school and falling in and out of love with each other. But an act of violence has caused a rift between Blythe and Tucker . . . and unexpected bursts of aggression and disturbing nightmares have started to become more frequent in their lives. The strange happenings culminate in a shocking event at school: Gabrielle is found covered in blood in front of their deceased principal, with no memory of what happened. Cracks in their friendship, as well as in their own memories, start appearing, threatening to expose long-forgotten secrets which could change the group’s lives forever. How can Blythe and her friends trust each other when they can’t even trust their own memories?
We can’t wait to see you reading/listening to these titles! If you share these books online, remember to use #ReadTundra in your hashtags so that we can re-post.
At Tundra Book Group (Tundra Books, Puffin Canada, and Penguin Teen Canada), we think all our books are brilliant, and it’s nice when others think so too! Congratulations to our authors and illustrators; these are our starred books of 2023!
FOUR STARS:
The Little Books of the Little Brontës By Sara O’Leary Illustrated by Briony May Smith 40 Pages | Ages 5-9 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735263697 | Tundra Books “This charming celebration of reading and writing is one for the books.” – Starred Review, Booklist “Mixed-media spreads in muted, autumnal shades visually contrast themes of inner creative fire and outer quiet, as in one spread that reveals dramatic shadows behind the nightgowned children playacting by lamplight.” – Starred Review, Publishers Weekly “Exquisitely crafted text and illustrations convey an emotionally resonant tale of resilient family bonds and the lasting joy of stories.” – Starred Review, School Library Journal “A sublime blend of tender and thoughtfully playful writing by O’Leary, and bucolic, rosy-cheeked mixed media illustrations by Smith, this is an exceptional picture book.” – Starred Review, Quill & Quire
THREE STARS:
I’m From By Gary R. Gray, Jr. Illustrated by Oge Mora 40 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover ISBN 9781774886168 | Puffin Canada Available March 5, 2024 “Poet Gray, making a picture book debut, models the process of, and the power in, learning that “I come from/ somewhere.” – Starred Review, Publishers Weekly “A beautiful, simple look into one child’s typical experience that all readers can learn from and relate to.” – Starred Review, School Library Journal “This beautifully rendered picture book serves as a reminder of the importance of familial and cultural identity and the grounding that it offers in the wider world.” – Starred Review, The Horn Book
TWO STARS:
Don’t Want to Be Your Monster By Deke Moulton 304 Pages | Ages 10-14 | Hardcover ISBN 9781774880494 | Tundra Books “Members of persecuted minorities unite to fight crime: icky, impish, and thematically rich.” – Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews “Readers will root for these two bantering brothers as they fight to defeat the evil lurking in their town and, after the last page is turned, will long to spend more time in their world.” – Starred Review, Booklist Reviews
Funeral Songs for Dying Girls By Cherie Dimaline 280 Pages | Ages 14+ | Hardcover ISBN 9780735265639 | Tundra Books “Atmospheric, intimate, and melodic; the rich storytelling sings.” – Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews “Dimaline has created a rich world of complex characters with a narrative that oscillates from love story to suspense-thriller – sometimes within the same chapter – without any tonal whiplash.” – Starred Review, Quill & Quire
The Only Way to Make Bread By Cristina Quintero Illustrated by Sarah Gonzales 40 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735271760 | Tundra Books “With a palette of golden brown and ochre and frequent close-up and birds-eye perspectives, the digitally edited, colored-pencil artwork perfectly suits the text.” – Starred Review, Booklist “The art, combined with Quintero’s graceful text, results in a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the ordinary, love-filled lives of individuals from various cultures.” – Starred Review, Shelf Awareness
ONE STAR
Dim Sum Palace By X. Fang 48 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover ISBN 9781774881989 | Tundra Books “Full of fine-lined crosshatching and a saturated color palette, Fang’s artwork is deliciously off-kilter, with flattened and blocky figure designs and a fanciful sense of scale underscoring the charming imagination of Liddy’s dream.” – Starred Review, Booklist
Someone Is Always Watching By Kelley Armstrong 368 Pages | Ages 12+ | Hardcover ISBN 9780735270923 | Tundra Books “With a plot filled with remarkable twists and mystery galore, the characters remain less developed, with hints of diversity in the cast based on character descriptions.” – Starred Review, School Library Journal
The Big Bang and Other Farts By Daisy Bird Illustrated by Marianna Coppo 48 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735268012 | Tundra Books “The returning collaborators deliver not only unremitting humor but also something to think about between laughs.” – Starred Review, Shelf Awareness
The Song That Called Them Home By David A. Robertson Illustrated by Maya McKibbin 52 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735266704 | Tundra Books “A gorgeous story inspired by Indigenous legends that will lead intrepid readers on a watery adventure.” – Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews
The Three Little Mittens By Linda Bailey Illustrated by Natalia Shaloshvili 32 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover ISBN 9781774880111 | Tundra Books “A funny, yet thought-provoking picture book that is highly recommended for reading aloud.” – Starred Review, Booklist
Tundra is very excited to be publishing Viewfinder on February 13, 2024! Illustrated by Christine D.U. Chung and Salwa Majoka, Viewfinder is a wordless graphic novel that follows a young space traveler who happens upon Earth in the future.
