Claudia Dávila Archives - Tundra Book Group

July 4, 2019June 12, 2019

Richard and Iain at Camp Penguin

camppenguin_logo Every 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 Richard Scrimger and Iain Lawrence today to tell us 2 Truths and 1 Lie. Use our drop-down menu to guess the false statement!

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

Be stuck in a comic book or in a Where’s Waldo book?
Richard: COMIC BOOKS offer way more scope than Waldos because they have action. I loved Archie and Jughead as a kid, but I’m older now, and I’d end up having to talk to Mr. Weatherbee or the lunch lady. Sigh. Maybe I could hang out with Wally from Dilbert, or Jeremy’s dad from Zits, or Calvin’ parents. They’re pretty funny. Probably funnier than Hobbes’ parents.
Iain: Be stuck in a comic book, because I’d be afraid of getting lost in the crowd. My first choice would be one of the old Classic Comics so that I could be on a never-ending adventure, sword-fighting across France with the three musketeers, or chasing whales with Captain Ahab.

Choose to live underwater or on land your entire life?
Richard: ABOVE GROUND is better because it lets you eat. How can you enjoy a sandwich with your mouth full of water? And your coffee would always be cold. I hate cold coffee.
Iain: Choose to live on land, because I never learned to swim. While I would like the chance to explore the underwater world and visit famous shipwrecks, I would miss the trees and the mountains and the sky far too much to stay there forever.

Be able to predict the future or have a talking ax?
Richard: I could never come up with a story like Hatchet. I admire people like Gary Paulsen, who write white-knuckle survival stories. I just can’t do it. BUT if the ax could talk! That’s a story I could have a lot of fun with. What do you want to do today, Sandra? I’d ask my ax, and she’d say, Chop down a tree! Chop up some furniture! Chop! Chop! Chop! Then I’d ask why she enjoyed destroying things. Who are you angry at? I’d ask her. Is it your mom and dad? Was there a bad person in your life? Poor Sandra. She’d question her whole existence. Maybe she’d end up in counselling. Or maybe she’d come after ME!
Iain: Predict the future, because I imagine that a talking ax would get rather boring after a while. How many times would I have to hear the story about how he split a round into five pieces in one blow?

Live in a cardboard box or be always wear a costume?
Richard: My costume would BE a cardboard box. There. I’d be a real superhero: The Man From Amazon! Here to deliver your world to your front door. I’d have towels inside, or books, or watches, or car parts, or appliances. Or a $33,000.00 chandelier (I just checked. You can buy one) As Amazon Prime I could sneak into the trunk of your car. I’d drop by drone into your backyard. Woo hoo! I’d be more popular than Santa Claus!
Iain: My first reaction is that I’d rather live in a cardboard box, because going around in a costume would be well outside my comfort zone. But when I think of the missed opportunities and all the things I’d never see, I would definitely force myself to choose the costume.

Ability to grow to a giant or shrink to a dwarf size?
Richard: Uhhhhh, let’s go with DWARF. First, giants have a bad rep. Throwing rocks and shouting Fe Fi Fo Fum. Bad guys. Dwarves are good guys, with happy songs and careers in mining. On a more practical level, giants have to duck under doorways and bump into chandeliers. What a pain. By contrast, dwarves fit everywhere. They find coach seats roomy, travel happily by uber pool, and buy cheap clothes from the kids’ section. The only downside (ha ha ha) to being a dwarf is not being able to reach things from a top shelf, or dunk a basketball. And – hey – I can’t dunk a basketball now.
Iain: That’s a tough choice. Dwarf size, I could sneak around without being seen, exploring all the mysterious places that I’ve only glimpsed through fissures and cracks. But as a giant I could travel such long distances so easily that I would have to choose that option. Plus, I’d get more respect.

Viminy 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.

The Skeleton Tree
By Iain Lawrence
288 Pages | Ages 8-12 | Tundra Books
ISBN 9781101918371
Less than 48 hours after twelve-year-old Chris casts off on a trip to sail down the Alaskan coast with his uncle, their boat sinks. The only survivors are Chris and a boy named Frank, who hates Chris immediately. Chris and Frank have no radio, no flares, no food. Suddenly, they’ve got to find a way to forage, fish and scavenge supplies from the shore. Chris likes the company of a curious friendly raven more than he likes the prickly Frank. But the boys have to get along if they want to survive.

June 27, 2019June 12, 2019

Marthe and Chad at Camp Penguin

camppenguin_logo Every 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 Marthe Jocelyn today to tell us 2 Truths and 1 Lie. Use our drop-down menu to guess the false statement!

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

Be stuck in a comic book or in a Where’s Waldo book?
Chad: As a life-long reader of comic books, I would absolutely love to live in a comic book – as long as I got cool superpowers and a colorful costume!

