Tundra Telegram: Books You’ll Wish Tripped and Fell Into Your Bed

Hello, and thanks for joining us at Tundra Telegram, the column where we step forward into a few subjects that are always talked about, and filter out some great books that are really good 4 u.

This past Friday, young singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo released her highly anticipated second album, GUTS, a couple months after the release of lead single “Vampire” and just one month after the release of “Bad Idea Right?” (A song title which the editors within us feel really should have a comma.) The album is a new collection of pop-punk anthems and over-the-top ballads about some of her (and our) favorite things: awful boys, awkwardness, self-loathing, and parties you want to leave.

We’ve listened (and re-listened) to GUTS to figure out what books for young readers are the most logical fit for the twelve (non-hidden) tracks of the album. Without further ado, we present book accompaniments to Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS, from picture books to YA – something we think is a good idea. Right?

PICTURE BOOKS

Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl”: A song all about social anxiety, awkwardness, and the fear that everything you do is inherently embarrassing? That reminds us of Are You Mad At Me? by Tyler Feder and Cody Feder, a picture book about an extremely nervous ostrich who constantly worries she’s doing the wrong thing and that someone is mad at her. This results in a neck movement that Opal the ostrich calls “The Noodles.” (Note to Olivia Rodrigo: “Noodle Ballad” also has a nice ring to it.)

The Grudge”: While the song is mostly about a friendship of sorts marked by betrayal and manipulation, we’d like to focus on the difficulty the narrator has in forgiving and forgetting the damage done. Hence, we recommend Petal the Angry Cow by Maureen Fergus and Olga Demidova, a book about a cow who flies into a rage no matter the grievance, whether the horse steps on her foot or the dog steals her favorite chapeau. Petal seeks advice on how to let go of grudges, and it turns out the farm’s goose is not the best animal to turn to. (Though if online detectives are to be believed regarding the song’s inspiration, we could also recommend Taylor Swift: A Little Golden Book Biography by Wendy Loggia and Elisa Chavarri, but we try not to buy into internet rumors.)

Logical”: Rodrigo’s ballad about self-delusion (and now you got me thinkin’ / two plus two equals five) and a manipulative boyfriend may seem a far cry from Minh Lê and Raissa Figuero’s picture book about an imaginary friend, Real To Me, but the parallels are there! (Others tried to tell me that she wasn’t real, that she was just imaginary.) Both are portraits of the lies we tell ourselves (even if, as in the case of the book, they are happy ones) and how to move past them.

Making the Bed”: You might think it’s difficult to find a picture book that matches the emotions of ennui and dissatisfaction with fame heard in “Making the Bed,” but that’s where you’re wrong. Arthur Who Wrote Sherlock by Linda Bailey and Isabelle Follath is not just a biography of Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the world’s greatest detective, but an account of the author’s struggles with the success of Sherlock and how he felt trapped by his own creation’s popularity.

CHAPTER BOOKS & MIDDLE GRADE

Vampire”: So, the song isn’t about a literal vampire (though the subject apparently only comes out at night), but we couldn’t waste an opportunity to mention a wonderful middle-grade book about the real thing: Don’t Want To Be Your Monster by Deke Moulton. Neither of the vampire brothers in the humorous horror-mystery are as sociopathic as the guy in “Vampire,” but they do remain bloodsuckers.

Pretty Isn’t Pretty”: This is a song about impossible beauty standards for women and girls, and the devastating self-image problems that usually result. Unfortunately, there are a lot of stories with those elements, but Barely Floating by Lilliam Rivera is perhaps the most uplifting. Natalia De La Cruz Rivera y Santiago is part of a synchronized swimming team, the LA Mermaids, but is often underestimated in a sport where girls are expected to be thin and white. Barely Floating explores what it means to be at home in your own skin (even when you’re underwater).

Get Him Back!”: Who doesn’t love a song with an exclamation mark?(!) And this pop-punk track about trying to win a boy back who’s probably bad for you certainly deserves the punctuation. While the titular Penny in Penny Draws a Best Friend by Sara Shepard isn’t trying to win back a boy, she is trying to figure out why her former best friend Violet is avoiding her and hanging out with all the meanest girls in school. It’s a book about letting go of friends who aren’t right for you and making room for others who are.

