Tag: Susin Nielsen

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2012 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award Winner

The MYRCA votes are in and it looks like a certain book is taking every province by storm! Congratulations to Susin Nielsen, her book is the 2012 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award Winner!

Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom
By Susin Nielsen
Ages 11-14 | 240 pages
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-88776-977-1
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-77049-295-0
eBook ISBN:978-0-88776-978-8
If you have a LibraryThing account, the paperback edition of the book is available in the Early Reviewers program. LibraryThing Early Reviewers provides free pre-release books to members willing to review them. Request the title by May 29, 2012.

We would also like to congratulate the 2012 Honour Books:

  • Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel
  • Stolen Child by Martha Forchuk Skrypuch

The Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Awards Inc. (MYRCA) aims to promote reading and Canadian literature by giving young people the opportunity to vote for their favourite Canadian book from an annual preselected list. The books are nominated based on their quality and reader appeal. All young people in grades 5-8 who have read or heard read at least 3 titles from the list can vote. Voting takes place in April and the MYRCA winner is celebrated at a fall award ceremony attended by participating young people.

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2012 Rocky Mountain Book Award Winner

Tundra is happy to announce that Susin Nielsen’s Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom is the Gold Medal Winner of the 2012 Rocky Mountain Book Award, an Alberta Children’s Choice Book Award.

Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom
By Susin Nielsen
Ages 11-14 | 240 pages
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-88776-977-1
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-77049-295-0
eBook ISBN:978-0-88776-978-8
Violet’s TV-director dad has traded a job in Vancouver for one in Los Angeles, their run-down house for a sleek ranch-style home complete with a pool, and, worst of all, Violet’s mother for a trophy wife, a blonde actress named Jennica. Violet’s younger sister reacts by bed-wetting, and her mother ping-pongs from one loser to another, searching for love. As for Violet, she gets angry in ways that are by turns infuriating, shocking, and hilarious.
When her mother takes up with the unfortunately named Dudley Wiener, Violet and her friend Phoebe decide that they need to take control. If Violet’s mom can’t pick a decent man herself, they will help her snag George Clooney.

PRAISE:

  • “[Susin Nielsen] … has created a narrator as sassy and candid as this memorable novel’s title….” – Starred Review, Publishers Weekly
  • “…This comic novel scores.” – Kirkus Reviews
  • “…very engaging read.” – Booklist
  • “…funny, witty, and lively….” – Quill & Quire

Gemini Award-winner SUSIN NIELSEN has written sixteen episodes of the hit television show Degrassi Junior High and four of the books in the Degrassi series. She is the co-creator and showrunner of the critically acclaimed television series Robson Arms. She also adapted Susan Juby’s Alice, I Think into a TV series. Susin Nielsen lives in Vancouver with her husband, Goran, son, Oskar, and Sam the cat.

PS: Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen was the Gold Medal Winner of the 2010 Rocky Mountain Book Award.

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Scrabble Day

Read Word Nerd and play a game of Scrabble today with your friends and family!

Word Nerd
Written by Susin Nielsen
Ages 9+ | 256 pages
HC ISBN: 978-0-88776-875-0
TR ISBN: 978-0-88776-990-0
eBook: 978-1-77049-075-8

Twelve-year-old Ambrose is a glass-half-full kind of guy. A self-described “friendless nerd,” he moves from place to place every couple of years with his overprotective mother, Irene. When some bullies at his new school almost kill him by slipping a peanut into his sandwich – even though they know he has a deathly allergy – Ambrose is philosophical. Irene, however, is not and decides that Ambrose will be home-schooled.

Alone in the evenings when Irene goes to work, Ambrose pesters Cosmo, the twenty-five-year-old son of the Greek landlords who live upstairs. Cosmo has just been released from jail for breaking and entering to support a drug habit. Quite by accident, Ambrose discovers that they share a love of Scrabble and coerces Cosmo into taking him to the West Side Scrabble Club, where Cosmo falls for Amanda, the club director. Posing as Ambrose’s Big Brother to impress her, Cosmo is motivated to take Ambrose to the weekly meetings and to give him lessons in self-defense. Cosmo, Amanda, and Ambrose soon form an unlikely alliance and, for the first time in his life, Ambrose blossoms. The characters at the Scrabble Club come to embrace Ambrose for who he is and for their shared love of words. There’s only one problem: Irene has no idea what Ambrose is up to.

