Hello book lovers! The Tundra Books team is headed down south to ALA’s LibLearnX happening in New Orleans on January 27th to January 30th. We’ll be showcasing many of our wonderful titles at booth 225! Come by and say hello to our Fiction Publishing Director, Lynne Missen; Editorial Director and Author, David A. Robertson; Marketing and Publicity Senior Associate, Sam Devotta; and our Marketing and Publicity Associate Director, Sylvia Chan!
On Saturday, January 28th at 1:30pm to 2:45pm please join our authors David A. Robertson and Cherie Dimaline with moderator Andrea Rogers in the Morial Convention Center, Room 391-392, for a panel on Decolonizing Library Shelves through the Rise of Indigenous Children’s Authors.
We will also be hosting a number of signings at booth 225! This is based on first come, first serve. One copy per person while quantities last and you must be in line for the signing to receive a complimentary copy.
Looking for literary assets for your schools and libraries? We’ve got you covered, ask about our posters, bookmarks, buttons, art cards, stickers, pop sockets!
And don’t forget to follow us online @tundrabooks as we post live from the show floors!
Wanna know what everyone else has been reading and loving lately? Every month we’ll post our list of top ten bestselling YA books that we publish and sell in Canada. Here are the Teen Top Ten titles for the month of December 2022 – how many have you read?
1. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder By Holly Jackson 400 Pages | Ages 14+ | Paperback ISBN 9781984896391 | Ember Everyone in Fairview knows the story. Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town. But she can’t shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer? Now a senior herself, Pip decides to re-examine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn’t want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.
2. Five Survive By Holly Jackson 400 Pages | Ages 14+ | Hardcover ISBN 9780593374160| Delacorte Press Red Kenny is on a road trip for spring break with five friends: her best friend and her older brother, his perfect girlfriend, a friend from school, and the guy Red wishes was more than a friend. But they won’t make it to their destination. When their RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere, with no cell service, they realize this is no accident. They have been trapped out there in the dark, by someone who wants them dead. With eight hours until dawn, the six friends must escape, or figure out which one of them is the target. But is there a liar among them? Buried secrets will be brought to light, and tensions inside the RV will reach deadly levels. Not all of them will survive the night . . . .
3. Girl in Pieces By Kathleen Glasgow 448 Pages | Ages 14+ | Paperback ISBN 9781101934746 | Ember Charlotte Davis is in pieces. At seventeen she’s already lost more than most people do in a lifetime. But she’s learned how to forget. The broken glass washes away the sorrow until there is nothing but calm. You don’t have to think about your father and the river. Your best friend, who is gone forever. Or your mother, who has nothing left to give you. Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more, yet it still hurts so much. It hurts enough to not care anymore, which is sometimes what has to happen before you can find your way back from the edge. A deeply moving portrait of a girl in a world that owes her nothing, and has taken so much, and the journey she undergoes to put herself back together. Kathleen Glasgow’s debut is heartbreakingly real and unflinchingly honest. It’s a story you won’t be able to look away from.
4. Good Girl, Bad Blood By Holly Jackson 416 Pages | Ages 14+ | Paperback ISBN 9781984896438 | Ember Pip is not a detective anymore. With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcast about the murder case they solved together last year. The podcast has gone viral, yet Pip insists her investigating days are behind her. But she will have to break that promise when someone she knows goes missing. Jamie Reynolds has disappeared, on the very same night the town hosted a memorial for the sixth-year anniversary of the deaths of Andie Bell and Sal Singh. The police won’t do anything about it. And if they won’t look for Jamie then Pip will, uncovering more of her town’s dark secrets along the way . . . and this time everyone is listening. But will she find him before it’s too late?
5. As Good As Dead By Holly Jackson 464 Pages | Ages 14+ | Hardcover ISBN 9780593379851 | Delacorte Press Pip is about to head to college, but she is still haunted by the way her last investigation ended. She’s used to online death threats in the wake of her viral true-crime podcast, but she can’t help noticing an anonymous person who keeps asking her: Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears? Soon the threats escalate and Pip realizes that someone is following her in real life. When she starts to find connections between her stalker and a local serial killer caught six years ago, she wonders if maybe the wrong man is behind bars. Police refuse to act, so Pip has only one choice: find the suspect herself – or be the next victim. As the deadly game plays out, Pip discovers that everything in her small town is coming full circle . . . and if she doesn’t find the answers, this time she will be the one who disappears . . . .
