Tuesdays with Tundra 4

Tuesdays with Tundra is a monthly post on our new releases. The following books are available today in stores and online!

Curtain Up!
A Book for Young Performers

By Dirk McLean
Illustrated by France Brassard
ISBN 978-0-88776-899-6
US $17.95 / CAN $19.99
Ages 6-8
“…the illustrator gives Amaya… distinctive features and an appropriately big personality….” – Kirkus Reviews

Dear Toni
By Cyndi Sand-Eveland
ISBN 978-1-77049-249-3
US $9.95 / CAN $11.99
Ages 8-11
Now in paperback!
“Gene dreads the 100-day journal-writing assignment her teacher has given the class. Mr. Mackenzie wants to lock the journals in the town’s museum vault for 40 years for future sixth graders to read. Gene has trouble writing to someone who isn’t even born yet, but little by little, Dear Nobody becomes Dear Somebody, who evolves into Dear Toni.” – Best Books for Kids & Tweens 2009, Junior Fiction, The Canadian Children’s Book Centre

Gunner
Hurrican Horse
By Judy Andrekson
ISBN 978-0-88776-905-4
US $7.95 / CAN $8.99
Ages 8-11
PBJ Decks Smokin Gun (Gunner) is an American Paint Horse, one of the many of Heather Lott Goodwin’s herd, and a valuable show animal that won the World Championship Paint Horse title. When Hurricane Katrina passed over the Goodwin property, it took with it the fences, the cattle, and several horses. Heather and her family lived in their horse trailer for six weeks and considered themselves lucky to have safe, comfortable shelter. After the storm, they searched for the animals and recovered many of them. But three months passed before they located Gunner, a hundred miles away. Gunner’s story is a testament to love and to determination.

Hudson
By Janice Weaver
Illustrated by David Craig
ISBN 978-0-88776-814-9
US $22.95 / CAN $24.99
Ages 8-12
“Failure is not usually at the heart of an exciting adventure story, but this dramatic picture-book biography about Henry Hudson … makes the explorer’s lack of success a gripping read…. Craig’s glowing period portraits, landscapes, and watercolors of the ship in dangerous seas intensify the drama….” – Starred Review, Booklist

Humpty Dumpty and Friends
Nursery Rhymes for the Young at Heart
Illustrated by Oleg Lipchenko
ISBN 978-1-77049-205-9
US $17.95 / CAN $19.99
Ages 3-6
“The highly detailed and surreal nature of Lipchenko’s illustrations will keep readers poring over the pages.” – Publishers Weekly

Splinters
By Kevin Sylvester
ISBN 978-0-88776-944-3
US $17.95 / CAN $19.99
Ages 6-8
“Whether you are adding to your Cinderella story collection or looking for a story with a strong female role-model, snap this one up. Author, illustrator, and sports broadcaster Kevin Sylvester has created a winner…. Sylvester’s playful watercolour and pencil illustrations are full of action and emotion, adding just the right amount of detail to support the story line for young readers…. All of the archetypes are cleverly illustrated in this version of Cinderella on ice. Splinters may become a Canadian classic. Highly Recommended.” – CM Magazine

Pub Date Giveaway: Which book would you love to get your hands on? Leave us a comment below and one lucky reader will receive a copy of their requested book, courtesy of Tundra! One request per person please. This offer ends on Wednesday, September 15th, 2010!

Day 2: Festival of Trees 2010

Here we are at day 2 (click here for Day 1) of the Forest of Reading’s Festival of Trees! Today we attended all three Silver Birch Award ceremonies to cheer for our authors and illustrators.

The day starts off with the Silver Birch Award’s Nonfiction category. Mark Thurman is busy watching the presenters talk about the authors. *Waving to the creators of Alien Invaders* Jane Drake spots us in the first photo and then Ann Love does!

Alien Invaders didn’t win, but congratulations to Larry Verstraete, his book At the Edge did!

Next up, Shane Peacock’s Death in the Air was nominated in the Silver Birch Award’s Fiction category.

Death in the Air didn’t win, but congratulations to Robert Paul Weston, his book Zorgamazoo did!

The last ceremony of the day, we had two nominees for the Silver Birch Award’s Express category. Cary Fagan with Ten Lessons for Kaspar Snit and Cyndi Sand-Eveland’s Dear Toni. Will we win anything?

