Transatlantic is looking forward to Frankfurt 2010.

The Missouri Association of School Librarians has selected Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship and Survival (Walker Books for Young Readers), written by Mary Nethery and Kirby Larson and illustrated by Jean Cassels, for its 2010-2011 Show Me Reader Awards List. Congratulations Two Bobbies! This makes the book's 10th state nomination.

Its State Award nominations include to date
2010-2011 Show Me Readers Award, Missouri Association of School Librarians
2011 Louisiana Young Reader’s Choice Award
2010 Montana Treasure State Award
2010 North Carolina Children’s Book Award
2010 Alabama Department of Education Emphasis on Reading, books for K-1
2010 Flicker Tale Children's Book Award, nonfiction category,
School Librarians and Youth Services division of North Dakota
Library Association
2010 Washington State Children's Choice Picture Book Award
2010 Colorado Children's Book Award
2010 Bill Martin, Jr. Award, Kansas Reading Association
2010 Beehive Award, Children's Literature Association of Utah

Among other awards, Two Bobbies was also selected for the 2009 Children's Choices list by the International Reading Association and the Children's Book Council, and received a 2009 SIBA.
 
Bobbi and Bob Cat are the best of friends. When their hometown of New Orleans was struck by Hurricane Katrina, they lost everything, as did so many others. Only by staying together could Bobbi and Bob Cat survive. Two Bobbies is the true story of their friendship.

The picture book received enormous press coverage along with two Top Ten Picks - from Indie Next (formerly Book Sense) and Bookazine. It was a Junior Library Guild selection and was named among the Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2009, a cooperative project of the National Council for the Social Studies and the Children's Book Council. 

"Two Bobbies is one powerful, heartwarming book."
- Marigny Dupuy, The Times-Picayune
 
"...one knockout book for readers of all ages."
- Book Group Buzz, A Booklist Blog
 
"Two Bobbies is one [book] you will not soon forget."
- Jennifer Schultz, The Kiddosphere

"Children (and adults) will love this story."
- Fran Hawk, The Post and Courier

"This moving story about the importance of friendship and home highlights the plight of the hurricane's lost and left-behind animals, as well as the value of animal shelters."
- Booklist

In support of colour expert Janice Lindsay's forthcoming book, "All
About Colour," Pittsburgh Paints has announced a special line of paint colours
inspired by the author's book and approach to decorating with colour.
This exciting development will allow readers to translate Lindsay's fabulous
ideas from the page into their homes easily and effectively.

For more information about Janice Lindsay, "All About Colour," and this
gorgeous new line of paint colours, check out
http://voiceofcolor.com/en/inspicafe/voc/janice-lindsay/index.asp

Works by TLA authors Linden MacIntyre and Martha Baillie were among 12 books from a list of 96 nominees to be placed on the long list for the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

In The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre (Random House of Canada) a priest who had been tasked with disciplining wayward priests is sequestered to a small parish to avoid impending controversy, and wrestles with the consequences of past cover-ups and corruption.

The Incident Report takes place in the Allan Gardens Public Library, home to the mad and the marginalized; the novel is both a mystery and an erotic love story, told in 144 brief lyric reports that ricochet off each other to form an utterly unusual and compelling novel.

The shortlist will be announced on October 6, while the winner of the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize will be declared at a Gala ceremony on November 10, 2009.

For more information about the Scotiabank Giller Prize:

Scotiabank Giller Prize

Arctic explorer and journalist Bernice Notenboom reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 25, 2009. Bernice's ascent on Everest is part of a series,  following her four recent expeditions which have spanned both poles.

Bernice Notenboom intent is to visit areas where climate change has its strongest effect reporting with her team via blog, video, film and photo. The objective of her latest project has been to inspire people to initiate action to save energy and generate awareness of the severity of changes in the Himalaya. 

The day of the final ascent the team rescued a climber from another expedition who was close to death. The expedition was overshadowed with grief. Its hardships included the death of a member of the climbing team, Lhapka Nuru Sherpa, who was lost during a massive avalanche.