6. One of Us Is Lying By Karen M. McManus 416 Pages | Ages 14+ | Hardcover ISBN 9781524714680 | Delacorte Press Pay close attention and you might solve this. On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app. Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who is still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.
7. We Were Liars By E. Lockhart 320 Pages | Ages 12+ | Paperback ISBN 9780385741279 | Ember A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends – the Liars – whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth. Read it. And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.
8. Akata Witch By Nnedi Okorafor 384 Pages | Ages 12+ | Paperback ISBN 9780142420911 | Speak Sunny Nwazue lives in Nigeria, but she was born in New York City. Her features are West African, but she’s albino. She’s a terrific athlete, but can’t go out into the sun to play soccer. There seems to be no place where she fits in. And then she discovers something amazing – she is a “free agent” with latent magical power. And she has a lot of catching up to do. Soon she’s part of a quartet of magic students, studying the visible and invisible, learning to change reality. But as she’s finding her footing, Sunny and her friends are asked by the magical authorities to help track down a career criminal who knows magic, too. Will their training be enough to help them combat a threat whose powers greatly outnumber theirs?
9. The Pearl Thief By Elizabeth Wein 336 Pages | Ages 12+ | Paperback ISBN 9780385683470 | Penguin Teen Canada Before Verity . . . there was Julie. When fifteen-year-old Julia Beaufort-Stuart wakes up in the hospital, she knows the lazy summer break she’d imagined won’t be exactly like she anticipated. And once she returns to her grandfather’s estate, a bit banged up but alive, she begins to realize that her injury might not have been an accident. One of her family’s employees is missing, and he disappeared on the very same day she landed in the hospital. Desperate to figure out what happened, she befriends Euan McEwen, the Scots Traveller boy who found her when she was injured, and his standoffish sister Ellen. As Julie grows closer to this family, she experiences some of the prejudices they’ve grown used to firsthand, a stark contrast to her own upbringing, and finds herself exploring thrilling new experiences that have nothing to do with a missing-person investigation. Her memory of that day returns to her in pieces, and when a body is discovered, her new friends are caught in the crosshairs of long-held biases about Travellers. Julie must get to the bottom of the mystery in order to keep them from being framed for the crime. In this prequel to Printz Honor Book Code Name Verity, the exhilarating coming-of-age story returns to a beloved character just before she learned to fly.
10. All the Bright Places By Jennifer Niven 416 Pages | Ages 14+ | Paperback ISBN 9780385755917 | Ember Theodore Finch is fascinated by death. Every day he thinks of ways he might kill himself, but every day he also searches for – and manages to find – something to keep him here, and alive, and awake. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her small Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school – six stories above the ground – it’s unclear who saves whom. Soon it’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.
Here at Tundra Book Group we have many books to help conversations around mental health for young readers. As January is self-love month, we have created a list of beautiful children’s books anyone can find themselves in, and to help celebrate who you are!
Celebrate yourself
My Lala By Thomas King Illustrated by Charlene Chua 40 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735269347 | Tundra Books Lala wakes up one morning and decides that she owns the world. Quick as a fox, she bounds to her box of treasures and finds her shiny red dots – to mark what is hers, because there’s nothing that’s not! Lala’s bear gets a dot, as does her blankie, boots, and even the markers she uses to make scrawls on her walls. When she finishes labeling everything in her room and goes to label her dad-daddy’s socks, Lala realizes that she’s out of dots! But when Lala discovers that she can simply create her own red dots, will anything be safe from Lala? Join rambunctious Lala on her quest to own the world in this joyful picture book that celebrates confidence and positive thinking.
My Self, Your Self By Esmé Shapiro 48 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover ISBN 9781774880234 | Tundra Books From the way you button your coat to the way you tap your toes, from the top of your head to your adorable tummy, there are so many reasons to love your self, and so many reasons to be loved. Join a group of endearing forest creatures as they bake and eat cranberry-butter-pie muffins, sing silly songs at bath time and stop to smell the chestnut-nettle roses, all the while exploring their individuality. This joyously affirming picture book from the inimitable Esmé Shapiro encourages the youngest readers to get to know and love and be kind to their wonderful selves and the equally wonderful selves around them.
