Tundra Telegram: Books to Geek Out Over

Hello, and thanks for joining us at Tundra Telegram, the column where we draw on topics that we’re all fanboying and fangirling over, and recommend some books to keep the excitement onward and upward.

Unless you have curated a completely geek-free social media feed, you know that last weekend the San Diego Comic-Con took over southern California, wrapping up on July 24, and previewing the biggest and newest things in comic books, science fiction, video games, and much more. Whether you were more thrilled to see the trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever or Sarah Michelle-Gellar making a surprise appearance at the Teen Wolf panel, the return of Comic-Con had a little something for everyone.

To mark the occasion, we’re recommending books that are not comic books themselves, nor do they feature comic characters (like the great DC Icons YA series). Instead, they are books about comic books, RPGs, and fandoms. Get your geek on, and find your next great read below!

PICTURE BOOKS

For some comic book fans, no matter their age, there are few words as thrilling as There’s a Superhero in Your Book, which is the title of a book by Tom Fletcher and Greg Abbott. Even better, this picture book is interactive, so young readers can enjoy tapping, stretching, and whizzing this book around as they help the superhero defeat the villain and save the day – while discovering the real superpower of kindness.

If that sounds a bit too stimulating for your young reader, we can recommend Even Superheroes Have to Sleep by Sara Crow and Adam Record. Little kids will enjoy this rhyming story that tricks lulls them into bedtime with the promise that all their heroes are getting tucked into bed, too. (You know Sleepwalker loves his shut-eye!) And there’s a companion book called Even Superheroes Use the Potty where you can (maybe?) learn how Iron Man goes to the washroom in that suit!

If the young readers in your life are wild about superhero movies and games, they may relate to the main character of Max and the Superheroes by Rocio Bonilla and Oriol Malet. Max and his friends love learning about superheroes and their superpowers. Everyone has a favorite, and Max’s is Megapower: she’s brave, tames animals, has x-ray vision, is super smart, can fly – and just happens to be Max’s mom. (So it’s perfect for Mother’s Day, as well.)

And for something a little different, you can learn about the origins of gaming with Blips on a Screen by Kate Hannigan and Zachariah OHora. It’s a picture book biography about Ralph Baer, a Jewish refugee who pioneered home video games and launched a worldwide obsession. Considered the “Father of Video Games,” there’d be no Xbox or Nintendo Switch without him!

CHAPTER BOOKS & MIDDLE GRADE

Where would the MCU be without Stan Lee, the writer who co-created many of Marvel’s signature characters? Find out more, true believers, in Who Was Stan Lee? by Geoff Edgers and John Hinderliter, a book that chronicles how a kid from the Bronx created a comic book empire (with more than a little help from Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and a roster of talented artists).

What if you’re at the stage that you want to start – like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby – to make your own comics? You might like Doodleville by Chad Sell. Yes, it is a graphic novel, but it’s also about young artists in the school’s art club and the power of creativity: specifically, how one member’s (Drew’s) artistic creations come to life and wreak havoc on the other kids’ drawings of heroes.

Or maybe they would like Stephen Shaskan’s Pizza and Taco: Super-Awesome Comic, in which the beloved anthropomorphic foodstuffs decide to collaborate on a comic book, but must overcome their deep-seated artistic differences to make a great story.

But if your young readers would like something a little more hands-on, you’ll want Jess Smart Smiley’s Let’s Make Comics: An Activity Book to Create, Write, and Draw Your Own Cartoons. This is this an honest-to-goodness, all-ages activity book that makes use of humorous and informative one-page comics and exercise prompts to guide young readers through easy-to-master lessons on the skills needed to make comics. By the time you’re done, you’ll have a bunch of short comics under your belt – and it even comes recommended by Narwhal and Jelly creator Ben Clanton!

What’s more appropriate than a novel that takes place at a comic convention? Marthe Jocelyn, Richard Scrimger, and Claudia Davila’s book Viminy Crowe’s Comic Book opens at the Toronto comic-con, where two very different kids – geek Wylder Wallace and aloof Addy Crowe – find themselves drawn (literally) into the fantastic world of a hit comic book.

