Tag: Super Conference

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An Intern and a Super Conference

Hello everyone!

It’s Sam the intern and for once, I’m not trying to get you to sign up for my Reading Club (but you should probably check it out anyway!). I’m here to share my experience at the OLA Super Conference.

In my six months working in publishing, I’ve only been to one other conference; all I did was sit quietly behind a table for a few hours while people milled around, glancing at our table but rarely stopping to chat. So I didn’t know what to expect when I stepped into the Metro Toronto Convention Centre last Thursday.

It was a lot more fun than sitting behind a table, let me tell you.

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For one thing, there were so many people! Librarians and library assistants and library sciences students and other people who, I guess, work at libraries in some way.

Hundreds of companies were represented in the hall, and there were tons of author signings. We had five of our own authors signing over two days but, since we shared the booth with the rest of Penguin Random House, there was always a line for someone!

ola collage

We had Frank Viva (Outstanding in the Rain), Charis Cotter (The Swallow: A Ghost Story), Eric Walters (Hope Springs), Susin Nielsen (We Are All Made of Molecules), and Sylvia McNicoll (Best Friends Through Eternity).

I loved the way our booth looked, the brightly coloured picture books made it look super cheerful. And we had DWARFS and disgusting critters decorated all around.

I didn’t really get a chance to wander around the rest of the hall because I was documenting everything on our instagram, though I did pick up a poster and some cute temporary tattoos for me – ahem, I mean for my nieces.

But I got to talk to our authors, which was very exciting! Eric Walters is taller than I expected, which sounds like an odd thing to say, but he can be a little intimidating at 9 am when you haven’t had your tea yet.

I also asked Susin Nielsen to sign my copy of Word Nerd; I recently started reading her books, and I’m completely addicted to them now! If you haven’t read anything by her yet, please do yourself a favour and check her out.

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Word Nerd is about a Scrabble player, so Susin used the letters in my name to come up with smaller words. It was pretty impressive how fast she did it (I know it’s a short name, but still!).

Before I knew it, it was time to pack all our books away so that they could be sent to our next destination: Reading for the Love of it, which happens February 9-10. I’ll be popping in to support our authors, Eric Walters, Richard Scrimger, Margriet Ruurs, and Rina Singh and I can’t wait to find out what goes on over there!

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2014 OLA Super Conference

TundraOLASC
Sorry! Due to technically difficulties, we weren’t able to post this earlier, but it is better late than never! Tundra Books will be exhibiting at the OLA Super Conference this year! Please visit us at booth #716-724 to learn about our new and upcoming books. And, we will be having author signings at our booth! With each author signing, we will be handing out complimentary copies of the title at a first come, first serve basis. So don’t forget! There’s a limited number of signed books to give away!

Natale on Thursday, January 30, 2014 at 10:30 a.m.
MillhouseMillhouse
Written by Natale Ghent
Hardcover | 192 Pages | Ages 7-10
ISBN 978-1-77049-639-2
eBook 978-1-77049-641-5
Fans of the I, Freddy series and Charlotte’s Web will be won over by this charming, delightfully told and illustrated story of a petshop misfit – a hairless guinea pig with a penchant for Shakespeare.

Eric on Thursday, January 30, 2014 at 11:30 a.m.
My Name Is BlessingMy Name Is Blessing
Written by Eric Walters
Illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes
Hardcover | 32 Pages | Ages 6-9
ISBN 978-1-77049-301-8
“This expressive picture book, based on a real family, lovingly tells a hard story with a twist. It’s difficult to broach poverty, disability and custody issues in so few pages without sounding maudlin, but Walters manages by speaking simply…. With dignity and quiet acceptance, this story illustrates that blessings, like family, can take unexpected forms.” – Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews

Marthe on Friday, January 31, 2014 at 10:30 a.m.
What We HideWhat We Hide
Written by Marthe Jocelyn
Hardcover | 288 Pages | Ages 14+
ISBN 978-1-77049-642-2
eBook 978-1-77049-644-6
Jenny and her brother Tom are off to England. Tom to university to dodge the Vietnam draft, Jenny to be the new girl at Illington Hall, which the students call Ill Hall. This is Jenny’s chance to finally be special and stand out, so when she arrives she tells everybody a lie. But in the small world of Ill Hall, everyone has secrets. Jenny pretends she has a boyfriend. Robbie and Luke pretend they don’t. Brenda won’t tell what happened with the school doctor. Percy won’t tell about his famous dad. Oona lies to everyone. Penelope lies only to herself.