Listen to your voice
Kumo: The Bashful Cloud By Kyo Maclear Illustrated by Nathalie Dion 64 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735267282 | Tundra Books Kumo is a cloud whose only wish is to float unseen. When she’s assigned cloud duty for the day, she feels overwhelmed by self-doubt and her fear of being noticed. But after learning that closing your eyes isn’t a good solution to your troubles, Kumo pulls her fluff together and does her duties – drifting, releasing rain and providing shelter – meeting some new friends along the way and inspiring the imagination (and capturing the heart) of a small daydreamer like her. Kyo Maclear’s sweetly humorous and lyrical parable about shyness, vividly brought to life by Nathalie Dion’s ethereal illustrations, is an affirmation of the pleasures of community and the confidence that can arise from friendship and visibility.
Little Echo By Al Rodin 32 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover ISBN 9781774880623 | Tundra Books Have you ever heard an Echo? They live in lakes and tunnels and caves. But have you ever seen an Echo? Little Echo lives alone in a cave. Shy, she hides away, echoing the noises around her. But Little Echo isn’t just shy – she’s lonely. And when Max comes to the cave one day, in search of treasure, Little Echo starts to discover that maybe she has a voice of her own.
It’s okay to ask for help
The Pink Umbrella By Amélie Callot Illustrated by Geneviève Godbout 80 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Hardcover ISBN 9781101919231 | Tundra Books When it’s bright outside, Adele is the heart of her community, greeting everyone who comes into her café with arms wide open. But when it rains, she can’t help but stay at home inside, under the covers. Because Adele takes such good care of her friends and customers, one of them decides to take care of her too, and piece by piece leaves her little gifts that help her find the joy in a gray, rainy day. Along with cute-as-a-button illustrations, The Pink Umbrella celebrates thoughtful acts of friendship.
Tough Like Mum By Lana Button Illustrated by Carmen Mok 32 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735265981 | Tundra Books Kim’s mum is tough. Everyone says so. She can deal with unruly customers at the Red Rooster with a snap of her fingers. Kim is tough, too. She doesn’t need to wear a hat to keep her ears warm. And she can make soup all by herself, even without the stove. Kim and her mum are tough. But Kim is learning that sometimes toughness doesn’t look like what you’d expect. In this tender exploration of a mother-daughter relationship, Kim and her mother learn that in order to support and truly take care of each other, they need to be tough – and that sometimes being tough means showing vulnerability and asking for help.
It’s okay to feel down
The Invisible Bear By Cecile Metzger 40 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735266872 | Tundra Books A bear sits in his quiet, colorless home in a forgotten place. He feels invisible; no one comes to see him, and he spends his days alone. Then someone moves in next door. Madame Odette is sound and sunshine, and at first, the bear isn’t sure about this colorful new neighbor. But through an act of kindness, the bear and the Madame Odette meet, and as time goes by, they become friends. And in the end, they are both forever changed by the gifts they bring each other. The first book from author-illustrator Cécile Metzger, The Invisible Bear is a powerful and beautiful meditation on the beauty of friendship and how two people can save each other just by being themselves.
What’s Up, Maloo? By Geneviève Godbout 40 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735266643 | Tundra Books Maloo the kangaroo has lost his hop. Can his friends help him find it again? This sweet picture book explores the idea of sadness and the importance of friendship through ups and downs. No other kangeroo can hop like Maloo! But one day Maloo’s friends find him stepping instead of hopping. What’s wrong, Maloo? His pals look for ways to help Maloo regain the spring in his step. With patience, support and a little “hop” from his friends, Maloo gets his bounce back. Simple text and adorable art convey the power of friendship over a gloomy mood in Geneviève Godbout’s charming debut as both author and illustrator.
Coping with grief isn’t easy
A Garden of Creatures By Sheila Heti Illustrated by Esmé Shapiro 40 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735268814 | Tundra Books Two bunnies and a cat live happily together in a beautiful garden. But when the big bunny passes away, the little bunny is unsure how to fill the void she left behind. A strange dream prompts her to begin asking questions: Why do the creatures we love have to die, and where do we go when we die? How come life works this way? With the wisdom of the cat to guide her, the little bunny learns that missing someone is a way of keeping them close. And together they discover that the big bunny is a part of everything around them – the grass, the air, the leaves – for the world is a garden of creatures. With its meditative text, endearing illustrations and life-affirming message, A Garden of Creatures reveals how the interconnectedness of nature and the sweetness of friendship can be a warm embrace even in the darkest times.
