Elaine “Lainey” Lui of CTV’s “The Social” and founder and editor of LaineyGossip.com, personally revealed the cover of Raziel Reid’s YA novel Kens on her namesake blog. Lui, who represented Reid’s first book When Everything Feels Like the Movies on CBC’s Canada Reads 2015, took the opportunity to share her appreciation of his latest work, “This is a story of identity and acceptance and, like all of Raziel’s work, it’s funny and provocative and deeply disturbing… because don’t we all wear masks? Don’t we all borrow faces?”

Kens will be available September 2018.

Congratulations to acclaimed YA author Susan Juby on making the Young Adult Library Services Association’s list of 2018 Best Fiction for Young Adults with her newest title, The Fashion Committee. Since publishing in 2017 the novel has earned positive reviews from Quill & Quire and the Toronto Star, and received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Horn Book Magazine, and School Library Journal. The Globe and Mail said, “Like all Juby novels, this one is sparkling verbose and self-deprecating … This one is tailored to perfection for readers who love to laugh and look good doing it.”

The Funeral, Matt James’ debut children’s book as illustrator and author, has racked up five starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness.

“Enveloping and original, James’ authorial debut offers an honest exploration of a difficult and delicate subject. Exceptional.” –Kirkus 

“James’s creation isn’t designed to start a discussion about death. It’s more a story about Norma that happens to involve a funeral, and it traces with a big heart the way she makes sense of this puzzling event.” –Publishers Weekly

“Dazzling abstract details are paired with evocative language… A notable portrayal.” –School Library Journal

“James uniquely and playfully captures the particularities of a child’s perspective” –Booklist

“James’s inviting multi-media artwork in The Funeral includes acrylic and ink on masonite and dimensional elements of cut paper, masking tape, rolled-up twine, cardboard and scroll-sawn masonite. The overall effect gives the illustrations depth and carries the story beyond the text. Simply lovely.” –Shelf Awareness

The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore, from award-winning author Kim Fu, has garnered positive reviews since publishing in February of this year. See below for quotes from Quill & Quire, The Stranger and, The New York Times.

“Despite its outward appearance as a straightforward survival tale, The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore is a thoroughly entertaining, complex novel full of intricate insights into human nature.” –Quill & Quire

“These portraits of sisterhood, motherhood, daughterhood, wifehood, girlfriendhood, independent womanhood, and other female-identified-hoods sing and groan and scream with complexity and nuance, and they make me want to read her next ten books.” –The Stranger

“In the one-way glass of the novel, we watch the girls of Forevermore from a series of angles, in all their private anguishes. We lean closer, unable to turn away.” –The New York Times

Not only did Sakura’s Cherry Blossoms from author Robert Paul Weston and illustrator Misa Saburi get a starred review on Booklist, it was featured as the Review of the Day on their homepage for January 22, 2018!

We’re thrilled to see David Chariandy’s Brother and Mark Sakamoto’s Forgiveness on the 2018 Canada Reads longlist!

This year’s longlisted titles speak to the theme: One Book to Open Your Eyes. These books challenge readers to look differently at themselves, their neighbours and the world around them.

Congratulations to Life on the Ground Floor author James Maskalyk and In the Name of Humanity author Max Wallace, both shortlisted for the seventeenth RBC Taylor Prize.

The 17th annual prize will be awarded Mon Feb 26th at a gala luncheon. The Prize consists of $30,000 for the winner and $5000 for each of the finalists.

Ruth Marshall’s hilarious memoir with a very long title, Walk It Off: The True and Hilarious Story of How I Learned to Stand, Walk, Pee, Run, and Have Sex Again After a Nightmarish Diagnosis Turned My Awesome Life Upside Down, is off to a great start. Since publishing in January of this year, it has been featured on Elle Canada‘s “Four Must-Reads on Our Bookshelf this Month” and Bustle‘s “16 Best Nonfiction Books Of January 2018 To Get You Ready For The Year.” Marshall also appeared on CTV’s Your Morning and Global News’ The Morning Show to talk about the incredible and often humorous experience that inspired her book.

Desmond Cole, acclaimed journalist and author of the award-winning article, “The Skin I’m In: I’ve been interrogated by police more than 50 times—all because I’m black,” has been awarded the 2017 PEN Canada/Ken Filkow Prize for freedom of expression. The award honours those “whose work has advanced freedom of expression in Canada.”

In his documentary Desmond explores what it is to be black in Canada in the 21st. The Skin We’re In aired on CBC in 2017 and can be viewed here.