Emily Posts: Cover Reveal and Q&A with Tanya Lloyd Kyi and Ericka Lugo


Tundra is excited to be publishing Emily Posts on February 6, 2024! We hope you enjoy this exclusive cover reveal, and keep scrolling to read our Q&As with author Tanya Lloyd Kyi and cover illustrator Ericka Lugo!

Cover Illustrator: Ericka Lugo

Emily Posts
By Tanya Lloyd Kyi
256 Pages | Ages 10+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9781774882047 | Tundra Books
Release Date: February 6, 2024
Emily is the ringleader for her school podcast, Cedarview Speaks — Sponsored by CoastFresh! But her plans for middle-school fame and social media influence are derailed when Amelie joins her eighth-grade class. The new arrival has a seemingly endless supply of confidence and a gift for leading people. Or leading them astray, as far as Emily’s concerned. Emily puts her old-fashioned sense of etiquette into practice. Rather than confronting Amelie, she focuses her energy on creating a podcast story about an upcoming climate march. But her story is censored by the school principal. When she protests, Emily gets cut from the podcast crew . . . and Amelie takes her place! Can Emily use her influence to spread the news of the climate march, reclaim her place on the podcast team and expose the flaws of CoastFresh? Can she balance her impeccable manners with twenty-first century activism? And how will she ever manage to work alongside Amelie? With a light touch and plenty of humor, Emily Posts explores issues of social media, influence, corporate sponsorship . . . and the fraught waters of middle-school friendship.

Q&A with Tanya Lloyd Kyi

What gave you the inspiration to write this book?

I read a news story about a high school journalist whose story about a protest march was censored. The principal said her piece didn’t represent the views of all students within the school. This raised an assortment of questions for me – about why a principal might really censor a student journalist, about how many viewpoints you need to represent in order for a story to be valid, and about the slightly fuzzy position of students in the world of journalism. (They don’t always get much control over their work.) But all of that makes it sound like this is a super-serious book, and it’s definitely not. I had a lot of fun exploring these issues through the slightly skewed (and maybe a teensy bit self-centered?) worldview of my main character. 

Without spoiling anything, what was your favorite moment to write in Emily Posts?

One of my favourite characters is Emily’s pseudo-brother, Ocean. As soon as he appears in any scene, chaos follows. At one point, Emily finds Ocean with licorice stuffed up his nose. He and his best friend are surrounded by a sea of candy, and she tries to decide whether she could be held in any way responsible for the mess. Then she finds out they didn’t exactly buy the candy with their own money…

Which character is the most like you or the most like someone you know?

Emily spends much of this book trying to juggle varying responsibilities. Some of them, like running her school podcast, are legitimate. Others, like arranging the social connections of the entire eighth grade, are really none of her business. I have been accused of being controlling when I’m stressed, although – like Emily – I’m quite sure this is an exaggeration and my organizational talents are entirely necessary.  

What is the main message or lesson you would like your reader to remember from this book?

I hope Emily inspires readers to raise their voices when they see injustices. And maybe to raise their voices in creative, unexpected ways. 

What have you been reading lately?

I’ve been rereading Judy Blume, of course, along with the rest of the world! I’ve also been reading the latest in Michael Hutchinson’s Mighty Muskrat series (I’m a fan), and Alice Fleck’s Recipes for Disaster by Rachelle Delaney. Oh, and I’ve recently discovered the wonderfully weird books of British author Frances Hardinge. Hmmm… apparently I’ve been reading a bit of everything!

Q&A with Ericka Lugo

Did you read Emily Posts before starting on the cover? If so, what stuck out to you the most?

I sadly didn’t get to read the book before I started working on the cover but the art director did a great job at providing me with the tools I needed to work on it confidently.

Were you given any guidance from the author/editor?

Yes! Art director Gigi Lau sent me a very detailed brief with lots of info like the book description, synopsis, character details and key words to describe the feel the cover should have. She also sent thumbnails and rough sketches of what she had in mind, alongside a description and passages from the book that inspired that idea. 

How did you create the cover? What tools or programs did you use?