Bug in a Vacuum By Mélanie Watt ISBN 9781770496453 | Hardcover Ages 5-9 | Tundra Books A bug flies through an open door where its entire life changes with the switch of a button. Sucked into the void of a vacuum bag, this one little bug moves through denial, bargaining, anger, despair and eventually acceptance – the five stages of grief – as it comes to terms with its fate.
Rodney Was a Tortoise By Nan Forler Illustrated by Yong Ling Kang 40 Pages | Ages 3-7 | Hardcover ISBN 9780735266629 | Tundra Books Bernadette and Rodney are the best of friends. Rodney’s not so good at playing cards, but he’s great at staring contests. His favorite food is lettuce, though he eats it VERRRRRRY SLOOOOOWLY. And he’s such a joker! When Bernadette goes to sleep at night, Rodney is always there, watching over her from his tank. As the seasons pass, Rodney moves slower and slower, until one day he stops moving at all. Without Rodney, Bernadette feels all alone. She can’t stop thinking about him, but none of her friends seem to notice. Except for Amar. Rodney Was a Tortoise is a moving story about friendship and loss. It shows the importance of expressing kindness and empathy, especially in life’s most difficult moments.
Tuesdays with Tundra is an ongoing series featuring our new releases. The following titles are now available in stores and online!
Anne’s Tragical Tea Party By Kallie George Illustrated by Abigail Halpin 72 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Paperback ISBN 9780735267350 | Tundra Books Anne loves having pretend tea parties by herself. She even decorates her room with branches and colorful leaves for the occasion. Marilla Cuthbert, who adopted Anne in the last year, wishes Anne would act a little more sensibly. One day, Marilla comes up with a plan to keep Anne out of mischief – Anne can host her very own tea party and invite her kindred spirit, Diana Barry! Anne is thrilled, and sets out to host the most lovely and grown-uppish tea party she can muster. But when she makes Diana sick by accidentally giving her the wrong drink, Diana’s mother is furious. Can Anne be forgiven? Will she ever be allowed to play with Diana again?
Code Name Verity By Elizabeth Wein ISBN 9781774882757 | Paperback Ages 12+ | Penguin Teen Canada October 11th, 1943. A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it’s barely begun. When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she’s sure she doesn’t stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy? A universally acclaimed Edgar Award winner, Code Name Verity is a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other. This updated edition features a brand-new short story, essay from the author, a discussion guide, and more.
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.
Hello, and thanks for joining us at Tundra Telegram, the column where we articulate the issues readers are dreaming about, and Mat-tell you about some books that we figure you’ll love.
Like most of social media, the gang at Tundra Books were buzzing with the release of the trailer to filmmaker Greta Gerwig‘s seemingly bananas film, Barbie. The teaser got us thinking about the other doll-based movie of 2023 we’re champing at the bit to watch: M3GAN. (Team-up when?) We’ve got dolls on the brain. Besides, who doesn’t want to unwrap a new doll as a holiday gift?
As a holiday present to you readers in this final Tundra Telegram of 2022, we’ve collected the best books featuring dolls that we publish. (Batteries not included.) See you with new recommendations in 2023!
PICTURE BOOKS
A little doll’s world is blown wide open in Gemma and the Giant Girl by Sara O’Leary and Marie Lafrance. Gemma lives in a forgotten dollhouse with her doll parents, never growing old and living a monotonous existence. But everything changes when a giant (!) opens the dollhouse and introduces her to the larger world, whether she likes it or not.
If you like stories about dolls, but wished they intersected more with modernist literature, Kafka and the Doll by Larissa Theule and Rebecca Green is the picture book for you! The author of some of the more surreal and absurd stories of the twentieth century was not inured to the charms of a doll. In 1923, when he encountered a girl distraught over the loss of her doll, the writer put his chops to the test by sending the girl letters in the hand of the doll, whom he suggested was traveling the world on grand adventures. (Now Franz Kafka’s Barbie is a movie I’d also like to see!)
