Tis the season! Here come the lists!

PW has announced it's best of 2012 for Picture Books, Kids + YA Fiction, and Kid's Non-Fiction. They have also posted their Top 10 Books of 2012 for adults. Nice to see lots of Dewey picks on here!

Worst Book Reviews of all Time.

"The final blow-up of what was once a remarkable, if minor, talent." -The New Yorker, 1936, on Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner...ouch!

Publishers Weekly has selected the best worst reviews of classic books from Rotten Reviews Redux.

You really need to read the rest of these...they quite unbelievable.

Canadian Publishers...beyond survival

Matt Williams, VP at House of Anansi wrote a good piece in the National Post about the state of Canadian publishing. I thought "right on" - good to hear a voice of reason and an alternative to the often negative media coverage of our industry.

Things are changing for sure and we all have to adapt. Let's not forget that there is a lot of great publishing in this country, and I am proud to be a part of the process.

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.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Slaughter-House Five

“It’s about the desert. It’s a mystery about the desert. You know, I think it’s actually about a slot machine that is lost in the desert.”

This hilarious synopsis comes from the daughter of book blogger Strollerderby.  What happens when a six year old judges a book by its cover? Check out the blog for more including Animal Farm, The Great Gatsby and Lord of the Flies.

We Have A Badge!

Want to show us a little love? Then show your support with one of our Dewey Diva’s badges! Feel free to grab a badge and copy and paste the HTML code below onto your website.
The coding and badge is under our tab "Spread the Word".

Kidsbooks Rocks!

Vancouver's Kidsbooks has some of the most awesome windows in retail. This one features a new kids series from Chronicle Books: The Templeton Twins Have an Idea by Jeremy Holmes this series is A Series of Unfortunate Events for the younger set. Today's Parent calls it a hilarious story...and I laughed out loud in quite a few spots.

It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got That Swing)

Ted Gioia is a recording artist and author of eight books about jazz, including the classic, The History of Jazz.

His latest book, Jazz Standards, is a guide to 250 key jazz compositions. It’s packed with information about how each song was written, who recorded it, and the song’s place in jazz history. It’s interesting to see which songs Gioia chose for the list, but also which recording he deems to be the best.

Jazz Standards is very accessible for beginners, but it also contains lots of anecdotes and background history for the aficionado. It tells the story behind songs such as “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, “Come Rain or Come Shine”, “Nice Work if You Can Get It” and many more.

First Ever International Ivy + Bean Day!

Calling all bookstores, schools and libraries! The new Ivy + Bean releases this month. October 13th is the first ever Ivy + Bean Day. Annie Barrows will be coming to Toronto October 19th and 20th. She is scheduled to appear at Indigo
If you are interested in hosting your own event click here for more details on how you can get an event kit.

Event Kit Includes:
Customizable event signs and bag stuffers
Buttons for staff
Silly bandz bracelets
Balloons Letter from author and illustrator
Activity sheets
Stickers
Poster
Character standee 

10.10.12 Seven is coming...Are you Ready?

For Canadian children's publishing, it doesn't get anymore rock star than this. Seven of Canada's best know kid's writers have come together to write a very cool series about seven grandsons that have seven tasks to perform as decreed by their late Grandfather's will. All seven books will be release on 10.10.12 and the authors  Sigmund Brouwer,  Norah McClintock,  Shane Peacock,  Richard Scrimger, Ted Staunton,  Eric Walters,  John Wilson are going to be all over Canada to promote. To find out more about the series you can go to the Seven website.

BookNet Canada: Canadian Book Buyers and Their Relationship to Libraries

BookNet Canada has a sneak peek of their forthcoming study: The Canadian Book Consumer. This snippet is all about libraries. In the first quarter of 2012, 59.43% of book buyers claim to have visited the library within the last 12 months. Of those respondents, 19.4% visit the library, either in person or online, 2 to 3 times a month and 16.3% visited once a month. For more of this article you can click here.
The Canadian Book Consumer study will be available soon. To pre-order your copy, or to learn how they can customize our research for your company, email research@booknetcanada.ca.

Mike Shatzkin and Publishing into the Flood

Quill and Quire has an excellent podcast series. This summer Mike Shatzkin spoke at Book Summit  which took place at Harbourfront. His talk was entitled Publishing into the Flood. He touches on many issues in publishing such as ebooks,  Amazon and the role of publishers today.

"What Kind of Problem Is A Library?"

 

In the NYRblog, Zadie Smith has written a great piece on bookstores and libraries. My favourite line in it is about her local bookstore who's philosophy is "giving the people the books they didn't know they wanted"...which is a big difference from giving people the books they want. Check it out.

Sunny Chernobyl???

I would have to say this book on eco-disaster tourism  Visit Sunny Chernobyl was one of the sleepers on our list this season. Slowly but surely, I had more and more booksellers + librarians request ARC's. It has received rave reviews every where including a starred review in PW + Kirkus. On the Best of Q, Andrew Blackwell talks about why he visits these places and the impact pollution has had on them. The interview starts around the 26 minute mark. 

Emily Giffin at Indigo!

Super star author Emily Giffin will be at Indigo Manulife Centre on August 30th at 7pm. Her latest book Where We Belong, has been on the Globe and NYT bestseller lists since it pubbed. For more information on the event you can click here.

True Blood Cookbook...seriously!

The hugely popular show has spawned a cookbook: True Blood: Eats, Drinks and and Bites from Bon Temps. Food is a huge part of the show...and book has already received some serious attention.: Publishers Weekly has listed it has on of their list of top cookbooks for the Fall.
NB: No human heart recipes are included in the book!

PW's complete list of Best Cookbooks for the fall is below:

Burma: Rivers of Flavor by Naomi Duguid. Artisan, Sept.Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America by Maricel E. Presilla. W.W. Norton, Oct.