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. But you don’t have to take our word for it, see what some readers have been saying:

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Tuesdays with Tundra 19

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

Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom
By Susin Nielsen
Paperback | 240 pages | Ages 11-14
ISBN: 978-1-77049-295-0
eBook: 978-0-88776-978-8
“Nielsen (Word Nerd) has created a narrator as sassy and candid as this memorable novel’s title…. Nielsen skillfully balances her story’s keen humor…with poignancy. Especially affecting are Violet’s struggles to accept her father’s new family….” – Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

The Green Man
By Michael Bedard
Hardcover | 320 pages | Ages 10-14
ISBN: 978-1-77049-285-1
eBook: 978-1-77049-293-6
“…Bedard takes full advantage of the genre’s atmospheric creepiness and sepia-toned timelessness. O is a contemporary character, but the story is refreshingly free of hoodies, malls, product placements, and texting…. For more plot-hungry Goosebumps graduates, there are dark strangers, abandoned mansions, ghostly glowing, chilling coincidences, and otherworldly portals galore.” – Starred Review, Quill & Quire

Here Comes Hortense!
By Heather Hartt-Sussman
Illustrated by Georgia Graham
Hardcover | 32 pages | Ages 4-7
ISBN: 978-1-77049-221-9
“…Here Comes Hortense should be a welcomed addition for those seeking stories that explore intergenerational relationships. Georgia Graham’s artwork is truly delightful…. The drawings suit the story so well and are complemented with large bold text in many strategic places. The theme park, depicted in all its ‘over the top’ garish features, is appealing and humorous. The results are playful, quirky, colourful and action-packed artwork!” – Highly Recommended, CM Magazine

The Last Song
By Eva Wiseman
Hardcover | 232 pages | Ages 11+
ISBN: 978-0-88776-979-5
eBook: 978-0-88776-980-1
“With spies and informers on all sides, the story builds to a gripping climax…readers will easily be caught by the young girl’s personal heartbreak and conflict and will want to find out more.” – Booklist

Pub Date Giveaway: Tell us which new release of ours you would love to read in the comments below and one lucky reader will receive their requested book!

One request per person and please review our rules. This giveaway ends at midnight on Thursday, April 12, 2012!

UPDATE: Congratulations to Heather, a copy of The Last Song will be sent to you!

PS: Our next Pub Date Giveaway will be on May 8, 2012.

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The 2012 OLA Forest of Reading® Nominees

Today, the Ontario Library Association revealed the nominated titles for the 2012 Forest of Reading® program.

Tundra would like to congratulate Heather Hartt-Sussman, Geneviève Côté, Monica Kulling, Bill Slavin, and Susin Nielsen!

Blue Spruceâ„¢ Nominee:
Noni Says No
Written by Heather Hartt-Sussman
Illustrated by Geneviève Côté
Hardcover | 24 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-77049-233-2
“In this picture book, Noni, a bright-eyed little girl, undergoes a course in assertiveness training and the management of overbearing personalities. If this burden makes the book sound dull and didactic, be assured that it is anything but. Côté’s illustrations, spiky and sparkling, ensure that the eye is captivated, and Hartt-Sussman’s perfectly paced and pitched text carries the story forward in a most engaging fashion….” – The Globe and Mail

Silver Birch® Express Nominee:
All Aboard! Elijah McCoy’s Steam Engine
Written by Monica Kulling
Illustrated by Bill Slavin
Hardcover | 32 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-88776-945-0
“All aboard! is a fitting rallying cry for the new year, all the more so when it comes in an excellent nonfiction book for young readers…. Kulling’s breezy, clear prose gives this the brisk momentum of a short train journey. Slavin’s ink and watercolour illustrations provide engaging character and perspective, playfully evoking 19th century North America. Together they make All Aboard! a lively character study, history lesson and celebration of mechanical engineering – a satisfying read for children between Grades 1 and 3 who are beginning to read on their own.” – The Toronto Star

Red Mapleâ„¢ Fiction Nominee:
Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom
Written by Susin Nielsen
Hardcover | 240 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-88776-977-1
“…In Violet, Vancouver author Susin Nielsen has created a delightful main character and an often hilarious book…. This book offers a delightful reading experience that will be especially of interest to girls whose parents have separated or divorced. It gently explores many of the feelings that children experience in such circumstances and does so in a humorous manner.” – The Waterloo Region Record

The Festival of Treesâ„¢ will be taking place on May 15-16, 2012 at the Harbourfront Centre. We will be there to cheer on our authors and illustrators!

Tundra Book Group