Choose to live underwater or on land your entire life?
Chad: I would definitely choose to live on land my entire life. Although the ocean is a vast and amazing underwater world … it also has lots of sharks.

Be able to predict the future or have a talking ax?
Chad: Wow! What a tough question! I feel like being able to predict the future sounds cool, but it would take a lot of the spontaneity out of life – so I would go with the talking ax. As long as it chooses pleasant conversational topics.

Live in a cardboard box or be always wear a costume?
Chad: Both. As anyone who reads The Cardboard Kingdom would know, you can make a really cool costume out of a cardboard box!

Ability to grow to a giant or shrink to a dwarf size?
Chad: See, this is another really tricky question – growing into a giant sounds cool, but I’m kind of clumsy, so I would probably knock buildings over and feel bad about stepping on cars. So it’s better for everyone if I just shrink down to a more manageable size!

The Cardboard Kingdom
By Chad Sell
288 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Knopf Books For Young Readers
ISBN 9781524719388
Welcome to a neighborhood of kids who transform ordinary boxes into colorful costumes, and their ordinary block into cardboard kingdom. This is the summer when sixteen kids encounter knights and rogues, robots and monsters–and their own inner demons–on one last quest before school starts again.

June 20, 2019June 4, 2019

Chris and Claudia at Camp Penguin

camppenguin_logo Every 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!

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 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!

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.

June 6, 2019June 3, 2019

Camp Penguin

camppenguin_logo
Welcome to #CampPenguin!

We’re back with an all-new summer reading list for kids ages 8-12! By popular demand we’ve included non-fiction, graphic novels, classics, as well as some of our best middle-grade fiction, new in paperback! Visit participating stores and camps across Canada for more information and to pick up your 2019 bookmark.

There’s a book for everyone, check out this line up and see how you can win your kid’s summer reading list below:

Clara Voyant
By Rachelle Delaney
Paperback | 224 Pages | Puffin Canada
ISBN 9780143198543
Clara can’t believe her no-nonsense grandmother has just up and moved to Florida, leaving Clara and her mother on their own for the first time. This means her mother can finally “follow her bliss,” which involves moving to a tiny apartment in Kensington Market, working at a herbal remedy shop and trying to develop her so-called mystical powers. Clara tries to make the best of a bad situation by joining the newspaper staff at her new middle school, where she can sharpen her investigative journalistic skills and tell the kind of hard-news stories her grandmother appreciated. But the editor relegates her to boring news stories and worse . . . the horoscopes.

Fairy Mom and Me
By Sophie Kinsella
Illustrated by Marta Kissi
Paperback | 160 Pages | Puffin Canada
ISBN 9780735263352
Ella Brook can’t wait to grow up, because one day she will become a fairy and have her own sparkly wings and a teacher on Fairy Tube, just like her mom! Until then, Ella has to learn by watching her mom in action. But sometimes spells go wrong, and Ella’s mom can never seem to remember the right magic codes. A lot of the time, it’s up to Ella to come to the rescue. Does she have what it takes to be a fairy one day? Or will there be more glitches than glitter?

Holes Anniversary Edition
By Louis Saschar
Paperback | 272 Pages | Yearling
ISBN 9780440414803
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes. It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

I Spy the Illuminati Eye
By Sheila Keenan
Paperback | 112 Pages | Penguin Workshop
ISBN 9781524787936
This irreverent, illustrated guide takes a look with an all-seeing, skeptical eye at the history and mystery of the cultural phenomenon that’s got middle-school kids flashing finger triangles and scrutinizing dollar bills for signs of the Illuminati. It’s the first pop culture companion to the shadowy group behind everything from the French Revolution to Jay-Z’s fabulous rise. How did an eighteenth-century philosophical society infiltrate governments, banks, the media, the military, Hollywood, and hip-hop? Or did they?

National Geographic Kids Almanac 2020
By National Geographic
Paperback | 352 Pages | National Geographic
ISBN 9781426332838
Kids can have fun keeping up with our quickly changing world with the world’s best-selling almanac for kids, packed with incredible photos, tons of fun facts, crafts, activities, and fascinating features about animals, science, nature, technology, and more. There’s a whole chapter full of fun and games, including activities, jokes, and comics. Practical reference material, including fast facts and maps of every country, has been fully updated.

The BFG
By Roald Dahl
Illustrated by Quentin Blake
Paperback | 224 Pages | Puffin UK
ISBN 9780141365428
On a dark, silvery moonlit night, Sophie is snatched from her bed by a giant.
Luckily it is the Big Friendly Giant, the BFG, who only eats snozzcumbers and glugs frobscottle. But there are other giants in Giant Country. Fifty foot brutes who gallop far and wide every night to find human beans to eat.
Can Sophie and her friend the BFG stop them?