Teenage Dream”: Not to be confused with the Katy Perry hit, this song was written by an actual teenager. The subject is birthdays and the conflicting emotions of feeling simultaneously too young and too old. Those are resolutely not the conflicting emotions at play in Megabat and the Not-Happy Birthday by Anna Humphrey and Kass Reich, but the book is all about mixed birthday emotions. In the book, those feelings are about hating your new glasses and getting into a big fight with your mostly-verbal bat friend (two specific feelings the singer-songwriter doesn’t touch on).

YOUNG ADULT

All-American B—h”: Finally, we enter the world of YA, a perfect age category for the oeuvre of Olivia Rodrigo. The opening song, which speaks to the unachievable double standards facing women and girls, has a title inspired by the writing of Joan Didion. Tragically, Didion never wrote children’s books or YA, but we think a good pairing for this track is On the Subject of Unmentionable Things by Julia Walton, in which rule-following goody-two-shoes Phoebe Townsend lives a secret life as a sex education blogger who raises the ire of a local mayoral candidate who is all-too-keen to enforce some double standards.

Bad Idea Right?”: This banger is all about the time-honored tradition of reuniting with ex against your better judgment. That immediately made us think of Amanda Woody’s novel They Hate Each Other, in which Jonah and Dylan, who dislike each other immensely but everyone thinks should be together, hook up one wild homecoming night. Mutually horrified, they decide to fake-date, so they can end their relationship with a big, staged fight to prove their incompatibility to everyone else. One can only imagine what kind of idea that is.

Love is Embarrassing”: A song that explores the mortifying experiences of young love and how that affects your feelings of self-worth and mental state can find few better matches than Something More by Jackie Khalilieh. Diagnosed as autistic before the school year begins, fifteen-year-old Palestinian Canadian Jessie finds herself romantically entangled with two very different boys that – especially given her difficulties with certain social cues – often leaves her reeling and confused.

Lacy”: “Lacy” is a lyrically intriguing song that looks at a relationship between two female friends that blurs the line between love and hate, envy and total worship. In many ways the song reminds us of the fraught friendship between Beth and the beautiful, magnetic, but perhaps untrustworthy Edie in the 1983 New York coming-of-age tale Friends Like These by Meg Rosoff.

National Intern Day

July 27th is National Intern Day! To celebrate, we reached out to our colleagues here at Penguin Random House Canada, who were once interns, to learn more about their experiences and to share them and their fun memories with you! Happy National Intern Day to all interns past and present!

Megan Costa
Internship: Publicity ’22
Currently: Marketing & Publicity Coordinator

“When I started my internship at PRHC I really didn’t know what to expect, but it was an incredible experience. I was able to develop my skills in marketing and publicity as well as assist on meaningful work and projects. I was given the freedom to take initiative to improve processes and workflow and opportunities to assist with author events and media. One of the biggest highlights of my internship was all the people I met along the way, especially those within my intern cohort. It was wonderful meeting other people who share a lot of interests as me (books!) who are also learning how to navigate the workplace for the first time. It’s a nice reminder that I’m not alone and I have a whole group of friends I can turn to who are going through similar things.”

Megan (right) and Olivia (middle) posing in front of the Penguin Classics mural with a fellow intern.

Olivia Carter
Internship: Appetite Editorial ’22
Currently: Appetite Editorial Assistant

“I started as an intern at PRHC almost exactly a year ago. My personal experience was on the heels of another internship with a smaller Toronto publishing house. What I enjoyed at PRHC is that I was able to expand so many different skills that I wasn’t previously exposed to. The fast-paced nature of our jobs means a lot of learning-as-we-go and the opportunity to try your hand at many different tasks. I learned more in my six month internship than I did previously in a year and a half of publishing school and interning elsewhere. The most valuable part of the experience was sharing it with the other interns in my cohort. We became close friends, and we still rely on each other; especially those of us who are still with the company. I would have had a much harder time if I didn’t have the other interns to learn and grow with. They truly make the entire experience, and your cohort brings the added benefit of learning what other imprints and departments are like. It’s a very well-rounded internship program, and I’m very grateful for the friends I made through it.”