Scroll down for the full cover plus a Q&A with Christine D.U. Chung and Salwa Majoka!
Viewfinder By Christine D.U. Chung and Salwa Majoka 144 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735268753 | Tundra Books Release Date: February 13, 2024 A young space traveler visits Earth on a whim and finds a planet empty of people. She happens upon a strange contraption that contains images of what the planet used to be like, and using this viewfinder, she sees Earth as it was, juxtaposed against Earth as it is: abandoned, but still full of amazing things.
Her adventure takes her to a museum full of hints about the planet’s past and the strange glowing mushrooms that grow everywhere, a library that has become home to a variety of zoo animals, and a beautiful but crumbling space station from which she makes a daring escape. As she wanders, though, she sees signs that perhaps there is still someone here. A time capsule, a friendly cat and a makeshift railcar all add to the mystery . . . is she really alone?
The lush and captivating art and subtle nod to stewardship in this wordless graphic novel will draw readers in and leave them with a renewed sense of wonder for the resilient and extraordinary place we call home.
Q&A with Christine D.U. Chung and Salwa Majoka
Where did the initial inspiration for Viewfinder come from?
Both: Having known each other since middle school and having had a shared love for art, we first started working together on some short, animated film projects in high school. When we entered post-secondary, though, we were excited to try out a new medium with a book as our next collaborative project! The central theme of Viewfinder was something we settled on surprisingly quickly. At the time, we had been seeing many photographs of real-life abandoned places with buildings overgrown with amazing greenery and vegetation on social media. While some locations felt desolate, others were beautiful and mysterious, prompting questions about their past histories and when humans once occupied them. This was the seed that inspired us for Viewfinder’s premise; a desire to show a comparison of past and present, with an emphasis on how living things can occupy a place at different times and in different ways. Building around this central idea about who would explore these abandoned places and how they came about helped us round out the rest of the story.
Why did you choose to do a wordless graphic novel?
Both: When we had decided we wanted to work on a book together, we knew almost immediately (and even before thinking of the story) that we wanted it to be wordless. We had both been such fans of The Arrival by Shaun Tan while we were growing up, with its timeless, gorgeous, and endlessly enchanting illustrations that narrated a powerful story of hope. We fell in love with the wordless format, in how quiet, yet whimsical it could be, and how there was always something new to find or notice even after multiple reads. Wordless pictures books/graphic novels have this quality of not only pulling audiences through the story with the sequential action of each panel, but by enticing readers to look closely at the details and let their eyes play across the page to form their own ideas. With Viewfinder, we wanted our locations to be the highlight of the book and the wordlessness sort of adds to the quiet beauty and vastness of them.
What do you hope readers take away from Viewfinder?
Salwa: I hope the reader can feel the same sense of wonder and curiosity that the little astronaut character feels as she’s exploring the beautiful and fascinating place that is planet Earth. In our day-to-day lives, it’s easy to forget that our world is abundant with marvels to admire and appreciate. Just take a look at the lovely colors of something as simple as a changing sky! We’re so lucky to call Earth our home, and I hope Viewfinder can be a reminder to not only take care of it but take the time to cherish all that it has to offer. After all, every home is special.
