Obama pens a piece for Lonely Planet

This is very cool; President Obama wrote a piece this month for Lonely Planet:

“Lonely Planet believes responsible travel can be a force for good. It's a belief shared by President Barack Obama, the first sitting US president to visit Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Myanmar and Laos. On his final foreign trip, he spoke to us about how the optimistic, tolerant and engaged young people he has met around the world give him hope for the future.”

Kirkus' Best Picture Books of 2016

Kirkus has released their best picture books of the year and there are lot's to choose from. What a great year for picture books!

WE ALL NEED A LAUGH!!!

 
My close personal friends at This Is That (a.k.a. they spoke at our sales conference) have just released This Is That: A Travel Guide To Canada.
To celebrate it's awesomeness check out their video which is a weird and wacky ode to selling books!

Marnie Jackson on The Next Chapter

Don't I Know You  was one of my fave reads of the year. It is journalist Marni Jackson's first foray into fiction. In the book, the main character, Rose's life intersects with a wide number of celebrities: Bob Dylan, John Updike, Taylor Swift, etc. My favourite scene is Rose in the beauty salon with Gwyneth Paltrow. Shelagh Rogers interviews Jackson on The Next Chapter...fun!

And another list!

Indigo's top 10 books of the year...it's a good one!

1. The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall (House of Anansi Press)
2. Secret Path by Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire (Simon & Schuster Canada) and Wenjack by Joseph Boyden (Hamish Hamilton Canada)
3. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (Bond Street Books)
4. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (Random House Canada)
5. The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer (S&S Canada)
6. Morning Star by Pierce Brown (Del Rey)
7. A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny (St. Martin’s Press)
8. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (S&S Canada)
9. The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (HarperCollins)
10. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (Crown)

Here's a pretty cool list

The Literary Review of Canada is celebrating it's 25th anniversary. In recognition of this occasion, they asked some pretty awesome writers to compile a list of the the top Canadian books of the past 25 years. They said the criteria was "what books did we—and you—argue about over the dinner table?"  The list is amazing. Margaret Atwood discusses Kiss of the Fur Queen; Ibi Kaslik presents The Tipping Point. Check it out and see which ones got your discussions going.

I Am Not A Number

I Am Not A Number is an incredible (and not unheard of) story of a young girl's brutal experience in the residential schools. This is Jenny Kay Dupis' retelling of her grandmother's childhood. Gillian Newland's amazing illustrations and Kathy Kacer's wonderful words illuminate this remarkable story.
You can hear more on this story on Matt Galloway's show on CBC.

Not So Super Power Generator

Clara (the star of Clara Humble and the Not-So- Super Hero Powers) wants you to find out your Super Power Name. Go to Clara Humble's Not So Super Power Generator. to find out yours. What was mine? The Fancy Bookish Girl...not much of a surprise ('cept maybe the Fancy part) :)

Small Victories...My Favourite Cookbook of the Season!

This is such a smart book. Julia called the book Small Victories as she believes that cooking is a bunch of small victories and shouldn't be overwhelming. She gives one recipe and has 5 adaptations of it. Julia has worked on cookbooks with Gwyneth Paltrow and Mario Batali. Ina Garten is a big fan.

Fatty Legs

Fatty Legs is an amazing story of resilience and survival in Canada's Residential schools. It was won countless awards and been on numerous best-of lists. The CBC interviewed both of the authors. You can hear the full conversation here.

CBC's Fan Choice Contest

The CBC, Canadian Children's Book Centre and TD Bank have joined together to create the CBC's Fan Choice Contest. To vote for your favourite of the 5 books go here and you get a chance to win a visit by one of the finalist authors to your school, copies of that author's book for all of the students in your class, $2000 donation to your school library and $500 spending money.
What are you waiting for! Vote!!!

Happy B-Day Annick Press!

Anne and Rick working out of Anne's basement in the early days of Annick Press, illustrated by Michael Martchenko

PW did a great piece on the history of Annick Press who have been publishing for 40 years! From working out of a basement on a shared desk to one of the top children's publishers, it is an amazing story. :)

Happy B-day Curious George!

It's everyone's favourite monkey's 75th birthday this year! Created 75 years ago by Margret and HA Rey, the very first Curious George book has never been out of print. Here's a link to some fun facts about the cheeky wee monkey. If you would like to celebrate his b-day, you can download an activity kit here.    

Lois Lowry: 6 books that changed my life

Lois Lowry's Looking Back: A Book of Memories, will be coming out in a new edition early next year. She recently talked to the CBC about the 6 books that changed her life. 2 of the books she picked were by our very own Robertson Davies and Margret Atwood. You can see the full list here.

Star Wars Reads Month is Coming!

DK has downloadable activity kits on their website. If you'd like Star Wars Bookplates and Star Wars Bookmarks, send them an email at general.dkcanada@dk.com by October 1st! 
Enjoy - and may the Force be with you!

Time to Get Your Yum On!

Chatelaine has posted the 18 hot cookbooks to watch for this Fall. So many to choose from! These books make the impending cold weather seem more bearable...at least I can eat my way thru Winter ;)

Canada Rocks...But We Already Know That...

SLJ wrote a super article on how Canada publishes so many diverse kid's books. Written by our very own Ken Setterington, the article profiles lots of our fabulous publishers and creators.

Batman Day...September 17th...Save the Date!

And if you are really into it, you can download some really cool activity kits from the DK website...enjoy!

Star Wars Reads Day is....the Whole Month of October!

Yup that's right...there will be 31 days to celebrate all things Star Wars. Stay tuned for more details on how publishers will be celebrating this month. For now you can go here.