Marthe and Richard on Friday, January 31, 2014 at 2:05 p.m
Viminy Crowes Comic BookViminy Crowe’s Comic Book
Written by Marthe Jocelyn and Richard Scrimger
Illustrated by Claudia Davila
Hardcover | 336 Pages | Ages 9-12
ISBN 978-1-77049-479-4
eBook 978-1-77049-480-0
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. 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…

Follow @TundraBooks, @nataleghent, @EricRWalters, @scissorhouse, and @richardscrimger on twitter! You can also follow #OLASC14 for the latest news and updates!

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OLA’s Super Conference 2013

Tundra Books will be exhibiting at the OLA’S Super Conference this year! Please visit us at booth #720 to learn about our new and upcoming books. And, we will be having author signings at our booth! With each author signing, we will be handing out complimentary copies of the title at a first come, first serve basis. So don’t forget! There’s a limited number of signed books to give away!

Thursday, January 31, 2013
Lorna Schultz Nicholson will be signing Puckster’s First Hockey Tournament at 11:00 am.
Pucksters First Hockey TournamentPuckster’s First Hockey Tournament
Written by Lorna Schultz Nicholson
Illustrated by Kelly Findley
Trade Paperback | Ages 4-8 | 24 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-77049-457-2
Puckster is Hockey Canada’s lovable mascot and this polar bear knows everything to know about hockey. His books are perfect entertainment for young hockey fans.

Thursday, January 31, 2013
Marthe Jocelyn will be signing Where Do You Look? at 2:00 pm.
Where Do You LookWhere Do You Look?
Written by Marthe Jocelyn and Nell Jocelyn
Hardcover | Ages 2-5 | 32 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-77049-376-6
In this playful exploration of homonyms, readers will discover the fun they can have with language. Is a wave at a beach? Or at a train station? Is a trunk in a garden? Or on an elephant? Kids will love the juxtaposition of words and meanings, and the detailed collage illustrations will have them coming back again and again.

Friday, February 1, 2013
Roy MacGregor will be signing Face-Off at the Alamo at 10:00 am.
Face-Off at the AlamoFace-Off at the Alamo
Written by Roy MacGregor
Trade Paperback | Ages 8-11 | 176 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-77049-418-3
“How do you get reluctant boy readers interested in books? Long-time Globe and Mail columnist Roy MacGregor seems to have figured out a solution to that perennial problem with his Screech Owls series, which marries hockey with mystery and adventure. As in previous instalments, the book chronicles the adventures of a small-town Ontario hockey team as it travels around the world for tournaments. This time, Travis, Sarah, Nish, and the gang are bound for Texas. As usual, there’s more than just hockey occupying the kids, who discover a plot to destroy the titular landmark.” – Quill & Quire

Friday, February 1, 2013
Shane Peacock will be signing Becoming Holmes at 1:00 pm.
Becoming HolmesBecoming Holmes
The Boy Sherlock Holmes, His Final Case
Written by Shane Peacock
Hardcover | Ages 10-14 | 264 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-77049-232-5
“…What an ending to a fabulous series of books about the young Sherlock Holmes! Shane Peacock has made each of his ‘case files’ so powerful that fans will be sad to say goodbye to the young man destined to be the famous and dogged detective of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle works…. Shane Peacock has done a cracking job of sharing the brutalities of Victorian London and the early evidence of those traits and quirks that make Sherlock Holmes a storied detective…. Shane Peacock has done such a remarkable job of letting his readers know who Sherlock will become, a man worthy of admiration.” – Sal’s Fiction Addiction

