The Skeleton Tree Archives - Tundra Book Group

February 19, 2020February 19, 2020

CTV Your Morning Kids’ Book Segment on I Read Canadian Day

CTV Your Morning Feb 19 2020
Our Marketing & Publicity Associate Director, Vikki VanSickle, was on CTV’s Your Morning today to honour of #IReadCanadian Day by providing Canadian “readalike” choices for kids. Check out our titles from her recommended list below and don’t forget to watch her segment!

AGES 3-7

For fans of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond read:
How to Give Your Cat a Bath in Five Easy Steps
By Nicola Winstanley
Illustrated by John Martz
ISBN 9780735263543 | Hardcover
40 Pages | Tundra Books
In this hilarious and clever “how-to,” a little girl and a know-it-all narrator are thwarted by a cat who refuses to take a bath. Watch as the steps keep changing, the cat keeps escaping, the girl keeps eating cookies and the mess keeps escalating. Soon it’s not just the cat who needs a bath–it’s the whole house!

AGES 6-9

For fans of the Narwhal and Jelly series by Ben Clanton, read the Disgusting Critters series by Elise Gravel:
The Bat
By Elise Gravel
ISBN 9780735266483 | Hardcover
32 Pages | Tundra Books
Hilarious illustrated nonfiction about bats perfect for beginning readers. Conversational text and silly illustrations will have you up all night reading about the only flying mammal on Earth!

AGES 8-12

For fans of the Guinness Book of World Records and National Geographic, read: Innovation Nation: How Canadian Innovators Made the World Smarter, Smaller, Kinder, Safer, Healthier, Wealthier, Happier
By David Johnston and Tom Jenkins
Illustrated by Josh Holinaty
ISBN 9780735263017 | Hardcover
128 Pages | Tundra Books
Successful innovation is always inspired by at least one of three forces – insight, necessity and simple luck. Innovation Nation moves through history to explore what circumstances, incidents, coincidences and collaborations motivated each great Canadian idea, and what twist of fate then brought that idea into public acceptance.

For fans of realistic fiction master Judy Blume, read:
Me and Banksy
By Tanya Lloyd Kyi
ISBN 9780735266919 | Hardcover
272 Pages | 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. 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.

For fans of mystery queen Agatha Christie, read:
Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Body Under the Piano
By Marthe Jocelyn
Illustrated by Isabelle Follath
ISBN 9780735265462 | Hardcover
336 Pages | Tundra Books
A smart and charming middle-grade mystery series starring young detective Aggie Morton and her friend Hector, inspired by the imagined life of Agatha Christie as a child and her most popular creation, Hercule Poirot.

For fans of the classic survival story Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, read:
The Skeleton Tree
By Iain Lawrence
ISBN 9781101918371 | Paperback
288 Pages | Tundra Books
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.

Feb 19 2020

July 4, 2019June 12, 2019

Richard and Iain at Camp Penguin

camppenguin_logo Every 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 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 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.

June 19, 2019June 11, 2019

Window Wednesday

#WindowWednesday: We are incredibly fortunate to have stores create window features of our books. We want to highlight their amazing work here on our blog for you to see (and perhaps you’ll discover a new local bookstore).

Moonbeam Books
335 Jane Street, Toronto, ON M6S 3Z3
Photography: Vikki VanSickle

Camp Penguin-Moonbeam Books

June 6, 2019June 3, 2019

Camp Penguin

camppenguin_logo
Welcome to #CampPenguin!

We’re back with an all-new summer reading list for kids ages 8-12! By popular demand we’ve included non-fiction, graphic novels, classics, as well as some of our best middle-grade fiction, new in paperback! Visit participating stores and camps across Canada for more information and to pick up your 2019 bookmark.

There’s a book for everyone, check out this line up and see how you can win your kid’s summer reading list below:

Clara Voyant
By Rachelle Delaney
Paperback | 224 Pages | Puffin Canada
ISBN 9780143198543
Clara can’t believe her no-nonsense grandmother has just up and moved to Florida, leaving Clara and her mother on their own for the first time. This means her mother can finally “follow her bliss,” which involves moving to a tiny apartment in Kensington Market, working at a herbal remedy shop and trying to develop her so-called mystical powers. Clara tries to make the best of a bad situation by joining the newspaper staff at her new middle school, where she can sharpen her investigative journalistic skills and tell the kind of hard-news stories her grandmother appreciated. But the editor relegates her to boring news stories and worse . . . the horoscopes.

