Tuesdays with Tundra is an ongoing series featuring our new releases. This title is now available in stores and online!
New in Paperback:
Double O Stephen and the Ghostly Realm By Angela Ahn 320 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Paperback ISBN 9780735268296 | Tundra Books Stephen loves pirates. What he doesn’t love is his name: Stephen Oh-O’Driscoll. He believes when his Korean mother and Irish father gave him this name, that it was just one cruel setup for being teased. Giving things the proper name is important, which is why Stephen thinks that it’s time to update the definition of “pirate.” They’ve got a bad rep, and maybe they deserve some of it, but Stephen still likes a few pirate traditions, like bandannas and eyepatches – he’s just not that into stealing things from people. He has the perfect new word: piventurate. A sailor who passionately seeks adventure. That’s what he wants to be. When he gets suspended from school for doing proper piventurate-in-training things (using sticks to practice sword fighting), his mother doesn’t let him sit around doing nothing, instead she takes him to a museum. At the museum everything changes. Stephen finds himself in a strange new place, face-to-face with a real pirate. A pirate ghost. Captain Sapperton needs Stephen’s help to cross to the other side, and his former ghost crew are intent on making sure Stephen follows through, whatever it takes. Stephen is about to discover the true meaning of piventurate, and much to his surprise, his adventure will not only take him farther into the ghostly realm, but also closer to home, where long-held family secrets reveal surprising ties to the spirit world.
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.
July 11th is National Swimming Pool Day! To celebrate, we are excited to reveal the cover of Swimming into Trouble, the first book in the new series Julia on the Go! by Angela Ahn and illustrated by Julie Kim, publishing with Tundra Books on February 13, 2024!
Swimming into Trouble: Julia on the Go! #1 By Angela Ahn Illustrated by Julie Kim 176 Pages | Ages 7-10 | Hardcover ISBN 9781774881880 | Tundra Books Release Date: February 13, 2024 As a member of the Vipers Swim Team, Julia Nam’s always in the pool. Mountainview Community Center is like her second home, not only because swimming at the aquatic center is her favorite thing in the world, but also because her parents run the center’s sushi café. Julia would much rather be in the pool than sitting behind the counter of Sushi on the Go! watching other people swim. She’s the youngest swimmer on the team, but definitely not the slowest. Julia can’t wait for Personal Best Day – the most important day for all of the swimmers. If their times are good enough, they can enter a big regional swim meet. But then the worst thing happens. A sharp pain in Julia’s ear reveals an infection and she’s forbidden to swim for ten days. How can she get timed during Personal Best Day when she’s not allowed in the water? Julia is desperate to get back in the pool, even if it means having to go behind her parents’ backs in order to do so. But Julia’s solution lands her in a sticky situation, and it’s going to require the entire community center to come together to help her out of it!
Also by Angela Ahn:
Double O Stephen and the Ghostly Realm By Angela Ahn 288 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Paperback ISBN 9780735268296 | Tundra Books Stephen loves pirates. What he doesn’t love is his name: Stephen Oh-O’Driscoll. He believes when his Korean mother and Irish father gave him this name, that it was just one cruel setup for being teased. Giving things the proper name is important, which is why Stephen thinks that it’s time to update the definition of “pirate.” They’ve got a bad rep, and maybe they deserve some of it, but Stephen still likes a few pirate traditions, like bandannas and eyepatches – he’s just not that into stealing things from people. He has the perfect new word: piventurate. A sailor who passionately seeks adventure. That’s what he wants to be. When he gets suspended from school for doing proper piventurate-in-training things (using sticks to practice sword fighting), his mother doesn’t let him sit around doing nothing, instead she takes him to a museum. At the museum everything changes. Stephen finds himself in a strange new place, face-to-face with a real pirate. A pirate ghost. Captain Sapperton needs Stephen’s help to cross to the other side, and his former ghost crew are intent on making sure Stephen follows through, whatever it takes. Stephen is about to discover the true meaning of piventurate, and much to his surprise, his adventure will not only take him farther into the ghostly realm, but also closer to home, where long-held family secrets reveal surprising ties to the spirit world.
Peter Lee’s Notes From the Field By Angela Ahn Illustrated by Julie Kwon 312 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Paperback ISBN 9780735268265 | Tundra Books Eleven year-old Peter Lee has one goal in life: to become a paleontologist. Okay, maybe two: to get his genius kid-sister, L.B., to leave him alone. But his summer falls apart when his real-life dinosaur expedition turns out to be a bust, and he watches his dreams go up in a cloud of asthma-inducing dust. Even worse, his grandmother, Hammy, is sick, and no one will talk to Peter or L.B. about it. Perhaps his days as a scientist aren’t quite behind him yet. Armed with notebooks and pens, Peter puts his observation and experimental skills to the test to see what he can do for Hammy. If only he can get his sister to be quiet for once – he needs time to sketch out a plan.