Drumrolls and the finalists are announced, both of our authors are in it! Congratulations to Cary Fagan, Ten Lessons for Kaspar Snit was named a Silver Birch Express Honour Book! Listen to the scream, cheers, and chants!

Wait for it… Cyndi Sand-Eveland’s Dear Toni is the winner of the Silver Birch Express Award!!!

Doesn’t the award look great?

The instant stardom!

Congratulations to all our authors and illustrators, thank you to each and every one of you for coming out to the festival and the award ceremony! Most of all, thank you to all the readers who voted!

Sweet Congratulations

The Information Book Award Winner of the 2009/2010 Red Cedar Book Awards is…

Sweet! The Delicious Story of Candy
Written by Ann Love and Jane Drake
Illustrated by Claudia Dávila
Trade Paperback | 64 pages
Ages 9-12
ISBN: 978-0-88776-962-7

Through time and across continents, stories of sweets and their inventors intrigue and entertain us. Learn about primal sweets — from honey, sweet milk, and nuts to sugar candy, chocolate, and “sweet” stories of success.

Sweet! The Delicious Story of Candy takes us through history from 4,000 B.C., when islanders in Papua New Guinea cut sugarcane for its sap, and 2,600 B.C., when the first-known beekeepers produced honey to embalm the dead, to 500 A.D., when the Chinese made pear and plum syrups from unripe fruit, and all the way through to the world’s first chocoholics and modern-day candy factories.

From cravings to the scoop on ice cream, Ann Love and Jane Drake present a comprehensive and irresistible story of candy through the ages, complemented by a detailed timeline and playful illustrations from artist Claudia Dávila.

Congratulations to Ann Love, Jane Drake, and Claudia Dávila! To prove that they know what they’re doing, look who’s been nominated for next year’s award!

2010-2011 Red Cedar Information Book Nominees:
Alien Invaders: Species that threaten our world
Written by Jane Drake and Ann Love
Illustrated by Mark Thurman

2010-2011 Red Cedar Fiction Nominees:
Dear Toni
Written by Cyndi Sand-Eveland

2010 Silver Birch Express Nominee

We have another video clip today. Dear Toni is nominated for the Silver Birch Express Award!

Cyndi Sand-Eveland created a video clip – watch her sketch and read from Dear Toni:

The winner of the Silver Birch Express Award will be announced at the Festival of Trees, taking place on May 12-13, 2010 at the Harbourfront Centre. For more information, visit the Forest of Reading website. Vote for Dear Toni!

Dear ToniDear Toni
By Cyndi Sand-Eveland
ISBN 978-88776-876-7
Hardcover
136 Pages
Ages 8-11

2010 SYRCA Willow Awards

The following Tundra books are nominated for the 2010 Saskatchewan Young Readers’ Choice Award:

Bird Child
By Nan Forler
Illustrated by François Thisdale
ISBN 978-0-88776-894-1
Hardcover
32 Pages
Nominated in the Shining Willow category (kindergarten – grade 3)
Bullying and the ability to rise above it are at the heart of this strikingly beautiful picture book. All school-aged children have either bullied, been bullied, or witnessed bullying, and all too often, they feel powerless to stop what has been set in motion.

Dear Toni
By Cyndi Sand-Eveland
ISBN 978-0-88776-876-7
Hardcover
136 Pages
Nominated in the Diamond Willow category (grades 4-6)
When sixth-grader Gene Tucks moves south, she dreads being the new kid at school and almost everything else about her life as a “nobody.” But what she dreads most is the hundred-day journal-writing assignment her teacher has given the class. His brilliant idea is to have the journals locked in the town museum’s vault for forty years so that future grade-sixers can read them.

Word Nerd
By Susin Nielsen
ISBN 978-0-88776-875-0
Hardcover
256 Pages
Nominated in the Snow Willow category (grades 7-9)
In this brilliantly observed novel, author Susin Nielsen transports the reader to the world of competitive Scrabble as seen from the honest yet funny viewpoint of a boy who’s searching for acceptance and for a place to call home.

The Saskatchewan Young Readers’ Choice Award allows over 10,000 students and young adults to read and vote for their favorite books. Award winners will be announced at a gala that will be held in the spring. For more info on the SYRCA Willow Awards, please visit www.willowawards.ca.

Congratulations to the abovementioned authors and illustrator!