Stephanie Ehmann
Internship: Kids Marketing & Publicity ’22
Currently: Kids Marketing & Publicity Coordinator

“I was chosen to be a Kids Marketing & Publicity intern at Tundra Books for Summer/Fall of 2022 and I’ve been here ever since! I came into the internship knowing I wanted to work in kids publishing, I just didn’t know if I wanted to work in marketing or publicity. The internship was phenomenal in a way that I got to experience the day to day of each of the different directions and make a decision from there. The kids M&P team is also fabulous. When I first started, the team consisted of Sylvia Chan, Samantha Devotta and Evan Munday and then grew when Anthony de Ridder and Julia Wigdor joined shortly after. They all welcomed me with open arms, and now I never want to leave. I’m one of the few people that didn’t live in Toronto for the duration of the internship (where the Penguin Random House Canada offices are), but I was able to fly in for a few days and meet everyone in person. I got to meet my close team and a few people from my intern cohort, and my team even threw a little pizza party to welcome me in person. It really made me feel like part of the team.”

Stephanie (bottom right) with the Kids Marketing & Publicity team celebrating Narwhalidays!

Charlotte Nip
Internship: Appetite Editorial and Lifestyle Marketing ’19
Currently: Marketing Coordinator

“I’m so grateful for my internship at Penguin Random House Canada, and I cannot express how it’s opened my eyes and publishing doors. It can be daunting to not know anyone or anything when you first work in publishing, but my internship at Appetite by Random House (an imprint of PRHC) has been one of the most meaningful and fulfilling experiences, introducing me to different industry professionals across all facets of publishing. I’ve been able to learn from incredible managers, both in editorial and marketing, meet/work alongside the fabulous authors we acquire, and connect with a cohort of interns who have become my closest friends and work wives. Happy Intern Day to my fellow ex-interns!”

Sam Devotta
Internship: Tundra Books Editorial ’14
Currently: Senior Associate, Kids Marketing & Publicity

“When I started my editorial internship at Tundra in November 2014, I had no idea where I wanted to end up in the industry. By the time I finished my internship six months later, I knew that no matter what department I fell into, I wanted to be at Tundra. It was my second of three internships and it was the only one where I truly felt like I was part of team – from reading slush pile and writing reader’s reports to helping out at the OLA Super Conference and all the little things in between, I fit right in. I loved the people (my internship supervisor, Sylvia, is now my boss!) and the gorgeous books and being offered a position as an associate publicist in September 2017 was a dream come true.”

Sam (right) recreating the look of the character named after her from If I Had a Gryphon.

Sylvia Chan
Internship: Tundra Books Publicity ’07
Currently: Associate Director, Kids Marketing & Publicity

“I was luckily chosen to be a Publicity Intern at Tundra Books and it was such a fun experience! I followed Kate Newman (currently at Indigo) and Pamela Osti (currently at Harlequin) around, helping with tasks, and even preparing for Tundra’s 40th anniversary! Right away, they could see that I liked art and design and had me designing press releases and posters. I learned a lot about children’s book publicity and event planning and made many new friends that are still in the industry today. The former Publisher at Tundra Books, Kathy Lowinger, would arrange these bookseller lunches where our entire team would go pick up lunch and visit a bookstore to chat with the owner and booksellers. I remember getting to go once, we picked up fish and chips and headed to Mabel’s Fables Children’s Bookstore. We were all sitting in a circle eating and chatting about books and the publishing industry!”

Continue the National Intern Day celebration with Friends Like These by Meg Rosoff!

Friends Like These
By Meg Rosoff
208 Pages | Ages 14+ | Paperback
ISBN 9781774881101 | Tundra Books
New York City. Summer 1983. A summer internship in New York was meant to be everything Beth wanted. But from the moment she arrives in the city she feels wrong: wrong hair, terrible clothes, defective smile, too obviously a virgin. Sharing a hot, cockroach-filled apartment with a couple falling out of love completes the dream picture. Then she meets her fellow interns: ambitious out-of-towner Dan, preppy rich boy Oliver, and Edie – a beautiful, brittle, magnetic, instant best friend. Irresistible people are like gravity. You can’t help being pulled towards them – can you?

Tuesdays with Tundra

Tuesdays with Tundra is an ongoing series featuring our new releases. These titles are now available in stores and online!