Tuesdays with Tundra is an ongoing series featuring our new releases. These titles are now available in stores and online!
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?
Narwhal and Jelly Books 6-8 is also available today in Audiobook!
New in Paperback:
Super Family: Simon and Chester #3 By Cale Atkinson 96 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Paperback ISBN 9781774880005 | 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. Lately Chester has been feeling like he’s missing out when he sees other families out doing fun family things. So when Chester gets the opportunity to join his friend Amie and her family on a trip to the water park, he is IN. Meanwhile, Simon is off to his yearly ghost conference, excited to finally have something to show off about (haunting his VERY OWN HOUSE, for example) to the cool ghosts. Maybe they’ll even accept him into their group! Will things go as planned? Well, let’s put it this way: both Simon and Chester are about to learn a thing or two about the old saying “The grass is always greener . . .”
We can’t wait to see you reading these titles! If you share these books online, remember to use #ReadTundra in your hashtags so that we can re-post.
Hi, I’m Kate (she/her) and the Senior Managing Editor at Tundra.
I love all things cozy and homey – housewares, big blankets, pillows, soft lighting, my cats (Cinder and Yuki), and watching Little Women every Christmas (the one with Winona Ryder). To me, there is nothing better than a good book with a cup of tea and a cat cuddle. I’m a Torontonian since birth and grateful for all the food options in all the pockets of the city. My favorite neighborhood is Kensington Market though I have never lived there.
I’ve worked in publishing for over ten years, and I’ve been with Tundra since 2019. I love to organize, streamline, and problem solve. Some people describe a managing editor as the traffic control center of the book’s production process. I love to see all the pieces come together to make a book.
5 Random Facts About Me
I have participated in multiple guac offs and won.
I speak French and was a tour guide in Quebec City.
I have red hair and have dressed up as Anne Shirley for Halloween too many times to count.
I love to bike indoors to 90s music, and I love to bike outdoors with open ears and a helmet.
I was once on CBC’s Video Hits with my sister introducing Roxette’s “It Must Have Been Love.” I held the host’s hand and said nothing. I was four. My dad has the clip on VHS.
Favorite Penguin Random House Titles
Mad about Meatloaf (Weenie featuring Frank and Beans) By Maureen Fergus Illustrated by Alexandra Bye 56 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Paperback ISBN 9780735267930 | Tundra Books Weenie loves his human, Bob. He loves his guinea pig friend Beans and his cat friend Frank. He loves naps, adventures and sharing. In fact, Weenie loves pretty much everything (except the mail carrier). But the thing Weenie loves and desires more than anything else in the world is meatloaf. And he’ll do anything to get it. Join Weenie, Frank and Beans on a laugh-out-loud meatloaf adventure, complete with a trench coat disguise, a wild meatloaf trap and even a hungry wolf.
On the Trapline By David A. Robertson Illustrated by Julie Flett 48 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735266681 | Tundra Books A boy and Moshom, his grandpa, take a trip together to visit a place of great meaning to Moshom. A trapline is where people hunt and live off the land, and it was where Moshom grew up. As they embark on their northern journey, the child repeatedly asks his grandfather, “Is this your trapline?” Along the way, the boy finds himself imagining what life was like two generations ago – a life that appears to be both different from and similar to his life now. This is a heartfelt story about memory, imagination, and intergenerational connection that perfectly captures the experience of a young child’s wonder as he is introduced to places and stories that hold meaning for his family.
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.
Daughters of the Deer By Danielle Daniel 344 Pages | Paperback ISBN 9780735282087 | Random House Canada 1657. Marie, a gifted healer of the Deer Clan, does not want to marry the green-eyed soldier from France who has asked for her hand. But her people are threatened by disease and starvation and need help against the Iroquois and their English allies if they are to survive. When her chief begs her to accept the white man’s proposal, she cannot refuse him, and sheds her deerskin tunic for a borrowed blue wedding dress to become Pierre’s bride. 1675. Jeanne, Marie’s oldest child, is seventeen, neither white nor Algonquin, caught between worlds. Caught by her own desires, too. Her heart belongs to a girl named Josephine, but soon her father will have to find her a husband or be forced to pay a hefty fine to the French crown. Among her mother’s people, Jeanne would have been considered blessed, her two-spirited nature a sign of special wisdom. To the settlers of New France, and even to her own father, Jeanne is unnatural, sinful-a woman to be shunned, beaten, and much worse. With the poignant, unforgettable story of Marie and Jeanne, Danielle Daniel reaches back through the centuries to touch the very origin of the long history of violence against Indigenous women and the deliberate, equally violent disruption of First Nations cultures.