The Cardboard Kingdom
By Chad Sell
Paperback | 288 Pages | Knopf Books For Young Readers
ISBN 9781524719388
Welcome to a neighborhood of kids who transform ordinary boxes into colorful costumes, and their ordinary block into cardboard kingdom. This is the summer when sixteen kids encounter knights and rogues, robots and monsters–and their own inner demons–on one last quest before school starts again. In the Cardboard Kingdom, you can be anything you want to be–imagine that! The Cardboard Kingdom was created, organized, and drawn by Chad Sell with writing from ten other authors: Jay Fuller, David DeMeo, Katie Schenkel, Kris Moore, Molly Muldoon, Vid Alliger, Manuel Betancourt, Michael Cole, Cloud Jacobs, and Barbara Perez Marquez. The Cardboard Kingdom affirms the power of imagination and play during the most important years of adolescent identity-searching and emotional growth.

The Legend of Greg
By Chris Rylander
Paperback | 368 Pages | Puffin
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 (even if he is obsessed with organic soaps that smell like a mix of salted pork and Icelandic bog). The problem is, Greg isn’t ordinary . . . he’s actually an honest-to-goodness, fantastical Dwarf! He discovers the truth the day his dad brings home a gross new tea–one that awakens bizarre abilities in Greg. Then a murderous Bro-Troll kidnaps his dad and Greg is whisked away to the Underground, where Dwarves have lived for centuries right beneath the streets of Chicago.

The Mad Wolf’s Daughter
By Diane Magras
Paperback | 304 Pages | Puffin
ISBN 9780735229280
One dark night, Drest’s sheltered life on a remote Scottish headland is shattered when invading knights capture her family, but leave Drest behind. Her father, the Mad Wolf of the North, and her beloved brothers are a fearsome war-band, but now Drest is the only one who can save them. So she starts off on a wild rescue attempt, taking a wounded invader along as a hostage. Hunted by a bandit with a dark link to her family’s past, aided by a witch whom she rescues from the stake, Drest travels through unwelcoming villages, desolate forests, and haunted towns. Every time she faces a challenge, her five brothers speak to her in her mind about courage and her role in the war-band. But on her journey, Drest learns that the war-band is legendary for terrorizing the land. If she frees them, they’ll not hesitate to hurt the gentle knight who’s become her friend. Drest thought that all she wanted was her family back; now she has to wonder what their freedom would really mean. Is she her father’s daughter or is it time to become her own legend?

The Skeleton Tree
By Iain Lawrence
Paperback | 288 Pages | Tundra Books
ISBN 9781101918371
Less than 48 hours after twelve-year-old Chris casts off on a trip to sail down the Alaskan coast with his uncle, their boat sinks. The only survivors are Chris and a boy named Frank, who hates Chris immediately. Chris and Frank have no radio, no flares, no food. Suddenly, they’ve got to find a way to forage, fish and scavenge supplies from the shore. Chris likes the company of a curious friendly raven more than he likes the prickly Frank. But the boys have to get along if they want to survive. Because as the days get colder, and the salmon migration ends, survival will take more than sheer force of will. There in the wilderness of Kodiak, they discover a bond they didn’t expect, and through it, the compassion and teamwork that might truly be the path to rescue.

The Tail of Emily Windsnap
By Liz Kessler
Illustrated by Sarah Gibb
Paperback | 224 Pages | Candlewick Press
ISBN 9780763660208
With a sure sense of suspense and richly imaginative details, Liz Kessler lures us into a glorious undersea world where mermaids study shipwrecks at school and Neptune rules with an iron trident — an enchanting fantasy about family secrets, loyal friendship, and the convention-defying power of love.

Viminy Crowe’s Comic Book
By Marthe Jocelyn and Richard Scrimger
Illustrated by Claudia Davila
Paperback | 336 Pages | Tundra Books
ISBN 9781101918937
When chubby, geeky Wylder Wallace spills lunch on cool and aloof 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 Gold Rush Train. Wylder, a fan of the Flynn comics, opens this new one eagerly, astounded to see the girl who was just yelling at him inside the comic. Fascinated, he follows Addy into the bathroom, and the adventure begins … Is there a personality conflict? Oh, yes. Addy wants to go home; Wylder wants to stay and explore the world of Viminy Crowe’s comic book. Do things go wrong? You bet they do.

Weird But True Canada
By Chelsea Lin and Brittany Moya del Pino
Paperback | 208 Pages | National Geographic
ISBN 9781426330247
Calling all Canadians and Canada-philes: Get ready to be amazed and delighted by wacky facts, stats, tidbits, and trivia, eh? Did you know that the Royal Mint once created a coin weighing more than 90 kg and valued at over $1 million dollars? Or that Canada was the first country to build a UFO landing pad? Maybe you’d be amazed to discover that Montreal is the second largest French-speaking city in the world? It’s all weird–and it’s all true…Canada style! In this latest and greatest edition of Weird But True, you’ll read all about the wacky wilds, bizarre bites, and strange scenes of Canada!