Christine: I hope Viewfinder nurtures a fascination with change and encourages a sense of agency to explore it; especially for the changes that may not seemingly be worth our curiosity. I’ve always hoped our book could be a timeless piece that would grow with its young readers and renew their sense of wonder with each revisit. The changes to our planet right now are scary and overwhelming; however, transformation itself is proof that nothing is in a fixed state. I have great optimism in that sense, and I would like for our readers to recognize hope there as well.
How many cover drafts did you have to do before this one was finalized?
Both: Coming up with the cover for Viewfinder was quite a challenge. The book features a lot of different locations, and we weren’t sure at first if we wanted to show any of them specifically on the cover or try to encompass the feeling of them through a different place entirely. We sent around 8 distinct cover ideas (not including additional variations of certain ones sometimes), but the amount of covers that we both brainstormed amongst ourselves before presenting them to the team goes far into the double digits!
How did you create the cover? What tools or programs do you use?
Both: We knew early on that we preferred the cover to have an element of “framing” around the title in some way, and we wanted to integrate some of the recurring aspects of our book, such as the bioluminescent mushrooms, optical toy, and animals, into all of our sketches. Our process involved us coming up with drawings individually first, chatting about them together, and then sharing the files with each other to tinker with. The sketches being digital meant it was easy to move and play around with the elements, so we often piggybacked off of each others’ initial ideas for further revisions and variations. When we both liked the outcomes of certain ones, we would then share them with our editor, Sam, to hear the team’s feedback. There was a lot of back and forth, brainstorming and revisiting to come up with the final, but we’re glad we got there in the end! The final cover was digitally drawn (by Christine) and painted (by Salwa) in Photoshop.
Do you have any advice for aspiring illustrators?
Salwa: Illustrators that are starting out or are early into their careers may grapple with worries about having a notable “personal style” attached to their work (I definitely have), which can make the permanency of a project like a book feel daunting. I’ve personally always felt the desire to continuously learn more and develop myself further, until I’m “ready” to work on something, but that “readiness” is rarely found. Even while midway through an illustration or a bigger project (like a book), you might wonder how it may have looked if you had approached it differently. There are infinite possibilities of what it could have looked like, but you can really only see one of those possibilities through at the end of the day. There truly isn’t a right or wrong way to do it, so let it be what it is! Your style may naturally change and develop with time according to your perception and inclinations, but the important part is how you communicate with images and the story you want to tell with them. That’s the “you-ness” that will shine through in your work.
Christine: My advice isn’t limited to illustrators; more so, it’s general advice for any aspiring artist. Pay extra attention to what draws you in. To me, is more than just looking at art of your preferred field (though it is very important to know the artists and their pieces that you admire because it helps you set a “benchmark”). It’s more about making note of the small and big things that fuel your curiosity, provide joy, or spark new ideas. I think as artists, inspiration cycles through us and meets us through execution. The more we are aware of what is fueling us, the more we can better understand the storytellers we are. Don’t be afraid to dive into your work and play! Experiment lots! Don’t take it so seriously. Take charge, enrich your one life, and let your art be its witness.
What books have you been reading lately?
Salwa: It was very refreshing for me to read lots of other children’s books after working on Viewfinder. I loved going back and reading some titles I had missed out on in the past such as Hot Dog by Doug Salati. The illustrations are full of so much energy and everything is communicated so aptly with such few words. It’s such a fun read! I also enjoyed Pokko and the Drum by Matthew Forsythe. It’s equal parts lovely, humorous, and charming all wrapped into one book.
Christine: I’m so happy to be making the time to read again. Right now, I’m enjoying this book called El Anatsui: Life and Art by Susan Vogel. Anatsui is a Ghanaian sculptor who works on huge installation pieces that appear like shiny drapery at first, but on closer inspection, are made of used bottle caps. Another book I’ve been enjoying is Stages of Rot by Linnea Sterte. It’s a beautiful graphic novel that is reminiscent of the late artist Moebius. The story is centered around a dying whale and highlights the life that grows from the aftermath. I find myself revisiting this comic a lot.