Greenwood By Michael Christie 512 Pages | Paperback ISBN 9780771024481 | McClelland & Stewart They come for the trees. It’s 2038 and Jacinda (Jake) Greenwood is a storyteller and a liar, an overqualified tour guide babysitting ultra-rich-eco-tourists in one of the world’s last remaining forests. It’s 2008 and Liam Greenwood is a carpenter, sprawled on his back after a workplace fall and facing the possibility of his own death. It’s 1974 and Willow Greenwood is just out of jail for one of her environmental protests: attempts at atonement for the sins of her father’s once vast and rapacious timber empire. It’s 1934 and Everett Greenwood is a Depression-era drifter who saves an abandoned infant, only to find himself tangled up in the web of a crime, secrets, and betrayal that will cling to his family for decades. And throughout, there are trees: a steady, silent pulse thrumming beneath Christie’s effortless sentences, working as a guiding metaphor for withering, weathering, and survival.
The Boat People By Sharon Bala 416 Pages | Paperback ISBN 9780771024313 | McClelland & Stewart When the rusty cargo ship carrying Mahindan and five hundred fellow refugees reaches the shores of British Columbia, the young father is overcome with relief: he and his six-year-old son can finally put Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war behind them and begin new lives. Instead, the group is thrown into prison, with government officials and news headlines speculating that hidden among the “boat people” are members of a terrorist militia. As suspicion and interrogation mount, Mahindan fears the desperate actions he took to survive and escape Sri Lanka now jeopardize his and his son’s chances for asylum. Told through the alternating perspectives of Mahindan; his lawyer Priya, who reluctantly represents the migrants; and Grace, a third-generation Japanese-Canadian adjudicator who must decide Mahindan’s fate, The Boat People is a high-stakes novel that offers a deeply compassionate lens through which to view the current refugee crisis. Inspired by real events, Sharon Bala’s stunning novel is an unforgettable and necessary story for our times.
Hello, and thanks for joining us at Tundra Telegram, the column where we dig into the burning topics floating in the ether and recommend some books to dive into and set your synapses ablaze.
This Friday (June 30), movie fans welcome back one of the film world’s greatest action heroes – Indiana Jones – with the new movie, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Harrison Ford will play the iconic daredevil archaeologist for the final time, as he seeks to recover a mysterious dial before former Nazis (he hates those guys), now working for the American space program, get their hands on it.
To celebrate the return of the swashbuckling Dr. Jones, we’re recommending some books for young readers that pair well with the Indiana Jones movies, whether it’s in their historic setting, love of archaeology, or penchant for bold adventure. Hold onto your fedora – we’re leaping into the breach once again!
PICTURE BOOKS
Picture books don’t get much more action-packed than The Magician’s Secret by Zachary Hyman and Joe Bluhm. Charlie loves when Grandpa, a magician, comes to babysit because he always tells a story, inspired by an object from his Magic Story Chest. Those stories see a younger Grandpa exploring pyramids, dogfighting with the Red Baron, and even encountering dinosaurs (!), and celebrate the importance of imagination. Plus, the cover even looks like Charlie has opened the Ark of the Covenant – with much happier results.
If you love Indiana Jones, but wish he was about six feet shorter and furry, do we have the picture book for you! Dakota Crumb: Tiny Treasure Hunter by Jamie Michalak and Kelly Murphy features a daring little mouse who scours a museum at night to find important artifacts – some of which may be food items and other litter that museum-goers have dropped.
And while we mentioned Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen‘s Sam and Dave Dig a Hole in the last Tundra Telegram, there’s no other picture book that more accurately reflects the process of archaeology: fewer bullwhips and motorcycle chases, more endless digging without reward, in which the digging itself is the reward.
CHAPTER BOOKS & MIDDLE GRADE
There are a number of wonderful middle-grade series that capture a similar sense of historical adventure as the Indiana Jones films, but also a few great standalone novels. One such book is Angela Ahn‘s contemporary coming-of-age Peter Lee’s Notes from the Field, with illustrations by Julie Kwon. Maybe a contemporary coming-of-age story doesn’t scream “Indy,” but eleven-year-old Peter Lee wants to be a paleontologist (which is close to an archaeologist) and – like Indiana with his father (and son, Mutt) – Peter has difficult family dynamics to contend with.
What is an archaeologist, if not a grave thief? Dee Hahn takes graverobbers and makes them heroic in The Grave Thief. Twelve-year-old Spade joins the family business of graverobbing, and he likes the work. But when his father incites an audacious plan to rob a grave in the Wyndhail castle cemetery, the family falls into a royal trap and an epic adventure begins that will take both bravery and friendship to survive.
