Joanne Schwartz – Page 2 – Tundra Book Group

June 16, 2009May 7, 2025

A Roundup of Ten Questions with…

Open Book Toronto is a great literary resource about publishing, books, authors, illustrators, and events. The wonderful team at Open Book Toronto interviewed some of our Spring 2009 authors and illustrators. Many, many, many thanks to Clelia, Amy, and Shannon for their hard work! Click on the links below to read Open Book Toronto’s Ten Questions with:

Stay tuned for interviews from our Fall 2009 authors and illustrators!

June 10, 2009May 7, 2025

Guest Post: Laura Beingessner

Today’s guest post is from Laura Beingessner! Laura is the illustrator of Our Corner Grocery Store, written by Joanne Schwartz. Her illustrations have been described as: “folksy” (starred review, School Library Journal), “charming” (CM Magazine), “wonderfully detailed” (Kirkus Reviews), and “glow[s] warmly” (Booklist).

Laura Beingessner: Our corner Grocery Store was a joy to draw. It took me back to my own childhood. Going to the Corner Store for a freezie was always a highlight for me on a hot summer day.

This is Joanne and I on the day of our book launch. We look like we just had a freezie.

Here I am at a Hillcrest school doing an activity with kids. They coloured and pasted up their own corner store picture.

May 26, 2009May 7, 2025

A TINARS Weekend

On Saturday, it was “Look Again Day” at This Is Not A Reading Series for Tots, presented by Pages Books & Magazines, Bunch, Gladstone Hotel, and the Little Paper. Marla Stewart Konrad presented her two books, Getting There and Mom and Me:

Also at TINARS for Tots that day was Rebecca Upjohn presenting Lily And The Paper Man and there was a tribute to Tomi Ungerer of The Three Robbers & Moon Man.

Then on Sunday, it was the TINARS Literary Arcade! TINARS set up listening stations in the ballroom of the Gladstone Hotel as part of Doors Open Toronto. Featured authors and illustrators included: Joanne Schwartz, Laura Beingessner, Claudia Dey, Lisa Foad, Stacey May Fowles, Hilary Leung & David Bruins, Ibi Kaslik, Damian Rogers, Zoe Whitall, and Nathan Whitlock.

May 22, 2009May 7, 2025

Window Display and Weekend Events

Check out the window display at Pages Books & Magazines, located at 256 Queen Street West, Toronto, M5V 1Z8. Photos courtesy of Pages Books & Magazine.

This is going to be a busy weekend for Toronto!

From 10:00-1:00pm on Saturday May 23, Pages Books will be hosting “Look Again Day” for TINARS for Tots at the Gladstone Hotel. Doors open at 9:30am, so get there early for a good seat! Marla Stewart Konrad will be presenting Getting There and Mom and Me.

Then, as part of Lit City and Doors Open Toronto, two of our authors will be reading at Canada’s National Ballet School. On Sunday May 24, at 11:00am, we have Linda Maybarduk (former Soloist with The National Ballet of Canada) reading James the Dancing Dog. Right after at 11:30am, Cary Fagan will be reading Beyond the Dance (co-authored with The National Ballet of Canada Principal Dancer, Chan Hon Goh). At 12:30pm Veronica Tennant reads from On Stage Please.

Another event hosted by Pages Books is the TINARS Literary Arcade this weekend! This will also be part of Doors Open Toronto on May 24 from 12:00 to 4:00pm at the Gladstone Hotel. Joanne Schwartz and Laura Beingessner of Our Corner Grocery Store fame will be in attendance!

April 26, 2009May 7, 2025

Launch of: Our Corner Grocery Store

In a city inundated with giant, gleaming supermarkets, Toronto’s old-style neighbourhood corner store may be nearly extinct.

But there’s no hint of decline at the impressively cluttered greengrocer located in the tiny front room of a house near Hillcrest Park, in the St. Clair West area. Every weekday at lunch, the 20-by-20-foot shop, owned by Domenico Cozzi, 76, and his wife Rosa, 77, is overrun with ravenous school kids, who swarm in to buy Mr. Cozzi’s salami and provolone sandwiches, pop and candy….

In recent weeks, regular patrons have noticed that the Cozzis have been even more upbeat than usual. The reason: Their modest business, purchased with the house for $33,000 back in 1966, has become the subject of a new children’s book, Our Corner Grocery Store (Tundra), illustrated by Laura Beingessner.

– John Lorinc, The Globe and Mail

The publication of Joanne Schwartz and Laura Beingessner’s new picture book, Our Corner Grocery Store, was celebrated on Saturday, April 25, 2009. Since the book is such a local story, Joanne Schwartz hosted a neighbourhood event at her home. Our Corner Grocery Store is based on Domenico’s grocery store which is located at 134 Tyrrel Avenue, Toronto. Domenico Cozzi and his wife Rosa, owners of the actual corner grocery store, came to celebrate the book’s release.

Laura Beingessner signing Our Corner Grocery Store. Look at the line-up of readers!

Joanne’s turn to sign!

Reading Our Corner Grocery Store in the front yard.

Joanne Schwartz and Laura Beingessner thank everyone for coming. Thank you Domenico and Rosa for your inspirations and to everyone who came out and made the event such as success! Can you spot Domenico’s smiling face in the photo above? Also, thank you to John Lorinc for attending and writing the wonderful piece in The Globe and Mail.