I started with a rough sketch, then created separate layers on top of that, with the lineart and colors. I worked from start to finish in the Procreate app on iPad using custom-made brushes. 

How many drafts/designs did you go through before you got to the final version?

I did quite a bit! I focused on making rough sketches of the main four cover ideas that were proposed first. Then, once the team decided which of those ideas they wanted to go with, I made a separate round of sketches with different variations of the same cover. Little changes can sometimes make a big difference in the feeling of the cover so I wanted to give them as many options as possible.

What are some other book covers you’ve worked on? Do you have any coming up?

Some of the covers I have worked on include Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado, Barely Floating by Lilliam Rivera and the upcoming middle grade novel North of Supernova by Lindsey Leavitt, which comes out this summer!

Tundra Telegram: Books That Are Un-fork-gettable

Hello, and thanks for joining us at Tundra Telegram, the column where we talk about the subjects readers are stewing on, and recommend some tasty tomes for young readers to chew on.

This past weekend was Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. And for many people – at least the more fortunate among us – that means a large family feast with plates of delicious food. Often followed by days and days of leftovers. So, if you’re anything like us, food has been on your mind a lot.

Luckily, the many publishers for children and young readers that we sell and distribute have a veritable cornucopia of food-related books, if you’re hungry to read about the things we ingest. Come partake of some peculiar but very palatable publications.

PICTURE BOOKS

Anyone who has had Thanksgiving dinner with family knows mealtimes can be filled with drama. And that’s the case in Frankie’s Favorite Food by Kelsey Garrity-Riley, where the school play will feature kids dressed as their favorite foods. Only one problem: Frankie can’t decide because he loves so many foods. So he becomes the play’s costume manager until he figures out a favorite food that will also be familiar to Thanksgiving diners.

Ten Little Dumplings by Larissa Fan and Cindy Wume is not about literal dumplings, but ten sons in a Taiwanese family who have that nickname (as having both sons and dumplings is auspicious). But the book also looks at the one sister to the dumplings, growing up in the shadow of her brothers and making her own way in life. And since it includes a couple of feasts fit for eleven kids (and featuring some actual dumplings), we’re counting it as a food book.

Though some Thanksgiving meals can be pretty routine, some home chefs get a bit more adventurous. That spirit of culinary adventure permeates Kalamata’s Kitchen by Sarah Thomas and illustrated by Jo Kosmides Edwards, about a girl and her alligator sidekick (Al Dente) who get over back-to-school anxiety by magically transporting themselves to an Indian spice market , where they realize trying new things – be they foods or experiences at school – is exciting!

How about a picture book from the host of Top Chef and Taste the Nation? Tomatoes for Neela by Padma Lakshmi and Juana Martinez-Neal celebrates family recipes and family time spent in the kitchen – a perfect subject for post-Thanksgiving reading. Neela and Amma go to the market to buy tomatoes to make her Paati’s famous sauce. And as Neela and Amma cook together, they find a way for Paati to share in both the love and the flavors though she is far away.

Let Me Fix You a Plate: A Tale of Two Kitchens by Elizabeth Lilly also celebrates how a good meal can bring a family together. Inspired by the author’s childhood vacations, it follows a family road trip, as they visit both sides of the family – American and Colombian – and revel in the two cultures and cuisines.

When the big meal is more of a potluck, it can sometimes turn into a competition of whose dish is the best. The characters of It Happened on Sweet Street by Caroline Adderson and Stephane Jorisch know that feeling all too well, as a rivalry among bakers causes havoc on one road that hosts a panoply of new cakes, cookies, and pies. The winners, as usual, are the ones eating the desserts.

Inspired by the spirit of, but not about the famous French chef and television personality, Julia, Child by Kyo Maclear and Julie Morstad features two young friends – Julia and Simca – who love cooking, preparing feasts for friends, and who agree there’s no such thing as “too much butter.” This is a playful, scrumptious celebration of the joy of eating, the importance of never completely growing up, and mastering the art of having a good time.