Vera Vance: Comics Star by Claudia Mills and Grace Zong, spotlights a third-grader who signs up for a comics camp after-school program, much to the chagrin of her mother. But Vera loves everything comics and starts making her own with the encouragement of friends and the teachers of her camp. And in an inversion of Viminy Crowe, it all leads up to a local comic convention, in which Vera hopes to enter an original comics contest – if only her mother will let her go!

In Stink: Superhero Superfan by Megan McDonald and Peter H. Reynolds, the popular character discovers a box of old comics about a superhero he’s never heard of: Super Gecko! Before long, Stink becomes Super Gecko’s biggest fan. Then he starts receiving mysterious notes signed by Super Gecko himself. Can Stink do some detective work worthy of S.G. and find out who is sending the letters before the Gecko gets a dark and gritty reboot?

A contemporary graphic novel that combines OCD with AD&D, Just Roll with It by Veronica Agarwal and Lee Durfey-Lavoie follows Maggie, who is shy, doesn’t know anyone at her school, and deals with anxiety and OCD. She also loves Dungeons and Dragons (and other role-playing games), so her twenty-sided die (D20, for those in the know) helps her make decisions – just like Two-Face and his lucky quarter in the Batman comics!

And for the young nonfiction comic fan, check out Comics Confidential by Leonard S. Marcus, an anthology of interviews and original comics by today’s foremost graphic novelists (Kazu Kibuishi, Gene Luen Yang, Hope Larson), who talk all about the highs and lows of making comics! It has lots of great advice for young comic writers and illustrators!

YOUNG ADULT

Chaotic Good by Whitney Gardner is like a comic-con Twelfth Night (or She’s the Man, if you prefer). Cameron is a cosplay wizard and aspiring fashion designer. When her costumes win a competition, male fans troll her, accusing her of not being a “real” fan. After a move, she discovers the local comic shop, managed by the exact kind of male gatekeeper who forced her to flee the online world. So she borrows her twin brother’s clothes, poses as a boy, and easily enters the local nerd inner sanctum (and their ongoing D&D game). And things get even more complicated when she develops a crush on one of those D&D adventurers!

If comic-con-adjacent romances are your thing, you need to read Geekerella by Ashley Poston, a fan-fic twist on the Cinderella story about geek girl Ellie Wittimer, the worlds’ biggest fan of sci-fi TV series Starfield who wins a trip to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball and gets to meet a teen actor from the new film reboot, Darien Freeman. Will Ellie hit it off with her Federation Prince? Or will her stepsisters ruin things for her again?

And if you enjoy Geekerella, you might like the follow-up, The Princess and the Fangirl, a geeky take on The Prince and the Pauper! Imogen Lovelace is a fangirl who doesn’t want her favourite Starfield character, Princess Amara, to get killed off. Jessica Stone is the teen actress who plays Amara and wants out of the franchise. And – coincidentally – they look a lot like each other. Parent Trap-style, a deal is struck, but will fans catch on to their scheme?

For more geek love, you need Melissa Keil’s Life in Outer Space, in which self-described, seventeen-year-old Sam Kinnison (no relation) loves horror movies and World of Warcraft and his loser friends. Then a cool girl named Camilla Carter enters his life – she also loves W.O.W., and wants to be Sam’s friend, which throws his life upside-down is this funny love-letter to geeks.

If you want to read some nonfiction from a famous geek girl, then you want The Fangirl’s Guide to the Universe by Sam Maggs, author of numerous comics and video games (and former on-air host for Nerdist). This handbook is packed with tips, playthroughs, and cheat codes for girls into geeks stuff, including how to make nerdy friends, how to rock cosplay, to defeat internet trolls (very important), and how to attend your first con. It includes advice from Sam as well as other fangirl faves like Danielle Paige, Rainbow Rowell, and Preeti Chibber!

See you all in the funny pages!

Tundra Telegram: Books to Verse-Shift-fy Your Shelf

Hello, and thanks for joining us at Tundra Telegram, a column in which we look at the subjects on readers’ minds and recommend some recent great books to continue the discussion.