How To Promenade with a Python (and Not Get Eaten) by Rachel Poliquin and Kathryn Durst is a nonfiction book – part of an ongoing series – in which a savvy cockroach shares tips and tricks to surviving an encounter with a charming predator (in this case, a python). The book doesn’t share a lot of similarities with the Indiana Jones movies, but we would recommend it to Dr. Jones himself, given how much he hates snakes (but nevertheless seems to continually encounter them).
A series that scratches the serial adventure itch in a very satisfying way is The Explorers by Adrienne Kress. Over three books, a risk-averse boy (Sebastian) and a girl on a rescue mission (Evie) team up with legendary adventurers The Filipendulous Five (of which Evie’s grandfather is a member) for very funny but perilous tales of danger, mystery, literal cliff-hangers, and animals in tiny hats.
Like the sound of The Explorers, but want a little more secrecy in the books you read? SJ King‘s The Secret Explorers series is here to help. The Secret Explorers are a group of smart kids from all over the globe who team up to fix problems, solve mysteries, and gather knowledge (and young readers learn a few facts in the process, naturally). In thirteen books (so far), they’ve searched haunted castles, traversed the Arctic, and battled plant poachers. And even better – their adventures are available en español.
The Escape This Book! series takes Jones-like adventures – in the tombs of Egypt, the Titanic (too soon?), and even outer space – and puts the proverbial fedora on young readers. That is, the readers themselves are in charge of their fates, and must doodle, decide, and demolish their ways out of some of history’s greatest events. It’s like you’re Spielberg himself, directing your favorite action hero into – and out of – danger.
We have to include the Addison Cooke series by Jonathan W. Stokes, as well, as these peril-packed books have been explicitly compared to the Indiana Jones movies. With titles like Addison Cooke and the Treasure of the IncasandAddison Cooke and the Ring of Destiny, the books feature the nephew of famous researchers and museum curators who always finds himself kidnapped by some evildoer or another on the hunt for the same artifacts as his relatives.
If you take the serialized treasure-hunting of Indiana Jones and add in a bit of fantasy and magic, you have the popular Thieves of Shadow series by Kevin Sands. Five kids with special talents are brought together to commit an impossible heist – stealing something from the most powerful sorcerer in the city. But messing with magic sets off a chain of events that lead to aquatic quests, sentient artifacts, and even dragons. The third book – Champions of the Fox – hits bookshelves this November, so there’s still time to get caught up on all the thrilling adventure.
Imagine a vault so cavernous that it could contain all the world’s greatest treasures and relics, from mummified remains of ancient monarchs to glistening swords brandished by legendary warriors. Does it remind you of the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark? Well, buried amongst the treasures in Professor Brownstone’s vaults, lie a humble collection of books, each filled with legendary stories from his ancestors. Those stories form the basis of Brownstone’s Mythical Collection by Joe Todd-Stanton. Each book is a separate, but connected adventure, as different generations of Brownstone’s family try to solve the Riddle of the Sphinx or undo the Gorgon’s Curse.
YOUNG ADULT
Even if you aren’t a fan of the movies, everyone knows the iconic opening scene ofIndiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana risks his life to get the treasure, all while facing many booby traps. Like Indiana, Cassy and her friends in Candace Buford‘s Good as Gold spend their summer hunting down some elusive treasure buried deep within their town, in a quest to get the money and save Casey’s family and her future.
In Go Hunt Meby Kelly Devos, Alex Rush and her friends like to make creepy films, and as they set off to college, they decide to create one final epic short film together. The destination? A remote castle in Romania. But just as they get the film’s first shot rolling, one of Alex’s friends disappears. Now Alex and her friends must escape the castle and its dangers, just like Indiana Jones and his father do from Castle Brunwald in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Pankot Palace is not necessarily a hotel, but we think the Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor is just as legendary and dangerous as that setting from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. If you’re looking to be whisked away to a location both glamorous and haunting, then you’ve found your next destination.
Almost as celebrated as the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark is Indiana’s line: “That belongs in a museum.” (A line that all fans know by heart, and hope will hear again in The Dial of Destiny.) Speaking of museums,Miss Peregrine’s Museum of Wonders by Ransom Riggs is the deluxe companion guide to the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series. Written in a way that makes you feel like you’re actually in a museum, this essential volume is ideal for anyone curious about the world of Miss Peregrine.
One of Indiana Jones’s first adventures as a kid showed him stealing the Cross of Coronado from treasure hunters in order to give it to a museum (in true Indiana fashion). While being chased by the treasure hunters, he manages to board a train loaded with circus animals and equipment. Although The Family Fortuna don’t travel by train in the book by Lindsay Eagar, they do, however, run a circus. Get ready to step out of the shadows and shine when Avita the Bird Girl devises a plan to perform the most delightful and disturbing showdown that you’ve ever seen.