More information about Bernice Notenboom's ascent including her dispatches can be found on her website Arctic Alert:
www.arcticalert.com

Daniel Sekulich author of the forthcoming Terror on the Seas: True Tales of Modern Day Pirates will be discussing the concerns of modern-day piracy with Peter Mansbridge on an upcoming CBC interview. Interviews on ABC TV's 20/20 and on ABC radio are also soon forthcoming.

Terror on the Seas takes readers on a wild voyage into the murky underworld of high seas piracy, a multinational, multi-billion-dollar enterprise increasingly controlled by organized crime syndicates and local warlords. The North American release of the book has been moved forward to May 2009.

Updates to come.

Richard Poplak discussed his new book The Sheik's Batmobile on CBC Radio Q. A podcast of the day's program is available on the CBC Radio website (mp3 file):
podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/qpodcast_20090415_14360.mp3

The Sheik's Batmobile: In Pursuit of American Pop Culture in the Muslim World is just about to release.

More information can be found about the book on Penguin Canada's website:
www.sheikhsbatmobile.com

Congratulations to Russell Wangersky who has been awarded the $40,000 B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for his 2008 memoir, Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself (Thomas Allen Publishers).  It is Canada’s richest non-fiction prize.
 
In choosing the winning book, the jury debated the nature of the prize, ultimately deciding that dazzling writing should take the spotlight. “This is a literary award,” said jury chair John Cruickshank, who called Wangersky’s book “a story extraordinarily well told.” 

More information can be found at:
www.bcachievement.com/nonfiction/2009/winner.php

Can we predict tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, sudden climate changes, cosmic impacts, deadly pandemics, and stock market crashes?
 
Florin Diacu, Ph.D, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Victoria, will be in travelling from British Columbia to Toronto in March. Diacu has been invited by the Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science to present a free public lecture on March 1 as part of its Winter 2009 series. During his presentation, which is being co-sponsored by the Fields Institute for the Research in Mathematical Sciences, Diacu will discuss the quest to predict megadisasters and the problems researchers face when trying to forecast extreme events.

Diacu's research in this area will be further explored in his book, Megadisasters, which will be published in English by Princeton University Press and Oxford University Press (Fall 2009) and in Japanese by Bungeishunju, and has been optioned for film by Chiaro Productions Inc.

You can enjoy a brief interview and video demonstration of Jason Brown's mathematical research into the music of the Beatles on the Wall Street Journal's online site:

Professor Uses Mathematics to Decode Beatles Tunes article

Jason Brown is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and Faculty of Computer Science at Dalhousie University in Halifax. His revealing and entertaining book Our Days are Numbered: How Mathematics Orders Our Lives is forthcoming from McClelland and Stewart in Canada and also from Hayakawa in Japan.

Jeff Warren, author of the The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness, has been invited to attend the “Toward a Science of Consciousness” conference in Hong Kong, and will be part of the larger Asia Consciousness Festival.  He will also speak at the Art and Mind Festival 2009 in Winchester, UK.  This prestigious gathering endeavors to bring together the world's most eminent thinkers, scientists and artists to examine the way we experience and create contemporary culture. 

Jeff will spend much of February sailing around the Sea of Cortez with international whale researchers in preparation for his next book, Three Minds, an exploration of whales, elephants, and humans, and how their elemental environments influence the development of “mind.” 

Starring in the film adaptation of the novel that you’ve written about your life is no easy task. Joel Thomas Hynes likes things complicated.

“I’ve always been most drawn to self-destruction and the more ambiguous side of redemption. By the time I was twenty-three, which was around the age I was when I started working on the novel, I had pretty much destroyed myself physically and socially and spiritually and all I had left was this desire to rise above my own battered self-image. So I wrote my first book as a sort of means of recreating and reconstructing a life I was equally proud of and ashamed for having lived.”

Based on this first novel, Down to the Dirt (the film), debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and recently completed a critically-acclaimed Festival tour across Canada. Look for it in wide-release early in 2009. 