The titular character in Little Taco Truck by Tanya Valentine and Jorge Martin also loves making food for friends – or any paying customers, that is – but has trouble sharing at first, when other food trucks (Annie’s Arepas and Gumbo Jumbo, among others) begin to park on their street. Packed with flavor and cuisine from around the world, this is a great read-aloud about friendship and cooperation, for fans of both trucks and food.

And if you have a young reader who doesn’t just want to read about food, but wants to actually make it, there’s Cook It!: The Dr. Seuss Cookbook for Kid Chefs by Daniel Gercke. From Grinch-inspired Roast Beast to “Warm Whisked Wocket Waffles” and – yes – even, Green Eggs and Ham, this book features fifty recipes inspired by the books of Dr. Seuss (and accompanying Seussian photos from Christopher Testani) for kids and grown-ups to cook together.

CHAPTER BOOKS & MIDDLE GRADE

As might be expected, food stories lend themselves well to graphic novels, as it’s said we eat with our eyes first. Kicking off this shortlist of mouthwatering comics is Stephen Shaskan’s Pizza and Taco series about two best friends who also happen to be two delicious foods with lots of toppings.

Mika Song’s Donut Feed the Squirrels features two squirrel friends – Norma and Belly – who would probably gobble Pizza and Taco up. Lucky for them, Norma and Belly are focused on a donut food truck and the best way to steal its scrumptious contents.

The squirrels’ plight is probably understood by Weenie, the hero of the hilarious Mad about Meatloaf by Maureen Fergus and Alexandra Bye. As you may have guessed from the title, Weenie – a wiener dog with best friends Frank (a cat) and Beans (a guinea pig) – is obsessed with meatloaf and will try anything to get some – disguises, meatloaf traps, and much, much more.

And even Ben Clanton’s Narwhal and Jelly get in on the food action in their third book, Peanut Butter and Jelly. Longtime readers of the series know N & J love their waffles. But in this book, Narwhal becomes so enamored with peanut butter, they even want to change their name to peanut butter! This is another fun adventure about trying new things, favorite foods, and self-acceptance.

Thanksgiving usually involves cooking with your family, something that happens in a very public forum in Alice Fleck’s Recipes for Disaster by Rachelle Delaney. Alice’s father is a culinary historian, who enters into a reality cooking show – Culinary Combat – with his daughter, much to her chagrin. Even worse: a saboteur is mixing up some mayhem backstage, and Alice and a few new friends take it upon themselves to solve the mystery.

Tanya Lloyd Kyi’s Mya’s Strategy to Save the World is mostly about Mya Parsons and her attempts to prove herself responsible so she can get a phone. But it’s also about Mya’s growing social justice interest, her involvement with the school’s Social Justice club (particularly campaigns to assist Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, where her mom hails from). Along the way, she takes some cooking lessons from her aunt and readers are treated to a few curry recipes to try at home!

All these fictional stories about food are great, but what if you want . . . the truth? Yummy: A History of Desserts by Victoria Grace Elliott chronicles, in graphic novel form, the inventions of pies, ice cream, brownies, and more. Learn about the true stories behind everyone’s favorite treats in the most mouthwatering nonfiction book ever.

YOUNG ADULT

Anyone who has stuffed themselves sick on Thanksgiving dinner knows eating and romance are inextricably linked. There are many YA novels linking food and love, like Radha & Jai’s Recipe for Romance by Nisha Sharma. In it, Radha gives up her dreams of becoming one of the greatest kathak dancers in the world and discovers a new love for Indian cooking. Then Jai, captain of the Bollywood Beats dance team, enters her life and the two get a taste of what happily ever after could be like.

Jared Reck’s Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love mines the romance of Scandinavian cooking, as it follows Oscar Olsson, who runs a Swedish food truck with his grandfather. That is, he does until he’s pulled away more and more by Mary Louise (Lou) an overachiever who ropes him into a project reducing food waste at their high school. Will love blossom over uneaten apples? You bet it will!

Jennifer Yen’s A Taste for Love combines matchmaking and baking in all the best ways. Liza Yang agrees to help her mother, owner of the popular Yin & Yang Bakery, set up a junior baking competition at the store. But Liza finds she’s been tricked – all the baking contestants are eligible young Asian American men her mother thinks would make a perfect partner for her daughter. (Now who amongst us can say they’ve ever had a Thanksgiving with nearly as much romantic potential?)

