Funniest Video Trailer Ever!

Deanna from Harper Collins came and spoke in my class about digital marketing. She showed this trailer to my students...Fred Armisen as Penny Marshall promoting her new book. It was hilarious; although I am not sure how many of my students know who Penny Marshall is...

Huzzah! Scaredy Squirrel Has His Own Website!

Some exciting news from Kids Can Press: www.ScaredySquirrel.com is now live and ready for a visit!

The Scaredy Squirrel site is a a brand new official website that you can browse for games, activities, fan mail, information about books in other languages, a virtual tour of Mélanie Watt's studio, and more.

OMG! The Libraries of the Rich and Famous

This is Neil Gaiman's library. The pic comes from the blog The Book Riot. To see the libraries of Sting, Diane Keaton and Karl Lagerfield click here.

Roberto Innocenti...In His Own Words

The video below is an amazing over view of the career of Roberto Innocenti's career. His latest book, The Girl in Red is a Matrix like version of Little Red Riding Hood...both beautiful and terrifying.

I love you Margaret Atwood!

One of my Ryerson students sent me this...it is hilarious.

This comes from Ms. Atwood's website where she states that she no longer gives blurbs.

Letter sent in reply to requests for blurbs
(I blurb only for the dead, these days)

“You are well-known, Ms. Atwood,” the Editor said,
And we long for your quote on this book;
A few well-placed words wouldn’t bother your head,
And would help us to get in the hook!”

“In my youth,” said Ms. Atwood, “I blurbed with the best;
I practically worked with a stencil!
I strewed quotes about with the greatest largesse,
And the phrases flowed swift from my pencil.

Intelligent, lucid, accomplished, supreme,
Magnificent, touching but rough ,
And lucent and lyrical, plangent, a dream,
Vital, muscular, elegant, tough! 

But now I am aging; my brain is all shrunk,
And my adjective store is depleted;
My hair’s getting stringy, I walk as though drunk;
As a quotester I’m nigh-on defeated.

I would like to be useful; God knows, as a girl 
I was well-taught to help and to share;
But the books and the pleas for quotes pour through the door
Till the heaps of them drive to despair!

So at last I’ve decided to say No to all.
What you need is a writer who’s youthful;
Who has energy, wit, and a lot on the ball,
And would find your new book a sweet toothful,
Or else sees no need to be truthful.

Such a one would be happy, dear Editor, to
Write you quotes until blue in the brain.
It’s a person like this who can satisfy you,
Not poor me, who am half down the drain.

So I wish you Good Luck, and your author, and book,
Which I hope to read later, with glee.
Long may you publish, and search out the blurbs,
Though you will not get any from me.”

The Art Lover's Guide to Canadian Painting

The first edition of A Concise History of Canadian Painting was published in the seventies and has become something of a classic, despite having been printed in black and white. The new third edition features more than 220 beautiful reproductions in colour, and a larger format that really shows off these paintings. The latest edition has also been brought up to date with the addition of 100 new pages.

A Concise History of Canadian Painting is very accessible and provides a wonderful overview of Canadian Painting from the seventeenth century onward.

To promote his new book Pirate Cinema, Cory Doctorow will be touring all over North America this fall. He has already done a jaunt thru Toronto but will be back at the end of October.

Here's a list of Cory's upcoming Canada appearances:

 ·       Oct 19 Pages Workshop, Edmonton Public Library (registration required)

·       Oct 20 In Conversation with William Gibson, Vancouver International Writers Festival 2pm (Tickets available from VIWF)

·       Oct 20 "What if?" panel with Margaret Atwood and Pasha Malla, Vancouver International Festival 5pm (Tickets available from VIWF)

·       Oct 21 Reading at West Point Grey United Church with Vancouver Kidsbooks, 6pm 

·       Oct 22 Reading at Bolen Books, Victoria, 7pm

·       Oct 25 Reading, International Festival of Authors, Toronto, 8pm (Tickets available from IFOA)

·       Oct 26 In conversation with China Miéville, International Festival of Authors, 8pm (Tickets available from IFOA)

Ashley Spires...is there anything she can't do!

We are all very excited that there is a new Binky out! Ashley Spires is one of those people who can illustrate and write! I can barely string two words together and the best thing I can draw is a daisy (it is pretty good!). I just found out that she is also a style icon! The Post did a feature on her blog Drawn Out Wardrobe. "The Best Message Ever" is a post about a message she got on Facebook from about her new book:

 "Dear Binky, He came into my classroom today. You know, the boy who dislikes hates detests reading. He has quit more than two books since the start of school--four days ago. He stood near my desk and told me straight up, "I hate reading." I'm so glad you live in my classroom, Binky. I walked right over to you, picked you up gently, and introduced you to this boy. This boy who took you out of my classroom over The Lunch Lady and Sidekicks. This boy who took you back to study hall and hid himself behind the door so he could read more than the first couple pages I read to him. This boy who left school with a smile saying, "I love that book!" This is what you do, Binky. You live in my classroom and make best friends with readers. Thank you."

And that, people, is why I do what I do.

Lego Contest!

As the world's bestselling publisher of LEGO books DK is celebrating with a month-long photo contest – with a fabulous prize of an amazing collection of DK’s LEGO books worth over $200!

They want to see what creative kids ages 14 and under can make with their LEGO. Simple send them a photo and at the end of the month our Canadian LEGO Fan Builder extraordinaire Deborah Higdon (featured in the LEGO Ideas Book ) will select a winning creation. Throughout the month we will be posting the photos on cn.dk.com/legopix as well as on our Facebook page ( link to wwwfacebook.com/DKCanada ) and Twitter feed @DKCanada (link to www.twitter.com/DKCanada ).

TO ENTER:

Send a photo of your LEGO creation ( you can enter as many times as you like with different creations )  to us at general@tourmaline.ca (jpgs only, no larger than 5 mb). Please include the headline For the Love of LEGO in your email. One lucky entrant will win a DK LEGO Book collection worth over $200!

Deadline for submissions is October 31st, 2012 6 EDT

Take Home an Original

On October 16th, the Canadian Children’s Book Centre is hosting an exciting and unique event in Montreal. Take Home an Original, a live auction of eighty original illustrations from Canadian picture books, will be held at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts on Tuesday, October 16th. The event will be preceded by a unique five-week exhibition of the illustrations from September 14th to October 14th with workshops and other family activities on the weekends. This exhibit is the first by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to honour the art of children's picture books.

These original illustrations from internationally loved Canadian picture books have been donated to the Canadian Children’s Book Centre by top illustrators all across the country including Stéphane Poulin, Marie-Louise Gay, Stéphane Jorisch, Janice Nadeau, Michael Martchenko, Barbara Reid, and Philippe Béha, among others. A multitude of artistic mediums are represented including watercolours, acrylics, oils, tempera, gouache, Plasticene, collage, pen and ink, and Photoshop. Half of the donated art was created by Quebec illustrators.Tickets to the auction are $50. They can be purchased online or by phone at 514-272-9608 or 416-975-0010, x224. If you are unable to attend but wish to bid on the art, please contact Charlotte Teeple at 416-975-0010 ext. 226 or charlotte@bookcentre.ca.

For more details you can go to the website.