More information can be found about the film at its official website:
downtothedirt.com

TLA congratulates Michael Arvaaluk Kusugak who is the 2008 recipient of the Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature. Sponsored by the George Cedric Metcalf Foundation and administered by the Writers' Trust, this award is given to the author of a body of work in children's literature that, in the opinion of the judges, demonstrates the highest literary standards. This award was founded in 1963 by Vicky Metcalf, author of Journey Fantastic, with the purpose of stimulating the writing of literature for Canadian children.

The 2008 jurists for the award, Jean Little, Susan Perren and Judith Saltman, describe Michael’s published work spanning two decades, as: 

“A dynamic linking of memory and place defines Inuit children’s author Michael Kusugak’s picture books, short stories, and historical novel. Kusugak’s stories are primarily set in the 1950’s of his childhood in Repulse Bay, a small Inuit community of only 100 people, at the north end of Hudson’s Bay within the Arctic Circle. Drawing from personal experience, Kusugak writes unforgettably of the lived experience of the North: the beauty of the Arctic landscape, its variety of seasonal change and animal and human activities, the close knit life of the Inuit community, the presence of mythic imagery and belief. Kusugak’s voice is unique with Inuit diction and metaphor — falling stars are “star droppings”. Kusugak writes of family love, folk tricksters, residential school, pre-contact era shamanism in a unifying spirit of place and culture, offering Canadian child and adult readers a living version of a rich way of life.”

Kusugak devotes his time to writing, storytelling and speaking with educators and is currently travelling to launch his newest picture book Igvillu: The Littlest Sled Dog, illustrated by Vladyana Krykorka.

Each year, the Bologna Book Fair contributes a selection of dozens of English and Italian picture books to the city of Itabashi, Tokyo – as Bologna and Itabashi have a sister city relationship and are culturally twinned in the promotion of children’s books.

From that assortment, a committee chooses one title from each language to be the two featured books for the Itabashi Translation competition, in which Japanese residents from around the country attempt their own translation of the book into their native language. The grand prize winners’ translations receive almost a thousand dollars in cash and prizes and are also considered for publication.

This year’s English selection is Four Feet, Two Sandals, written by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed, illustrated by Doug Chayka, originally published in 2007 by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

The publisher, honoured by the selection, notes in their press release, "This poignant story of loss, friendship, and sharing has introduced many American children to the tragic realities of refugee children and we are excited that its message of the life-changing power of hope will soon be shared across the ocean in Japan."

Link to news release on Eerdman's Books for Young Readers

Congratulations to author Frieda Wishinsky and illustrator Marie-Louise Gay for Please, Louise! which has won the Marilyn Baillie Picture Books Award. 

Published by Groundwood Books, the picture book was also on the shortlist for the 2008 TD Canadian Children's Literature award. When announcing the awards, its sponsors, The Canadian Children's Book Centre and TD Bank Financial Group, praised Please, Louise! as "A gem of a picture book delighting in the warm relationship between brother and younger sister. Lively watercolours explode across the pages adding detail and humour to the powerful simplicity of the text. The words sing as they are read!"

TLA congratulates Joanne Proulx whose Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet (Viking Canada) has received The Sunburst Award in the first year it has been awarded in the YA category. The winner in the adult category is The New Moon's Arms (Warner Books) by Nalo Hopkinson.

The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is a prized and juried award presented annually. It is based on excellence of writing and awarded to a Canadian writer who has published a speculative fiction novel or book-length collection any time during the previous calendar year. Named after the novel by Phyllis Gotlieb, one of the first published authors of contemporary Canadian speculative fiction, the award consists of a cash prize of $1,000 and a hand-crafted medallion.

About Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet, the Sunburst jury said:

"Proulx doesn't shy away from showing the tumultuous mix of beauty and ugliness at work in the mind of a teen stoner. Her debut novel tackles ESP, drug use, teen sexuality and the mores of small-town conservative Michigan all foregrounded against the soundscape of Luke Hunter's life. There is no doubt teens will recognize many of the characters in this uncomfortable novel. The book, like the protagonist, is not without flaws; Proulx's huge accomplishment here is writing a character whose rage, frustration and love are palpable through the disaffected teen voice."