Magical muffins are at the heart of A. R. Carpetta’s The Heartbreak Bakery, in which a teenaged baker, Syd, sends ripples of heartbreak through Austin’s queer community when a batch of post-being-dumped brownies turns out to be magical – and makes everyone who eats them break up with their romantic partners! So it’s up to Syd and cute bike messenger Harley to try to fix things – because Thanksgiving is all about making amends.

Love from Scratch by Kaitlyn Hill lets the sparks (and flour) fly when two interns – Reese and Benny – start at a wildly popular cooking channel in Seattle. When the two competitors have to work together on a video shoot, audiences begin to ship them, even as their rivalry intensifies. But all baking relies on good chemistry.

Finally, the Pocket Change Collective book Food-Related Stories by chef and food activist Gaby Melian and illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky, looks at Melian’s journey through food, from growing up in Argentina, to becoming a street vendor, and later Bon Appetit’s test kitchen manager. The book explores how creating a meaningful relationship with food – however simple or complicated – can be a powerful form of activism.

Happy reading (and eating)!

2022 Red Cedar Book Award

The Red Cedar is British Columbia’s Young Reader’s Choice book award. Every year, thousands of children between grades 4 and 7 from across the province are invited to read books from the nominated lists of non-fiction and fiction titles and vote for their favourite. We would like to congratulate Tanya Lloyd Kyi whose Me and Banksy won the fiction award!

Me and BanksyMe and Banksy
By Tanya Lloyd Kyi
272 Pages | Ages 10+ | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735266919 | Puffin Canada
Dominica’s private school is covered in cameras, and someone is hacking into them and posting embarrassing moments for the whole school to see. Like Ana picking her nose. When Dominica quickly changes her shirt from inside out in what she thinks is the privacy of a quiet corner in the library, she’s shocked – and embarrassed – to discover a video has captured this and is currently circulating amongst her schoolmates. So mortifying, especially since over the past three years, they’ve had a half-dozen school talks about social media safety. Who has access to the school security cameras and why are they doing this? Dominica and her best friends, Holden and Saanvi, are determined to find out, and in the process start an art-based student campaign against cameras in the classroom.

Tanya also won in the non-fiction category for This is Your Brain on Stereotypes: How Science is Tackling Unconscious Bias, illustrated by Drew Shannon and published by Kids Can Press. Congrats, Tanya!

Tundra Telegram: Books that Won’t Leave You on Read

Hello, and thanks for joining us at Tundra Telegram, the column where we illuminate the topics that have us all chatting, and recommend some great books to generate further discussion.

Last Friday, nearly half of Canada found itself without telephone or internet service as one of Canada’s few major telecommunications companies, Rogers, experienced a massive network blackout. Millions of people were unable to make a call (even for 911 emergencies), send an email, or – in many cases – make a purchase via debit or credit card. People crowded around outside coffee shops and stores (on networks other than Rogers) for their sweet, sweet WiFi. The Weeknd was forced to cancel a show – ironically at the Rogers Centre – due to the outage’s effect on venue operations and ticketing.

The big telecommunications company has remained vague about the reason for the nationwide outage, and customers are, understandably, still upset. (In fact, as of this writing, there are still many Canadians affected by the outage who still have no service!) So, we thought we’d highlight some books on outages, telephones, and general communication breakdown. If you still have internet service: enjoy!

PICTURE BOOKS

To remind you of what we all lost in the Rogers outage, we recommend Pamela Druckerman and Benjamin Chaud’s Paris by Phone. Little Josephine decides that Paris is where she really belongs, and all it takes is a quick call on her magical phone to whisk her away to the City of Lights. And though she loves her visit, she finds herself missing home. It’s a love letter to Paris (and to home) and a metaphor (at least we think it is?) for the independence a telephone can grant.