Fairy Mom and Me
By Sophie Kinsella
Illustrated by Marta Kissi
Paperback | 160 Pages | Puffin Canada
ISBN 9780735263352
Ella Brook can’t wait to grow up, because one day she will become a fairy and have her own sparkly wings and a teacher on Fairy Tube, just like her mom! Until then, Ella has to learn by watching her mom in action. But sometimes spells go wrong, and Ella’s mom can never seem to remember the right magic codes. A lot of the time, it’s up to Ella to come to the rescue. Does she have what it takes to be a fairy one day? Or will there be more glitches than glitter?

Holes Anniversary Edition
By Louis Saschar
Paperback | 272 Pages | Yearling
ISBN 9780440414803
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes. It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

I Spy the Illuminati Eye
By Sheila Keenan
Paperback | 112 Pages | Penguin Workshop
ISBN 9781524787936
This irreverent, illustrated guide takes a look with an all-seeing, skeptical eye at the history and mystery of the cultural phenomenon that’s got middle-school kids flashing finger triangles and scrutinizing dollar bills for signs of the Illuminati. It’s the first pop culture companion to the shadowy group behind everything from the French Revolution to Jay-Z’s fabulous rise. How did an eighteenth-century philosophical society infiltrate governments, banks, the media, the military, Hollywood, and hip-hop? Or did they?

National Geographic Kids Almanac 2020
By National Geographic
Paperback | 352 Pages | National Geographic
ISBN 9781426332838
Kids can have fun keeping up with our quickly changing world with the world’s best-selling almanac for kids, packed with incredible photos, tons of fun facts, crafts, activities, and fascinating features about animals, science, nature, technology, and more. There’s a whole chapter full of fun and games, including activities, jokes, and comics. Practical reference material, including fast facts and maps of every country, has been fully updated.

The BFG
By Roald Dahl
Illustrated by Quentin Blake
Paperback | 224 Pages | Puffin UK
ISBN 9780141365428
On a dark, silvery moonlit night, Sophie is snatched from her bed by a giant.
Luckily it is the Big Friendly Giant, the BFG, who only eats snozzcumbers and glugs frobscottle. But there are other giants in Giant Country. Fifty foot brutes who gallop far and wide every night to find human beans to eat.
Can Sophie and her friend the BFG stop them?

The Cardboard Kingdom
By Chad Sell
Paperback | 288 Pages | 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. In the Cardboard Kingdom, you can be anything you want to be–imagine that! The Cardboard Kingdom was created, organized, and drawn by Chad Sell with writing from ten other authors: Jay Fuller, David DeMeo, Katie Schenkel, Kris Moore, Molly Muldoon, Vid Alliger, Manuel Betancourt, Michael Cole, Cloud Jacobs, and Barbara Perez Marquez. The Cardboard Kingdom affirms the power of imagination and play during the most important years of adolescent identity-searching and emotional growth.

The Legend of Greg
By Chris Rylander
Paperback | 368 Pages | Puffin
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 (even if he is obsessed with organic soaps that smell like a mix of salted pork and Icelandic bog). The problem is, Greg isn’t ordinary . . . he’s actually an honest-to-goodness, fantastical Dwarf! He discovers the truth the day his dad brings home a gross new tea–one that awakens bizarre abilities in Greg. Then a murderous Bro-Troll kidnaps his dad and Greg is whisked away to the Underground, where Dwarves have lived for centuries right beneath the streets of Chicago.