More information can be found at The Sunburst Award website.

The 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury today announced its longlist of books in the running for this year’s prize. The jury selected 15 titles out of 95 books, submitted by 38 publishers from every region of Canada. TLA congratulates all of the authors listed, including Paul Quarrington for his novel, The Ravine.

Every childhood contains at least one “ravine”– one episode where the normal fabric of everyday life rips and the monsters come roaring out. In Paul Quarrington's capable hands that moment becomes both profound and profoundly funny. Phil McQuigge’s marriage is over, he has lost his job as the producer of a wildly successful TV series, and even the mysterious death of the star of that series seems to have been Phil's fault. Phil narrows down the source of his mid-life freefall to the lingering consequences of an ugly incident that happened in a suburban ravine when he was a boy, on an afternoon of adventure with his little brother, Jay, and their hapless tagalong, Norman Kitchen.

Of the longlist for this year's Scotiabank Giller Prize, the jury writes:

“These fifteen books vary widely in technique, in setting, and in tone — from the historical to the contemporary, from the comic to the satiric to the tragic, from the local to the international. Nothing unites them but the jury's belief in their accomplishment: each contributes something fresh, original, thoughtful, or vital to the practice of fiction.”

More information can be found about the Scotiabank Giller Prize at
www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca

Congratulations to Joanne Proulx whose Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet (Viking Canada) joins with Cobalt Blue, Late Nights on Air, Remembering the Bones and Muybridge’s Horse as a finalist in the category of English Fiction for the 2008 Ottawa Book Awards.

After foretelling the death of a friend with freakish accuracy, Luke Hunter becomes big news in his hometown in Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet. Terrified, but pretending not to be, he holds everyone at arm’s length as he lurches through a personal minefield studded with existential ponderings, a missing teen’s frantic mother, and a dream girl who isn’t his.

“Through this award, we are proud to celebrate the accomplishments of Ottawa’s great writers,” said Mayor Larry O’Brien. “These writers strengthen the cultural fabric of our city and make it a better place to live.”

The winners of the 2008 Ottawa Book Awards will be announced
October 18, 2008 at 8 p.m. at Library and Archives Canada during an opening event for the Ottawa International Writers Festival.

More information can be found at ottawa.ca/arts.

Uncle Bobby's Wedding, (G.P. Putnam's Sons), written and illustrated by Sarah Brannen, is a charming and simple story about a little girl guinea pig who worries that her favorite uncle won't have time for her after he marries. The fact that Uncle Bobby is marrying his boyfriend is treated in a matter-of-fact way. A Book Sense Spring 2008 Children's Pick, Uncle Bobby's Wedding has had extensive coverage since it was published in March. Reviews and articles have appeared in The Advocate, The San Francisco Chronicle, Tacoma News-Tribune, The Detroit News, Madison Capital Times, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist.  Sarah Brannen's web site has complete reviews and article links. 

In Colorado, Douglas County Libraries head librarian Jamie LaRue responded to a patron's challenge about the book with a well reasoned and researched letter. The response may be read in its entirety on his blog which went from 12 hits per day to as many as 12,000. For comparison: LaRue's blog had 444 views (217 visits) in June; the Uncle Bobby's Wedding blog posted on July 14 resulted in 32,334 views (26,472 visits) in July; and 37,339 views (28,730 visits) in August. 

Sarah Brannen was recently interviewed by the BBC for the LGBT Citizen Manchester radio program; the interview will be available online in the near future at the BBC website . She also appeared live on the San Francisco TV morning show The View from the Bay in July.

On June 14th, Sarah Brannen was honored by the mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, during their annual GLBT luncheon prior to the Gay Pride Parade in Boston. "Alternative families are a part of all communities, and just like all parents and grandparents, we want our children to be happy, safe, well-educated, and healthy," said Mayor Denise Simmons. "Cambridge has made great strides in supporting alternative families. We need to take time to appreciate the people that have made Cambridge such a positive environment for GLBT families." More coverage of the event can be found in the New England Blade June 9, 2008.