Before there was WiFi, there was Grace Banker and switchboard operators like her. Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call by Claudia Friddell and Elizabeth Baddeley is a historical picture book about a telephone switchboard trainer in New York who becomes the Chief Operator of the 1st Unit of World War I telephone operators in the battlefields of France. Thirty-two female telephone operators transferred orders from commanders to battlefields and communicated top-secret messages between American and French headquarters. (And you thought telephones were just for Candy Crush!)

In this instance, it wasn’t a power outage – though if your lights and other home electronics were connected to “the internet of things” – it may have felt that way. Nevertheless, we recommend astronaut Chris Hadfield and The Fan BrothersThe Darkest Dark, to remind you that the dark (whether the dark of infinite space or a downed network) is beautiful and exciting And the newest edition has a special glow-in-the-dark cover, in case you are caught in a real blackout.

And if you do find yourself in a real power blackout – not just a telecommunications one – you should make sure you have a copy of Ray by Marianna Coppo handy. The humorous picture book is about a light bulb who spends most of his time at the end of a hall in darkness until he goes on a magnificent journey. It’s also a book about the power of imagination – something you’ll need to rely on without access to social media or streaming services!

CHAPTER BOOKS & MIDDLE GRADE

To understand the tremendous Rogers outage, you have to start at the beginning. And that’s with Who Was Alexander Graham Bell? by Bonnie Bader and David Groff. Learn all about the man who invented the telephone – a sometime Canadian, no less! – whose technological revolution resulted from his work with teaching deaf students. Fun fact: his namesake telecommunications company (Bell Canada) did not experience a monster outage last week.

Mya’s Strategy to Save the World by Tanya Lloyd Kyi is, ostensibly, about protagonist Mya Parsons and her quest to get her own cell phone. So, she would be understandably upset by the network outage of last week. That said, she also runs her school’s social justice club and is determined to change the world for the better, so she’d probably be against large corporate communications oligopolies (look it up!) anyway.

And a novel that starts with faulty network communications and goes downhill from there is Frances Greenslade’s Red Fox Road. Francie’s family vacation goes awry with the GPS leads them astray. Soon, she becomes stranded alone – no phone, no internet – in the bush, and must rely only on her survival skills to keep her alive in this modern-day Hatchet.

And though it’s not available until the fall, Babble!: And How Punctuation Saved It by Caroline Adderson and Roman Muradow is the perfect book to talk about communication breakdowns. Chaos reigns in the village of Babble! All day, the residents fight, yell and argue, and no one is heard or understood – it’s like a life full of network outages. But then … punctuation arrives to build bridges. This book is both a parable for communication failures and catnip for grammar teachers.

YOUNG ADULT

If you’re talking outages, you’re talking the gripping Rule of Three series by Eric Walters: The Rule of Three, Fight for Power, and Will to Survive. One ordinary afternoon, every single machine in sixteen-year-old Adam’s high school computer lab stops working. Cars won’t start, phones are down, and a blackout is widespread. Follow Adam and his allies in this epic survival adventure about what happens when all the modern technological amenities on Earth suddenly just … stop working. (Some of it is pretty violent!) And check out the standalone book, The Fourth Dimension, which follows fifteen-year-old Emma’s journey in that same all-encompassing power outage.

And if you or the young readers in your life are looking to “unplug” a bit more this summer (voluntarily, of course), Tundra Book Group is involved in a number of excellent summer reading programs we encourage you to check out, like:

Tundra Telegram: Books That Aren’t Gonna’ Take It Anymore

Hello, and thanks again for reading the Tundra Telegram, the column where we dig into the subjects on readers’ minds and recommend some recent great books to continue the discussion.

And what is on many North Americans’ minds this week? The fight for abortion rights in the United States. No doubt, our readers have heard about the leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion that indicated the court is set to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide. In the days and nights that followed, abortion rights protesters have rallied in cities around the United States (and sometimes outside Supreme Court Justices’ houses) to express their outrage and opposition.

While few picture books delve much into abortion or abortion rights, we have included a few YA titles that do in a frank manner. But our focus in this telegram is on books that demonstrate the power of protest and collective action to influence political decisions.

