DK Canada's "Stay Home, Stay Curious" Campaign

DK Canada is thrilled to share their "Stay Home, Stay Curious" campaign on DK Canada's website.

This hub will house content from across DK Canada's books and divisions. Everything from home learning ideas, recipe extracts to great Canadian content such as a free downloadable teacher's guide for Our Great Prime Ministers. There's also DIY ideas & Gardening tips as well as excerpts to make staying fit at home easy!

The Woes of the Comic Industry -- Interview with Faith Erin Hicks

Award-winning comics creator, Faith Erin Hicks, describes in her own words what it was like to write her first YA novel, Comics Will Break Your Heart, and her experience in the comic industry.

Hicks shares how as a comic creator, it was extremely difficult for her to read about how some comic creators don't retain ownership of the characters they create, or they lose copyright to their creations. This book was inspired by these issues, and to shed light on the struggle many comics face in this industry. 

Comics Will Break Your Heart is a sensitive and funny modern day romance, and shows what it takes to heal the past.  Click here to read more!

Sex, Drugs, and YA Literature

Decades have been spent trying to get boys to read – but trying to get teenage boys to read? Forget it. Proposing the question ‘What are teenage boys interested in?’ will typically be answered with nothing more than a roll of the eyes, but Daniel Handler’s newest novel All the Dirty Parts focuses on exactly that. Described by the author in a recent New York Times article, the novel “portrays a young boy’s emotional, hetroflexible sex life”. Instead of censoring out the sex, drugs, and rock and roll, Handler writes head on about a young adult’s burgeoning sexuality and tells it like it is. As Handler puts it: “Let’s not smirk at their interests. Let’s give them books that might engage them."

Handler is also known by his pen name, Lemony Snicket. 

Harry Potter 20!

Feel old yet? June 26^th Marked the 20^th anniversary of Harry Potter! Quill and Quire asked booksellers all across Canada to reflect on the impact and importance of J.K. Rowling’s revolutionary saga since its release two decades ago. From inspiring new readers, then and now, to some crediting Rowling with the revival of an industry, check out the memories Canadian Booksellers shared here. 

Love Letters to the Dead Film Adaptation!!!!

Ava Dellaira's critically-acclaimed debut YA novel, Love Letters to the Dead (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) has been optioned for film by Fox 2000 and Temple Hill! The book was published April 2014 and follows the story of Laurel, a teenager who is given an assignment by her English teacher: write a letter to a dead person. She chooses to write to Kurt Cobain, who was around the same age as her sister was when she died. But Laurel doesn't stop there. She goes on to write a series of letters to a motley crew of deceased actors, musicians, and icons, through which bits and pieces of her past are revealed.

The producers attached to the project, Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen, have been involved with various YA book-to-film adaptations, including The Twilight Saga, The Maze Runner and, most recently, John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. Ava Dellaira will be writing the script.

An inside look at STAINED by Cheryl Rainfield

Cheryl Rainfield writes the books she needed as a teen and couldn't find. In Stained, her fourth YA novel, Sarah, who has a port wine stain and some body image issues, is abducted and must find a way to rescue herself. Like Sarah, Cheryl had to rely on her own strength to survive many threatening situations. Earlier this fall, Cheryl spoke to a group of teenagers at Indigo Yorkdale. Cheryl spoke very passionately and strongly, and her personal story and reading were remarkably powerful. A self-defence seminar/demonstration was also part of this event.

Stained recently received a four-star review in CM Magazine. Cheryl is scheduled to make an appearance at OLA Super Conference at the Thomas Allen & Son booth. Follow Thomas Allen & Son on Twitter for more information.

Stained by Cheryl Rainfield

$20.99, hardcover

ISBN: 9780547942087

Publication date: October 1, 2013

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Distributed in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son

An Interview with Marissa Meyer!

TheMagazine.ca recently did an interview with Marissa Meyer, best-selling author of the Lunar Chronicles series. In the interview she discusses what readers should expect from her upcoming books, which of her characters she's most like, moving out of the sci-fi genre, and possible Lunar Chronicles movies! Really fun and interesting interview, and it seems like she has a lot of surprises in store for her readers!


Check out the full interview here!

Eleanor & Park

It's great to see Eleanor & Park getting so much love lately! Rainbow Rowell's book about first love is definitely adored around these parts, and it seems like The Toronto Star feels the same way! Here's their review:

"This may well turn out to be the best-written teen romance of 2013. Rowell alternates between the perspectives of Eleanor, whose flamboyant hair, large figure and weird clothes make her the butt of bullies at her new school, and Park, who finds himself first sharing his comics with her (X-men; Watchmen) and then his music (the Smiths; Joy Division) — this is 1986, after all. Rowell writes of the breath-taking, cautious, astonished moments of adolescent romance with lucid, poetic intensity; at the same time, she evokes the threat of domestic violence with a bite that deepens the teens’ ultimate triumph. Highly recommended."

E&P is, indeed, a very well done romance. Rowell takes the reader on a journey as these two misfit teens experience the awkwardness, confusion, and INTENSE FEELINGS that come with falling in love for the first time, and it does this without being too sexy or saccharine, as many YA novels tend to be. It is really written quite wonderfully and let's just say that many tears were shed whilst reading this book. Many, many tears.

Heather Reisman, CEO of Chapters Indigo, has also joined the E&P love-fest by including it as one of her 2013 Top Summer Reads for Teens! Pretty amazing.

So ... You should probably read it.