Some additional events featuring our authors:

CANSCAIP Mass Book Launch
Friday, February 1, 2013 from 12:15 PM – 2:15 PM

  • Tim Beiser: Miss Mousie’s Blind Date
  • Lorna Schultz Nicholson: Puckster’s First Hockey Tournament and Puckster’s New Hockey Teammate
  • Karen Patkau: Who Needs a Swamp? A Wetland Ecosystem; Who needs a Jungle? A Rainforest Ecosystem; and Who needs an Iceberg? An Arctic Ecosystem

Follow @TundraBooks, @lornasn, @scissorhouse, @RoyMacG, @Shane_Author, and @TimBeiser on twitter! You can also follow #sc13 for the latest news and updates!

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OLA’s Super Conference 2012

The Ontario Library Association’s Super Conference starts next week! Librarians will be gathering at the Metro Toronto Convention Center and visiting the exhibits from February 2nd to the 3rd.

Tundra Books will be at booth #720 to tell you about our new and upcoming books. You can come by to pick up catalogs, posters, and bookmarks!

We will also have author signings! Be sure to line-up early, the complimentary books will be available on a first come, first serve basis.

Author signings on Thursday, February 2:

Michael Bedard will be signing ARCs of The Green Man at 10:30 AM
Hardcover | 320 page | Ages 10-14
ISBN: 978-1-77049-285-1
eBook: 978-1-77049-293-6
Teenaged O – never call her Ophelia – is about to spend the summer with her aunt Emily. Emily is a poet and the owner of an antiquarian book store, The Green Man. At once an exploration of poetry, a story of family relationships, and an intriguing mystery, The Green Man is Michael Bedard at his finest.

Nan Forler will be signing Winterberries and Apple Blossoms at 12:30 PM
Illustrated by Peter Etril Snyder
Hardcover | 40 pages | All ages
ISBN: 978-1-77049-254-7
The poems and recipes are perfectly complemented by Peter Etril Snyder’s lovely paintings. Winterberries and Apple Blossoms is a beautifully produced book, perfect for gift-giving, or sharing with anyone who appreciates simple, enduring values.

Heather Hartt-Sussman will be signing Here Comes Hortense! at 1:45 PM

Illustrated by Georgia Graham
Hardcover | 32 pages | Ages 4-7
ISBN: 978-1-77049-221-9
The feisty, irrepressible Nana we met in Nana’s Getting Married is back. And what could be more fun for a six-year-old than having your nana and her new husband take you to a theme park? But the fun is spoiled when Nana and Bob announce that they’ve planned a surprise: they are going to be joined by Bob’s granddaughter, Hortense. A perceptive and hilarious exploration of rivalry, there’s a gentle lesson for readers, young and old.

Karen Patkau will be signing Who Needs a Jungle?, Who Needs a Swamp?, and Who Needs an Iceberg? at 2:45 PM
Hardcover | 32 pages | Ages 7-10
ISBN: 978-0-88776-992-4
In Who Needs a Jungle? we learn about its vital role in providing us with oxygen, food, medicinal ingredients, and raw materials we use every day. Who Needs a Swamp? explores wetlands and their importance in the food chain and in preserving our soil and clean water. Who Needs an Iceberg? talks about the shrinking Arctic Ice Cap.

Author signings on Friday, February 3:

Pam Withers will be signing First Descent at 10:30 AM
Hardcover | 272 Pages | Ages 12+
ISBN: 978-1-77049-257-8
eBook: 978-1-77049-274-5
Montana-born Rex loves nothing more than to take his kayak out on a river, the faster and more powerful the better. When he gets the opportunity to tackle the well-named El Furioso in southwest Colombia, he is thrilled. He anticipates the river’s challenges, but finds himself in a situation where the real danger is human.