The Mad Wolf’s Daughter
By Diane Magras
Paperback | 304 Pages | Puffin
ISBN 9780735229280
One dark night, Drest’s sheltered life on a remote Scottish headland is shattered when invading knights capture her family, but leave Drest behind. Her father, the Mad Wolf of the North, and her beloved brothers are a fearsome war-band, but now Drest is the only one who can save them. So she starts off on a wild rescue attempt, taking a wounded invader along as a hostage. Hunted by a bandit with a dark link to her family’s past, aided by a witch whom she rescues from the stake, Drest travels through unwelcoming villages, desolate forests, and haunted towns. Every time she faces a challenge, her five brothers speak to her in her mind about courage and her role in the war-band. But on her journey, Drest learns that the war-band is legendary for terrorizing the land. If she frees them, they’ll not hesitate to hurt the gentle knight who’s become her friend. Drest thought that all she wanted was her family back; now she has to wonder what their freedom would really mean. Is she her father’s daughter or is it time to become her own legend?

The Skeleton Tree
By Iain Lawrence
Paperback | 288 Pages | 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. Because as the days get colder, and the salmon migration ends, survival will take more than sheer force of will. There in the wilderness of Kodiak, they discover a bond they didn’t expect, and through it, the compassion and teamwork that might truly be the path to rescue.

The Tail of Emily Windsnap
By Liz Kessler
Illustrated by Sarah Gibb
Paperback | 224 Pages | Candlewick Press
ISBN 9780763660208
With a sure sense of suspense and richly imaginative details, Liz Kessler lures us into a glorious undersea world where mermaids study shipwrecks at school and Neptune rules with an iron trident — an enchanting fantasy about family secrets, loyal friendship, and the convention-defying power of love.

Viminy Crowe’s Comic Book
By Marthe Jocelyn and Richard Scrimger
Illustrated by Claudia Davila
Paperback | 336 Pages | Tundra Books
ISBN 9781101918937
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: Flynn Goster in Gold Rush Train. 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 … Is there a personality conflict? Oh, yes. Addy wants to go home; Wylder wants to stay and explore the world of Viminy Crowe’s comic book. Do things go wrong? You bet they do.

Weird But True Canada
By Chelsea Lin and Brittany Moya del Pino
Paperback | 208 Pages | National Geographic
ISBN 9781426330247
Calling all Canadians and Canada-philes: Get ready to be amazed and delighted by wacky facts, stats, tidbits, and trivia, eh? Did you know that the Royal Mint once created a coin weighing more than 90 kg and valued at over $1 million dollars? Or that Canada was the first country to build a UFO landing pad? Maybe you’d be amazed to discover that Montreal is the second largest French-speaking city in the world? It’s all weird–and it’s all true…Canada style! In this latest and greatest edition of Weird But True, you’ll read all about the wacky wilds, bizarre bites, and strange scenes of Canada!

Where’s Waldo? Exciting Expeditions
By Martin Handford
Paperback | 72 Pages | Candlewick Press
ISBN 9781536206708
On the road again? Planning a vacation? Be sure to pack this compact compendium full of things to spot, story games to play, and puzzles to create, featuring the elusive Waldo and his wily friends. Want a creative challenge to boot? Check out the writing prompts for making up your own stories, plus bonus journal pages inviting you to record your own travel escapades and a creative story game with twenty-four cards. Move over, Waldo — there’s more than one intrepid traveler in town!

Win Your Kid’s Summer Reading List with #CampPenguin Contest of Chance
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter between June 6, 2019 and June 20, 2019. Open to residents of Canada (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory of residence at time of entry. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

Click here to enter for your chance to win a Camp Penguin prize pack – featuring a special bookmark, and your choice of three books from our list of recommended reads for summer camp! Click here for the full official rules.

January 12, 2016January 19, 2016

Tuesdays with Tundra 52

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

Miss Moon: Wise Words from a Dog Governess
by Janet Hill
Hardcover | 48 Pages | Ages 4-8
ISBN: 9781101917930
eBook: 9781101917954
“Twenty succinct bits of advice for living are accompanied by whimsical oil paintings of an English governess and her canine charges. A wide variety of dog breeds are accurately portrayed in a post-impressionist style—except for the anthropomorphic details that cannot help but charm viewers…. And what a talent Hill has for that mea culpa doggy look! The fair, red-haired governess—impeccable in her long, white-collared dress—always appears kind, unflappable, and dignified … every picture is indeed worth a thousand words. Enchanting for dog lovers.” – Kirkus Review