Where’s Waldo? Exciting Expeditions
By Martin Handford
Paperback | 72 Pages | Candlewick Press
ISBN 9781536206708
On the road again? Planning a vacation? Be sure to pack this compact compendium full of things to spot, story games to play, and puzzles to create, featuring the elusive Waldo and his wily friends. Want a creative challenge to boot? Check out the writing prompts for making up your own stories, plus bonus journal pages inviting you to record your own travel escapades and a creative story game with twenty-four cards. Move over, Waldo — there’s more than one intrepid traveler in town!

June 26, 2015June 24, 2015

TD Summer Reading Club 2015

TD Summer Reading Club is an inclusive program that strives to engage all children in the joy of reading during the summer months while championing Canadian writers and illustrators. The program helps connect families with books and build confidence in reading through the delivery of free incentives and fun, accessible library activities. All summer long across Canada, libraries aim to inspire a sense of adventure and wonder, nurture children’s imaginations and celebrate their accomplishments.

Children who register for the TD Summer Reading Club at their local library receive free program materials and are encouraged to earn twelve collectible stickers by reading books over the summer. They are also invited to participate in programs organized at their local library and share their love of reading with children across the country through the TD Summer Reading club website. Sign up anytime from June 26 to September 7!

Here are some of the Tundra titles that are being featured in the reading lists this year, make sure you check them out at your local library:

Bob’s Hungry Ghost
Written by Geneviève Côté
Hardcover | 32 Pages | Ages 3-7
ISBN: 978-1-77049-713-9
“… [a] zany take on a ghost story…. In keeping with the hyperactive mood of the story, Côté’s illustrations practically sail off the page.” — The New York Times

I Like to Play
World Vision Early Readers
Written by Marla Stewart Konrad
Hardcover | 24 Pages | Ages 3-7
ISBN: 978-0-88776-998-6
“…full of gorgeous photographs and simple text…. The pictures are thought provoking and will prompt many questions from young readers…. There is so much joy and focus in these pictures… highly recommended….” — Excellent, Resource Links

Nancy Knows
Written by Cybèle Young
Hardcover | 40 Pages | Ages 3-7
ISBN: 978-1-77049-482-4
“This story is told in simple, evocative language and is illustrated in minimalist style. Nancy appears as a blank slate drawn in graphite on plain white backdrops. Her elephantine shape is filled with colorful Japanese paper sculptures that reflect what’s on her mind. Nancy is a charming protagonist with a memory like an elephant. She won’t be soon forgotten.” — Starred Review, School Library Journal

Reality Check in Detroit
Written by Roy MacGregor
Trade Paperback | 208 Pages | Ages 9-12
ISBN: 978-1-77049-422-0
“Reality Check in Detroit, the latest in Roy MacGregor’s Screech Owls hockey series, delivers the goods: robust players, playful banter, zippy descriptions of hockey games, and a troubling mystery for the team to solve. With an affectionate homage to the hockey legends associated with the Detroit Red Wings and some thoughtful social commentary, it makes a satisfying read for kids who love hockey.” — National Reading Campaign

Splinters
Written by Kevin Sylvester
Hardcover | 40 Pages | Ages 6-9
ISBN: 978-0-88776-944-3
“…Sylvester’s puckish (sorry) take on the Cinderella story is reflected in squiggly, exaggerated watercolor-and-ink pictures. Most of them float on the page as if on the ice, and this works wonderfully, from Cindy’s parents’ frozen basement apartment to the wide rink. The Fairy Goaltender, by the way, works her magic by whacking Cindy across the legs with her magic hockey stick. Goal!” — Kirkus Reviews

Viminy Crowe’s Comic Book
Written by Marthe Jocelyn and Richard Scrimger
Illustrated by Claudia Dávila
Hardcover | 336 Pages | Ages 9-12
ISBN: 978-1-77049-479-4
“The numerous black-and-white comic panels help bring the story to life for traditional and graphic novel fans, also bridging the two settings and the story-within-a-story narrative structure. Comic geeks or not, many are likely to enjoy this humorous and action-packed adventure.” – School Library Journal

This program is a joint initiative between TD Bank Group, Toronto Public Library, and Library and Archives Canada. Every year a theme is selected from suggestions made across the country. Supporting materials for the program are developed by a team of children’s librarians from Toronto Public Library with the francophone component developed by librarians from Ottawa, Quebec City, and Montreal.

Please click here for more information about Josée Bisaillon, the illustrator who created the artwork for this year’s Reading Club!