Lidia’s Favorite Recipes: 100 Foolproof Italian Dishes, from Basic Sauces to Irresistible Entrées by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali. Knopf, Oct.

The Great Meat Cookbook: Everything You Need to Know to Buy and Cook Today’s Meat by Bruce Aidells and Dennis Kelly. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Oct.

CookFight: 2 Cooks, 12 Challenges, 125 Recipes, an Epic Battle for Kitchen Dominance by Julia Moskin and Kim Severson. Ecco, Oct.

The Mile End Cookbook: Redefining Jewish Comfort Food from Hash to Hamantaschen by Noah Bernamoff and Rae Bernamoff. Clarkson Potter, Sept.

The Gluten-Free Table: The Lagasse Girls Share Their Favorite Meals by Jilly Lagasse and Jessie Lagasse Swanson, foreword by Emeril Lagasse. Grand Central Life & Style, Oct.

Thanksgiving: How to Cook It Well by Sam Sifton, illus. by Sarah Rutherford. Random House, Oct.

True Blood: Eats, Drinks, and Bites from Bon Temps by Gianna Sobol and Alan Ball. Chronicle, Oct.

The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook: Sweetness in Seattle by Tom Douglas. Morrow, Oct.

Official Game of Thrones Book Tailer

Although season 3 of Game of Thrones won't be coming out until next March, fans can bide their time reading Inside HBO's Game of Thrones; this is the official companion to the TV series which will be available October 1st. This trailer for the book had already over 90,000 hits!

Tavi Gevison TED Talk

The New York Times calls Tavi Gevinson The Oracle of the Girl World. At the age of 11, she started her blog Style Rookie aimed at teenage girls. In two years her blog was a huge hit and she was invited to fashion shows all over the world...Lady Gaga and Judd Apatow are fans. Not your average fashionista, Tavi is interested in feminisim and as her TED Talk shows...is "Still Figuring It Out". She launched her recent online magazine: Rookie and within six days had over one million hits. This September Drawn and Quarterly is coming out with Gevinson's first book Rookie: Yearbook One. There is as you can imagine a huge amount of buzz around this book.

The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan

There was alot of buzz about this book at sales conference. Forge have posted a neat author interview with award-winning TV journalist Hank Phillippi Ryan on YouTube. In it, she talks about crime fiction, her work as a journalist (and, yes, her bazillion emmys) and how it has influenced the new novel, THE OTHER WOMAN. It'll be coming out in September.

What a List!

As promised here is the CBC great List of Kids Summer Reading!...as if our piles aren't big enough ;)!


Alice Moore’s Suggestions 

Children’s librarian at the Gladstone Branch of the Toronto Public Library.
The Ramona series, by Beverly Cleary  

Any poem by Dennis Lee

Shiloh, first of a trilogy, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor  

Polly Horvath’s Suggestions
 Polly Horvath is an award-winning children’s author. 

Little Women, Eight Cousins, by Louisa May Alcott 

James and the Giant Peach or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl

Magic by the Lake or any of the seven books written by Edward Eager 

Kenneth Oppel’s Suggestions
Author of 16 books. He won the Governor General's Award for his book Airborn 

Danny Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl  

Awake and Dreaming, by Kit Pearson 

Feed, by M.T. Anderson 

Melanie Watt’s Suggestions

Author and illustrator. She is best known for her Scaredy Squirrel series.

Stormy Night, by Michele Lemieux 

Stella, Star of the Sea, or any of the Stella series, by Marie Louise Gay 

Alphabeasts, by Wallace Edwards 

For more info and the Cross Country Checkup Callers' Suggestions you can go to the CBC website here.

CBC's Summer List of Great Kids Reads

CBC's Susan McRenyolds hosts a fun panel of  great summer reads for kids. Guests Alice Moore, Polly Horvath, Kenneth Oppel and Melanie Watt all offer their opinion!

Click here to hear what she and the listeners have to say!

The book list will go up on Friday, July 20. I will post when it's up!

Lucy Maud Montgomery

In the recently published book, The Complete Journals of LM Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900, the entries reveal a complex and passionate young woman.  These journals follow Montgomery from age 14-25 as she develops from a school girl into a teacher, university student and eventually a confident writer. Accompanied by 226 of her own b&w photos, the journals offer an intimate look at the early life of one of Canada’s favourite writers.

Take a Book, Share a Book

How cool is this? The Little Free Library started in 2009  as the inspiration of Todd Bol, who in the fall of 2009 landed on a way to honor his late mother, a book-loving teacher. He built a miniature wooden one-room schoolhouse, mounted it outside his Hudson, Wis., home and stocked it with books. Even on rainy days, friends and neighbors would happen by to make selections, drop off books and remark on the library's cuteness. They now have quite a few in Canada!

Their mission as stated is:

To promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide. 

To build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity, and wisdom across generations
To build more than 2,510 libraries around the world - more than Andrew Carnegie!

Shannen and the Dream for a School

Shannen and the Dream for a School has been chosen as the First Nations Community Reads. This is an amazing yet tragic story about  thirteen-year-old Shannen and the other students at J.R. Nakogee Elementary who are tired of attending class in portables that smell and don’t keep out the freezing cold winter air. They make a YouTube video describing the poor conditions, and their plea for a decent school gains them attention and support from community leaders and children across the country. Inspired, the students decide to turn their grade-eight class trip into a visit to Ottawa to speak to the Canadian government. Once there, Shannen speaks passionately to the politicians about the need to give Native children the opportunity to succeed. The following summer, Shannen is nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize. Her passion and that of the other students makes politicians stand up and take notice, and becomes a rallying point for the community and for the country.

For more info on the program check out the SOLS website.