One movie we can’t stop thinking about – and neither can some of our fellow readers and authors – is the Michelle Yeoh-starring, Daniels-directed action movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once (or EEAAO, for short). The frenetic action-drama-comedy is unlike much else currently on movie screens, but we’re thinking some page-turners might be able to fill the gap. Whether it’s the multiple parallel dimensions, the over-the-top martial arts action, or the multigenerational family conflict that appeals to you most about the film, we’ve got a few book recommendations that “every rejection, every disappointment has led you” to.

PICTURE BOOKS

Let’s face it, there aren’t a ton of picture books about alternate dimensions (yet), but a book that combines family with something a little superhuman – and one that mixes a few tears with laughs and a comic-booky premise, is Minh Lê and Dan Santat’s The Blur, in which a superhuman child zips and zooms through her childhood, with her parents frantically trying to keep up.

If your picture book story times could use a little more fight choreography, you’ll want to check out The Rise (and Falls) of Jackie Chan, a picture book biography of the inimitable action star by Kristen Mai Giang and Alina Chau. Read this book closely enough and you might be able to do what Waymond Wang does with a fanny pack.

And this may be a stretch, but if your favorite part of the movie involved a rock with googly eyes, you should definitely check out Marianna Coppo’s Petra, a picture book about a rock willing to just roll with the circumstances.

MIDDLE GRADE

S. G. Wilson’s Me vs. the Multiverse series (Pleased to Meet Me and Enough about Me) follows Meade Macon, a young boy who learns about the mysteries of the multiverse (and the many Meades), as first revealed to him in the form of a note written on an origami octopus.

Christopher Edge’s science-fiction adventure, The Many Worlds of Albie Bright follows a young boy who grieves the death of his astrophysicist mother by searching for her by universe-hopping to alternate timelines. And in his search, he stumbles upon the answers to life’s most challenging questions. (Seems like a positive side effect.)

For a little Canadian content in your multiverse meanderings, read Downside Up by Richard Scrimger. In it, Fred isn’t grieving his mother, but his dearly departed dog Casey, when he falls down a sewer grate into an alternate universe. In this other version of life, his dog is alive, his mom and sister are happier, and the version of him is happier, too. But something’s not quite as it seems.

We consider tax returns the adult equivalent of homework, so Winnie Zeng Unleashes a Legend by Katie Zhao, featuring a girl tackling school projects, family troubles, and otherworldly chaos follows EEAAO pretty closely plot-wise. Add to that a heroine who must quickly embrace new powers to save the world and you have a legendary book recommendation.

If the blend of family history, queer coming-out story, and the fantastic most appealed to you in the movie, you might like the widely acclaimed graphic novel The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen. Not only are those elements present, so is the generational conflict between first- and second-generation Asian immigrants – and the imagery is just as (googly) eye-opening!

YOUNG ADULT

If, like Evelyn Wang, you have lived a life of some regret, wondering how the many small choices you’ve made led you to where you are now, you’ll want to check out Kristin Cashore’s Jane, Unlimited. The book by the author of the Graceling series follows Jane, a girl with no direction a year out of high school, who is invited to a gala at her family’s island mansion called Tu Reviens. What she doesn’t know is Tu Reviens is a world of infinite choices that will ultimately determine the course of her currently untethered life.

If the Sliding Doorsesque idea of the parallel worlds created by seemingly simple choices intrigues you, may we also suggest Again, Again by TikTok’s favorite author, E. Lockhart? What if there were alternates universes and different version of you, who acted differently and made different choices to the same trying circumstances in life? Could you be braver, happier, lonelier? More in love? Questions that lie at the heart of both the film and this book.

And for reasons that will be clear only to those who have seen Everything Everywhere All at Once in all its bananas glory, we also suggest Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan. (IYKYK!)

Richard and Iain at Camp Penguin

camppenguin_logoEvery 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 Crowes Comic BookViminy 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 TreeThe 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.

Marthe and Chad at Camp Penguin

camppenguin_logoEvery 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 KingdomThe 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.

Viminy Crowes Comic BookViminy 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.

Chris and Claudia at Camp Penguin

camppenguin_logoEvery 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 GregThe 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!

Viminy Crowes Comic BookViminy 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.

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