PICTURE BOOKS

To get your kids involved in activism early, start with an ABC book, like A Is for Activist, written and illustrated by Innosanto Nagara. Perfect for families who want their kids to grow up in a space that is unapologetic about activism, environmental justice, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and everything else that activists believe in and fight for, A Is for Activist will have your kids associating M with Megaphones and Marches over Moons and Monsters.

Inspired by the 5 million people (many of them children) in 82 countries who participated in the 2017 Women’s March, Andrew Joyner’s The Pink Hat follows the journey of a pink hat that is swiped out of a knitting basket by a pesky kitten, blown into a tree by a strong wind, and – after a series of misadventures – finally makes its way onto the head of a young girl marching for women’s equality.

Kids in protest march are also central to Lubaya’s Quiet Roar by Marilyn Nelson and Philomena Williamson, a book that shows the power of introverts in social justice movements. A reserved girl draws pictures on the back of her parents’ protest posters. So when the posters are needed again when Lubaya and her folks march in the streets, the girl’s artwork makes a massive visual statement and demonstrates how “a quiet roar can make history.”

Shirley Chisholm Dared: The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress by Alicia D. Williams and April Harrison is not just a picture book biography, but the story of an activist turned political leader. Chisholm started as a kid who asked “too many questions,” soon became a young activist with the Harriet Tubman Society and Bedford-Stuyvesant Political League, and eventually became the first Black woman to run for Congress, as you’ll learn when you read this acclaimed picture book!

MIDDLE GRADE

We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices is an anthology of poems, letters, personal essays, art, and other works by 50 diverse creators who lend voice to young activists, and edited by legendary writers and editors Wade and Cheryl Willis Hudson. From authors like Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson, Ellen Oh, and others comes a book that, as Ashley Bryan says in the foreword, “just to touch this book … will lift your spirits.”

Grassroots organizing is highlighted in Take Back the Block by Chrystal D. Giles. In it, Wes is more focused on his style and playing video games than the protests his parents keep dragging him to. But when a developer attempts to buy Kensington Oaks, the neighborhood where Wes has lived his entire life, he gets a hard lesson in gentrification and becomes a reluctant activist who learns the power of community.

It may not have the awesome power of a thousands-strong march, but Tanya Lloyd Kyi’s Banksy and Me features a street-art-style protest against cameras being brought into classrooms and unites a group of middle-grade students together against an unfair school policy.

And Property of the Rebel Librarian by Allison Varnes celebrates a different kind of activism, when straitlaced student June Harper starts an underground reading movement in reaction to a massive book ban at her middle-school, showing you can make a difference by marching in the streets and by granting access to forbidden information!

YOUNG ADULT

Maybe she’s not fighting for reproductive rights, but young feminist Jemima Kincaid takes aim at her private school’s many problematic traditions in The Feminist Agenda of Jemima Kincaid by Kate Hattemer. When Jemima is named to student council’s Senior Triumvirate, she’s finally in a position to change things, but she may inadvertently end up reinforcing patriarchy instead of fighting it!

If that’s not angry enough for you, you’ll love Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao’s “400 pages of female rage.” It’s like Pacific Rim mashed up with The Handmaid’s Tale and a heaping spoonful of Chinese history. As Julie C. Dao insists, “Zetian’s fight to shatter patriarchal definitions of power makes for a truly thrilling read.”

But if you’re looking for YA books that discuss abortion, you can’t go wrong with E. K. Johnston’s Exit, Pursued by a Bear, an unforgettable story about the aftermath of a cheerleader’s sexual assault, that refuses to play to stereotypes and focuses instead on the importance of creating strong community support systems. It’s no spoiler to say an abortion is pivotal in our heroine Hermione’s journey.

And an oldie-but-goodie on the topic of abortion is bestselling author Sarah Dessen’s Someone Like You, following teen best friends Scarlett and Halley as they encounter new understandings of love, sex, and responsibility – something highlighted when Scarlett finds herself pregnant two months after her boyfriend dies in a motorcycle accident. Could abortion be her answer? You’ll never know unless you read this classic from 1998!