Over-Scheduled Andrew
by Ashley Spires
Hardcover | 32 Pages | Ages 4-8
ISBN: 9781770494848
eBook: 9781770494855
“Spires makes it her own, bringing a playful touch to her writing and artwork. In fact, insofar as this is a message book, the real takeaway is less ‘know your limits’ than ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained.’ By book’s end, Andrew has returned to his love of acting and cleared his schedule, but he’s also become a cinephile—something he might never have discovered without a stint in French film club.” – Publishers Weekly

Heart of a Champion
Written by Ellen Schwartz
Hardcover | 272 Pages | Ages 9-12
ISBN: 9781770498808
eBook: 9781770498822
Ten-year-old Kenny (Kenji in Japanese) worships his older brother, Mickey (Mitsuo), a baseball hero whose outstanding performance on the Asahi baseball team has given him fame and popularity. Despite Kenny’s suspected heart condition, he is determined to practice secretly with Mickey so he, too, can one day try out for the Asahi. But world events soon overtake life in this quiet community. When Japan attacks Pearl Harbor in 1941, everything for Kenny and his family spirals out of control: schools are closed, businesses are confiscated, fathers are arrested and sent to work camps in the BC interior and mothers and children are relocated to internment camps.

The Skeleton Tree
Written by Iain Lawrence
Hardcover | 288 Pages | Ages 8-12
ISBN: 9781101918357
eBook: 9781101918364
“Fans of Hatchet and Lord of the Flies will be drawn to this harrowing survival story from Lawrence (The Winter Pony), which offers psychological suspense and action in equal measure.” – Publishers Weekly
“The immense forest; its wolves, ravens, bears; the night’s shimmering aurora and myriad stars—all of these are majestic but not friendly. Against this vividly realized backdrop, the boys’ connection is tested. However fragile, fractious, flawed, it’s their lifeline. Unsettling and compelling, a gripping, evocative read.” – Kirkus Reviews

To the Rescue! Garrett Morgan Underground
Written by Monica Kulling
Illustrated by David Parkins
Hardcover | 32 Pages | Ages 5-8
ISBN: 9781770495203
eBook: 9781770495210
“This addition to the invention-focused Great Ideas series focuses on Garrett Morgan, a son of freed slaves who pursued a life beyond tilling Kentucky fields…. Parkins’s handsomely detailed illustrations offer occasional moments of subtle humor, as when Morgan tries out his hair-straightening cream on a neighbor’s pet Airedale—with success! Kulling conveys the impact of racial prejudice on Morgan while celebrating his achievements: when workers digging a tunnel under Lake Erie became trapped after an explosion, the safety hood enabled their rescue. Available simultaneously: Clean Sweep! Frank Zamboni’s Ice Machine.” – Publishers Weekly

Clean Sweep! Frank Zamboni’s Ice Machine
Written by Monica Kulling
Illustrated by Renné Benoit
Hardcover | 32 Pages | Ages 5-8
ISBN: 9781770497955
eBook: 9781770497979
When Frank Zamboni, along with his brother and cousin, opened their own skating rink in 1940 in Paramount, California, it could take an hour and a half for a crew to resurface the ice. They had to level the surface by shaving down the pits and grooves with a tractor, remove the shavings, wash the ice and find a way to give the rink its shining finish. Skaters became exasperated with the wait, so Frank was determined to do something about it. Could he turn a ninety-minute job for five men into a ten-minute task for only one? Working in the shed behind his ice rink, Frank drew designs and built models of machines he hoped would do the job. For nine years, he worked on his invention, each model an improvement on the one before. Finally, in 1949, Frank tested the Model A, which ‘cleaned the ice in one sweep around the rink.’ The rest is history.

Pub Date Giveaway: In the comments below, please tell us which new January 2016 release of Tundra’s you would love to read and one lucky reader will receive their requested book! One request per person and please review our rules. This giveaway ends at midnight on Monday, January 18, 2016!

UPDATE: Congratulations to Rebecca who will be getting a copy of Clean Sweep!