The Toronto Public Library has launched “The List: Great Reads for Youth for 2018” via TPL Teen. They selected 100 fantastic books to make readers laugh, cry, reflect, debate, celebrate and grow. The interactive program encourages teens to watch video reviews and like their favourites. We are thrilled to see Optimists Die First by Susin Nielsen and The Fashion Committee by Susan Juby made the list!
We are delighted to share that Eat, Move, Think: The Path to a Healthier, Stronger, Happier You from Chair and CEO of Medcan, Shaun Francis, is an instant bestseller!
Drawing upon the expert advice of world-renowned doctors and medical professionals, this book captures the innovative strategies of the world’s highest performers—Navy SEALs, cutting-edge researchers, professional athletes—in one handy illustrated guide to everyday healthy living.
Tanya Talaga, award-winning journalist and author, has won the 2017 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political writing for her book Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City.
The Prize is awarded annually for an exceptional book of literary nonfiction that captures a political subject of relevance to Canadian readers.
From the jury:
“Tanya Talaga’s powerful book is a hard-hitting story of the realities of Canadian racism, complicity, and Indigenous suffering. It is also a testament to the resilience of the Anishinaabe families who endure the crushing impacts of historic and contemporary injustices. In spare prose and a direct voice, Talaga documents the tragedies of the lost lives of Indigenous youth while creating a compelling narrative that educates the reader on the sad history of Indigenous-White relations. This book is a crucial document of our times, and vital to the emergence of a true vision of justice in Canada.”
Kyo Maclear’s memoir Birds, Art, Life is the winner of the 2017 Nautilus Award in the newly created category of Lyrical Prose.
Now in its 20th year, this unique book award program honors, awards and promotes print books that inspire and connect our lives as individuals, communities, and global citizens.
A #1 national bestseller, Birds, Art, Life, follows two artists on a yearlong adventure that is at once a meditation on the nature of creativity and a quest for a good and meaningful life.
Glenn Dixon’s best-selling memoir, Juliet’s Answer: One Man’s Search for Love and the Elusive Cure for Heartbreak, has been shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing in the category of non-fiction.
Spurned by love, Dixon travels to Verona, Italy, to become a scribe of Juliet, Shakespeare’s fictional character, all in an attempt to understand his heartbreak. Once there, he volunteers to answer the thousands of letters that arrive addressed to Juliet, letters sent from lovelorn people all over the world who long to understand the mysteries of the human heart. The result is an enthralling tale of modern-day love steeped in the romantic traditions of eras past.
The awards are intended to encourage new or emerging writers and honor the Saroyan literary legacy of originality, vitality and stylistic innovation. The prize also engages nearly 200 Stanford alumni who participate as readers and judges.Winners and finalists will be announced this summer.
We are thrilled for Matt James who has seen great success with The Funeral, his first book as both illustrator and author. Not only has the children’s book stacked up five starred-reviews, it received a lovely mention in The New York Times piece “How Do You Talk to Children About Death? These Books Can Help.” “James has an ear at child level and beautifully and convincingly shows us children who fidget during the service and consider a mourner’s hairy ear perhaps more than they think about the deceased. But they are not completely irreverent, just children, who are full of life.”
We are delighted to share this starred review from Publishers Weekly for David Chariandy’s award-winning novel, Brother. “Chariandy imbues his resilient characters and their stories with strength, dignity, and hope. This is an impressive novel written by an author in total command of his story.”
Reka Simonsen at Atheneum made a six-figure, two-book pre-empt for THE VERY, VERY FAR NORTH by Dan Bar-el, author of Audrey (Cow). The middle grade novel features a charming polar bear named Duane finding his place in the world, illustrating how friendship both overcomes and celebrates differences, akin to a contemporary Winnie-the-Pooh. Publication of the first volume is planned for fall 2019: Hilary McMahon at Westwood Creative Artists brokered the deal for world rights on behalf of the author; Abigail Samoun at Red Fox Literary negotiated on behalf of Kelly Pousette, who will illustrate.
Kyo Maclear and illustrator Rashin Kheiriyeh’s STORY BOAT, a lyrical picture book about a girl and her younger sibling who try to figure out where and what home is as they make the journey to their new country, to Tara Walker at Tundra Books, for publication in January 2020, by Jackie Kaiser of Westwood Creative Artists (World).
An imaginative new picture book collaboration between author Sara O’Leary and illustrator Rosie Winstead, MARIGOLD AND THE GIANT GIRL, about a doll whose life changes when a little girl becomes the new owner of her dollhouse, to Tara Walker at Tundra Books, for publication in Fall 2019, by Jackie Kaiser of Westwood Creative Artists, (World).
Winner of the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and author of Walls, Marcello Di Cintio’s Pay No Heed to the Rockets, a political-literary travelogue that reveals a more complex story to the Palestinian experience as seen through the lens of authors, books, and literature, once again to Dan Smetanka at Counterpoint, for publication in September 2018, by Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists. Canadian rights previously to Susanne Alexander at Goose Lane, for publication in April 2018, by Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists. UK & Commonwealth (excl. Canada) rights to Elizabeth Briggs at Saqi, for publication in May 2018, by Carolyn Forde on behalf of Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists.
Antonio Michael Downing’s BECOMING JOHN ORPHEUS, a memoir of radical creativity, about a young Trinidadian boy who lands in a remote Northern Ontario town and navigates his beguiling new world as an orphan, immigrant and minority by using music and performance to dramatically transform himself, to Penguin Publishing Director Diane Turbide at Penguin Random House Canada, in a pre-empt, by John Pearce at Westwood Creative Artists in association with Chris Casuccio (Canada English).
Julie Matysik at Running Press Kids has acquired Troy Wilson’s LITTLE RED READING HOOD AND THE MISREAD WOLF, a celebration of the love of reading and a reminder you can’t judge a book – er, wolf – by its cover. Ilaria Campana will illustrate. Publication is scheduled for July 2019. Hilary McMahon at Westwood Creative Artists brokered the deal for World rights for the author and Aurora Meyer at Astound Us brokered the deal for the illustrator.
Poet and screenwriter Esta Spalding’s SHOUT OUT FOR THE FITZGERALD-TROUTS, the much-anticipated third book in a Dahl-esque middle-grade series featuring a band of loosely related self-reliant siblings who live alone in their car on a tropical island, for publication in Summer 2019, and an untitled middle grade fiction book, to Tara Walker and Lynne Missen at Tundra Books, by Jackie Kaiser of Westwood Creative Artists (World). Film and TV rights previously optioned by Argent Pictures and 3311 Productions and Semi Chellas (Mad Men, The Romanoffs, Ophelia), by Jerry Kalajian of the Intellectual Property Group on behalf of Jackie Kaiser of Westwood Creative Artists.
From the author and illustrator team of Sakura’s Cherry Blossoms, Robert Paul Weston and Misa Saburi NATSUMI’S SONG OF SUMMER, a new tanka poem picture book that celebrates the special pleasures of summertime and of reunions with faraway family and friends, to Jessica Burgess at Tundra Books, for publication in Summer 2020, by Jackie Kaiser of Westwood Creative Artists (World).