In Danbury, Connecticut, the story of Uncle Bobby's Wedding was acted out by children during the Intergenerational Flower Communion Service at the Unitarian Universalist Church to celebrate June weddings and the fact that all people have a place in their congregation.

"Though the story makes an easy springboard for adult-child dialogue, the issue of same-sex marriage is incidental to the plot, which straightforwardly addresses the fear of being replaced when a loved one marries. Featuring a sunny palette, Brannen's delicately outlined watercolors convey the characters' varied emotions — the guinea pigs' eyes are particularly expressive — and the mutual affection of the heroine and her uncle. The final scene, which depicts Chloe between her uncles in the light of a full moon, underscores Brannen's reassuring message."
-Publishers Weekly

Sarah Brannen's illustrations are also featured in The ABC Book of American Homes (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2008) written by Michael Shoulders, which has been recently released.

Carol Off has extensive experience in both Canadian and international current affairs. Ms Off has covered conflicts in the Middle East, Haiti, the Balkans and the sub-continent, as well as events in the former Soviet Union, Europe, Asia, the United States and Canada. She reported the fallout from the 9/11 disasters with news features and documentaries from New York, Washington, London, Cairo and Afghanistan. She has covered Canadian military missions around the world including its latest combat operation in Kandahar.

Ms. Off's award-winning documentaries include Fatwas and Beauty Queens, Of Crimes and Courage, In the Company of War Lords, Playing with Fire, Children of Chernobyl, Flight from Bosnia, and Thou Shalt Not Kill.

Ms. Off is also a best-selling author. Her current book, Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World's Most Seductive Sweet, is about the politics and intrigue surrounding the international cocoa industry.

Circle the Truth by Pat Schmatz has been named a book of "Outstanding merit" in the 2008 Edition of The Best Children’s Books of the Year of the Bank Street College of Education. 

The Best Children's Books of the Year is a comprehensive annotated book list for children. The Bank Street College of Education Committee reviews over 4000 titles each year for accuracy and literary quality and considers their emotional impact on children. It chooses the best 600 books, both fiction and nonfiction, which it lists according to age and category. More information can be found about this designation at www.bankstreet.edu .

The Extinct Files: My Science Project by Wallace Edwards, designed by Karen Powers, (Kids Can Press), has been placed on the  2008-2009 Horned Toad Tales list. This list was created to promote the lifelong love of reading for students in the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District.  

"With our 40+ elementary schools and over 90,000 students in our school district, we are excited to share the exemplary writing in this book with those students and their parents."

This reading program will run from March 2008-February 2009. The students who read at least 5 of the Horned Toad Tales will vote for their favorite book on the list in February and the winning book will be announced in March 2009.

Blue Lipstick also was selected by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) as one of the 2008 Notable Children's Books. Each year a committee of ALSC identifies the best of the best in children's books. According to the Notables Criteria, "notable" is defined as: Worthy of note or notice, important, distinguished, outstanding. As applied to children's books, notable should be thought to include books of especially commendable quality, books that exhibit venturesome creativity, and books of fiction, information, poetry and pictures for all age levels (birth through age 14) that reflect and encourage children's interests in exemplary ways.

The hilarious and unique collection of poetry by John Grandits was chosen by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), for its 2008 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers selection list. The list is presented annually at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The Quick Picks list suggests books that teens, ages 12-18, will pick up on their own and read for pleasure; it is geared to the teenager who, for whatever reason, does not like to read.

A 15-year-old girl named Jessie voices typical—and not so typical—teenage concerns in Blue Lipstick. Her musings about trying out new makeup and hairstyles, playing volleyball and cello, and dealing with her annoying younger brother are never boring or predictable. Who else do you know who designs her own clothes and writes poetry to her cat? Jessie’s a girl with strong opinions, and she isn’t shy about sharing them. Her funny, sarcastic take on high school life is revealed through concrete poetry: words, ideas, type, and design that combine to make pictures and patterns. The poems are inventive, irreverent, irresistible, and full of surprises—just like Jessie—and the playful layout and ingenious graphics extend the wry humor.