It may lack a hot-pink palette and waterslide, but the dollhouse in Giselle Potter‘s This Is My Dollhouse is a true testament to one girl’s creativity and imagination. A little girl proudly walks readers through her handmade dollhouse, pointing out the wallpaper she drew, the fancy clothes she made, and the little elevator she made out of a paper cup. But when she sees her friend Sophie’s “perfect” storebought house, her pride wavers. Soon, though, both girls realize how much more wonderful creative play can be.
We can’t pretend the holidays are barreling down upon us, and The All-I’ll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll by the late, great Patricia C. McKissack and Jerry Pinkney, is the perfect holiday doll book. Set during the Great Depression, Santa Claus doesn’t deliver presents to Nella’s family every year. But Nella’s really hoping that this year she and her two sisters will each get a beautiful Baby Betty doll. When the doll is unwrapped, Nella takes the doll and refuses to share before realizing – even with a really cool doll – it’s no fun to play by yourself.
Of course, there is a cornucopia of official Barbie books from which to select. If we were to highlight one, it would be seasonal favorite, Barbie: The Nutcracker(A Little Golden Book). Barbie stars as Clara in this retelling of the classic ballet. Does Ken play the Nutcracker or the Mouse King? You’ll have to read to find out for yourself!
And you’ll have to wait until July for The Story of Barbie and the Woman Who Created Her by Cindy Eagan and Amy Bates, but this picture book biography of Ruth Handler is worth the wait. After noticing how her daughter preferred to play with “grown-up” paper dolls rather than baby dolls, Handler designed a doll that would inspire little girls to use their huge imaginations to picture their futures, and wound up creating the most famous doll ever. If you preorder now, it should arrive just in time for the feature film!
CHAPTER BOOKS & MIDDLE GRADE
Before there was Barbie, there was Miss Kanagawa. The Friendship Dollby Kirby Larson is based on a real historical phenomenon: in the late 1920s, 58 friendship dolls were sent from Japan to America. This book follows the story of one such doll, Miss Kanagawa, and the stories of four American children who interact with her – from New York to Seattle, from the Great Depression to the modern day – like a handheld Forrest Gump.
Die-hard Barbie fans know it can be difficult to repair a plastic doll. But it wasn’t always this way. The Doll Shop Downstairs by Yona Zeldis McDonough and Heather Maione features Jewish sisters in New York City who play carefully with the dolls in their parents’ doll repair shop (!) until they’ve been fixed and need to be returned to their owners. When World War I breaks out, so does an embargo on German-made goods which threatens the shop, so it’s up to the sisters (naturally) to come up with a financial idea to save the family from poverty.
Of course, as readers get a bit older, the dolls get creepier. Case in point, the ultimate in creepy doll stories, The Dollhouse: A Ghost Story by Charis Cotter. When Alice heads to a small town where her mom finds work as a live-in nurse to an elderly woman, she discovers a dollhouse in the attic that’s an exact replica of the woman’s house. Soon she wakes to find a girl asleep next to her in her bed – a girl who looks like one of the dolls in the house, and things just get eerier from there.
That may remind you of the godmother of creepy doll books, The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright, which is nearly 40 years old! As in Charis Cotter’s book, protagonist Amy begins to believe the dolls and the dollhouse are moving by themselves. And, stranger still, they may be trying to tell her something about how her great-grandparents died. The 35th anniversary edition even has a foreword from scary doll aficionado, R. L. Stine!
YOUNG ADULT
YA tends to not feature as many actual dolls, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Raziel Reid‘s over-the-top Barbie-themed satire Kens. At Willows High, a group of tyrannical, handsome gays – the Kens (not unlike their plastic namesakes) – rule over the student populace with Mean Girls-esque verve. Where can uncool queer Tommy Rawlins fit into this dangerous high school hierarchy? When he is given the chance to become the next Ken, should he take it? Is life in plastic really that fantastic?
Older readers often begin to get a taste for fashion design, and what better what to practice that than with Sewing Clothes for Barbie by Annabel Benilan? Readers can sew Barbie 24 stylish outfits, from aerobics outfits to ski wear – and even a mermaid costume (?). Without any knowledge of the behind-the-scenes process, I think it’s safe to say the Barbie film’s costume designer must have used this book as a principal reference.