Friends Like These
By Meg Rosoff
208 Pages | Ages 14+ | Paperback
ISBN 9781774881101 | Tundra Books
New York City. Summer 1983. A summer internship in New York was meant to be everything Beth wanted. But from the moment she arrives in the city she feels wrong: wrong hair, terrible clothes, defective smile, too obviously a virgin. Sharing a hot, cockroach-filled apartment with a couple falling out of love completes the dream picture. Then she meets her fellow interns: ambitious out-of-towner Dan, preppy rich boy Oliver, and Edie – a beautiful, brittle, magnetic, instant best friend. Irresistible people are like gravity. You can’t help being pulled towards them – can you?

Friends Like These is also available today in Audiobook!

New in Audio:

The Scaredy Squirrel Collection
By Melanie Watt
Read by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan
1 hour | Audiobook
ISBN 9781770499485 | Tundra Books
Now presenting seven Scaredy Squirrel adventures in one audiobook collection!
The Scaredy Squirrel Collection includes:
Scaredy Squirrel
Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend
Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach
Scaredy Squirrel at Night
Scaredy Squirrel Has a Birthday Party
Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping
Scaredy Squirrel Visits the Doctor

We can’t wait to see you reading and listening to these titles! If you share these books online, remember to use #ReadTundra in your hashtags so that we can re-post.

Cover Reveal: Friends Like These

Tundra is excited to be publishing Friends Like These on May 30, 2023! Acclaimed author Meg Rosoff delivers a gritty novel about a summer of firsts: independence, lies, love, and the loss of innocence.

Cover Design: Kate Sinclair

Friends Like These
By Meg Rosoff
208 Pages | Ages 14+ | Paperback
ISBN 9781774881101 | Tundra Book Group
Release Date: May 30, 2023
New York City. Summer 1983. A summer internship in New York was meant to be everything Beth wanted. But from the moment she arrives in the city she feels wrong: wrong hair, terrible clothes, defective smile, too obviously a virgin. Sharing a hot, cockroach-filled apartment with a couple falling out of love completes the dream picture. Then she meets her fellow interns: ambitious out-of-towner Dan, preppy rich boy Oliver, and Edie – a beautiful, brittle, magnetic, instant best friend. Irresistible people are like gravity. You can’t help being pulled towards them – can you?

Also by Meg Rosoff:

The Great Godden
By Meg Rosoff
256 Pages | Ages 14+ | Paperback
ISBN 9780735268319 | Penguin Teen Canada
This is the story of one family, one dreamy summer. . . . In a holiday house by the sea, our watchful narrator sees everything, including many things they shouldn’t, as their brother and sisters, parents, and older cousins fill hot days with wine and games and planning a wedding. Enter two brothers: irresistible, charming, languidly sexy Kit and surly, silent Hugo. Suddenly there’s a serpent in this paradise – and the consequences will be devastating.

Tundra Telegram: Books That Are Hot Tropics

Hello, and thanks for joining us at Tundra Telegram, the column where we dip into the subjects on readers’ minds, and recommend some lush literature for young readers to dive into.

This coming weekend, it’s time for Hollywood rom-com fans to rejoice. That’s because two of the titans of the genre, Julia Roberts and George Clooney, are returning for the major motion picture Ticket to Paradise, directed by the man who brought us Pierce Brosnan dancing in the Greek islands in Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again. The actors star as a divorced couple who decide to team up to sabotage the impending wedding of their daughter in Bali (so sweet!). Will they fall back in love?!

In anticipation of what we hope will be a return to form, we’re recommending some books that bring the characters to a tropical paradise for their adventures. It seemed like a pleasant thing to do, with many cities in North America having already experienced their first snowfalls. Bon voyage!

PICTURE BOOKS

A summer in Japan may not technically qualify as “tropical,” but there are plenty of hot sandy beaches and summer festivals featured in Natsumi’s Song of Summer by Robert Paul Weston and Misa Saburi. Two young cousins who are separated by language, continent, and culture – Jill and Natsumi – meet for the first time when Jill’s family travels from America to Japan to stay with Natsumi’s family during the summer holidays. Is it a ticket to paradise? Only if your idea of paradise includes reunions with faraway family and friends . . . and cicadas!

Most people consider Hapuna Beach in Hawaii a paradise on earth, but for Claire, the protagonist of Snow Angel, Sand Angel by Lois-Ann Yamanaka and Ashley Lukashevsky, it’s a little lacking because she has never seen snow! So, her father drives her and her family to the top of Mauna Kea to see snow in person, but it’s not the holiday wintertime she’s seen in books and movies. Claire decides to celebrate winter on the Big Island the tropical way in this book that celebrates the environment and culture of Hawaii.