Curtis Parkinson will be signing Man Overboard! at 11:30 AM
Paperback | 160 pages | Ages 10-12
ISBN: 978-1-77049-298-1
eBook: 978-1-77049-299-8
During World War II, a German agent landed in Canada from a U-boat. Curtis Parkinson has used this true historical event to tell a fast-paced, exciting story. Sixteen-year-old Scott and his friend Adam find summer jobs as deckhands on the Rapids Prince, a ship that plies the waters between the town of Prescott, on the St. Lawrence River, and Montreal. Scott overhears convincing information that a German agent is actually on board the boat!

Marthe Jocelyn will be signing “Scribbling Women” at 12:30 PM
Hardcover | 208 Pages | Ages 14+
ISBN: 978-0-88776-952-8
eBook: 978-1-77049-230-1
In 1855, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote to his publisher, complaining about the irritating fad of “scribbling women.” Whether they were written by professionals, by women who simply wanted to connect with others, or by those who wanted to leave a record of their lives, those “scribbles” are fascinating, informative, and instructive.

Follow the tag #SC12 on twitter! We’ll be sending out reminders for our author signings. See you there!

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Guest Post: Intern Meets Superconference

Hi Everyone!

My name is Alison and I’m happy to introduce myself as Tundra’s new intern. I’m four weeks in and still excited to come into work to find myself surrounded by so many amazing children books! The walls here echo with stories….

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the OLA Superconference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on February 4th and 5th and help out at the Tundra stand. It was a great exhibition and an opportunity to get a peek at what’s new and exciting in the publishing world. It was also nice to meet so many friendly librarians and people who work so hard at getting the right books into the hands of the right kids!

OLA – the colourful worlds of publishers and libraries collide!

We had a lot of traffic at the Tundra booth for the author book signings. Marthe Jocelyn, Susin Nielsen, Heather Hartt-Sussman, Cyndi Sand-Eveland, Rina Singh, Farida Zaman, Monica Kulling, Ed Butts, and Christopher Moore signed copies of their latest Tundra books and answered questions about their stories and the inspiration behind them. (There were several requests for signed copies of Monica Kulling’s Merci Mister Dash! to be addressed to special friends of the canine persuasion, of which I’m sure Mister Dash would approve.)

I had created little signs announcing the time slots for the author signings. Of course, as a good little intern should, I made sure to double-check the spelling of all of the author’s names. But alas, there was one that slipped through, and I was quite embarrassed to realize at the last-minute that I had spelled Susin Nielsen’s name as “Susan.” Unfortunately, I’m sure she gets that a lot! I quickly turned that “a” into an “i” with a black marker but the mistake was pretty glaringly obvious (even little mistakes are scary when you’re an intern and you’re continually trying to prove your competence!). But, when Susin came around to sign Dear George Clooney, she was very sweet and not at all annoyed about it, and we joked that the now-massive “i” was done on purpose to remind others not to make the likely-common mistake. Oops!

Ed Butts signing copies of Shipwrecks, Monsters, and Mysteries of the Great Lakes

On Friday afternoon, the seventh annual CANSCAIP Mass Book Launch was held at the Expo. Twenty authors and illustrators went on stage to give pretty entertaining “infomercials” and insights into their latest titles. It was interesting to see the wide range of personalities going into the creation of current Canadian children books. From Tundra, Marthe Jocelyn (Folly), Richard Scrimger (Me & Death), Farida Zaman (Nearly Nonsense), and Veronika Martenova Charles (Easy-to-Read Wonder Tales), each did an excellent job giving a teaser snapshot of their books and describing what makes them relevant for young readers.

Marthe Jocelyn reading an excerpt from Folly at the CANSCAIP Mass Book Launch

This week Tundra’s going to another conference – Reading for the Love of It – February 10th and 11th at the Sheraton Centre. I’m looking forward to interacting with another incredibly important part of the kids + books equation: the teachers!