Islandborn by Junot Diaz and Leo Espinosa is all about a tropical island that young Lola can’t remember, even though she was born on it. But with the help of her family and friends, and their memories – some joyous and fantastical, some heartbreaking and frightening – Lola’s imagination takes her on an extraordinary journey back to The Island, and she learns that just because you don’t remember a place doesn’t mean it’s not in you.

On This Airplane by Lourdes Heuer and Sara Palacios takes place entirely in an airport and airplane – not most people’s idea of paradise. But it’s clear all the passengers are headed somewhere special, and there are few faster ways to get to your ideal vacation spot than by air travel (despite the carbon footprint). And this book reveals a temporary community inside the cabin with passengers who are filled with optimism and bonhomie. If you ever find yourself on a similar flight, you’d have to admit it’s the closest thing to heaven on earth.

CHAPTER BOOKS & MIDDLE GRADE

The “paradise” featured in Turtle in Paradise: The Graphic Novel by Jennifer L. Holm and Savanna Ganucheau happens to be Key West, circa 1935. Turtle is a tough eleven-year-old who is sent to live with relatives in The Sunshine State when her mom gets a housekeeping job that doesn’t allow for children. In the humid Florida environment, surrounded by rambunctious boy cousins, Turtle finds her world opening up in ways she couldn’t expect.

The paradise of a California beach is where Kaia and her family live in Any Day with You by Mae Respicio – all the more idyllic because it’s near the center of the filmmaking industry she longs to be a part of. Kaia and her friends spend a summer working on a short movie inspired by Filipino folktales, and conscript her beloved Tatang (great-grandfather) in the process, as he told her those tales. But there’s trouble in paradise: Tatang wants to return to his homeland in his own personal paradise: The Philippines.

Inspired by the author’s childhood, Kereen Getten’s When Life Gives You Mangos is a celebration of island life, set in a small village on a Jamaican island. Some people think of it as an exotic paradise, but Jamaica isn’t exotic to Clara. The only thing strange and different for Clara is that something happened to her memory that made her forget everything that happened last summer after a hurricane hit. This is paradise with a shocking twist ending!

The Fitzgerald-Trouts by Esta Spalding and illustrated by Sydney Smith and Lee Gatlin (depending on the book) is a book series about a band of four loosely related children living together on a lush tropical island. They take care of themselves. They sleep in their car, bathe in the ocean, eat fish they catch and fruit they pick, and can drive (that very same car) anywhere they need to go. It might sound like paradise to any kid, but real contentment would come if they found a permanent home.

When is a paradise not a paradise? When you’re in Bermuda, but can’t enjoy the weather and foliage because you’re being chased by Nazi agents. That’s the situation George finds himself in Camp X: Trouble in Paradise the tropical installment of history-based spy series by Eric Walters. George and his entire family are now working for Little Bill and his team of spies on the island, but brothers George and Jack aren’t on vacation: they continue their secret missions, foiling Nazi conspiracies that would put the lives of thousands of people in jeopardy.

YOUNG ADULT

The setting is just a typical summer camp in Kasie West’s Sunkissed, but it is in California, so that’s warm enough for us. This is a swoony romance title set at a family resort. That resort quickly becomes paradise when Avery – having a rough few months and dreading summer with her family – meets the mysterious, charming resort staff member Brooks.

Maybe the English seaside is far from tropical, but the hazy, dreamy summer during which The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff takes place could certainly be considered a wonderland – and a steamy one at that. A family on holiday is visited by the mysterious Godden brothers from Los Angeles, and many romantic entanglements follow in this coming-of-age tale about serpents released into paradise.

Jesse Q. Sutanto’s Well, That Was Unexpected is the most relevant title on this list as it partially takes place in Bali, the location of Ticket to Paradise. And, like the movie, it’s a comedic rom-com featuring George Clooney (!). Sharlot Citra, is whisked away from her native LA to her mother’s country, Indonesia, after a scandalous embarrassment. In Indonesia, she finds herself roped into dating George Clooney . . . Tanuwijaya, that is, the wealthy son of a celebrity-obsessed father, who is obviously a fan of the silver fox.

Happy reading, friends!