Category Archives: Uncategorized

Cool Stuff, Events, News, Uncategorized

Early 2023 Upcoming Events

Welcome to 2023, friends! I’m so pleased to announce that I actually have a few in-person events coming up in the next few months. I hope to add more, but, as always, if you’d like me to come visit with your students/patrons/book club, please check out my visits page and get in touch.

Ontario Library Association Super Conference – Friday, February 3, 10:00am – signing at the Orca Book Publishers booth #410/412. I will be signing books and giving out tons of bookmarks.

See the full list of author signings here.

Sharp Words Book Fair – Saturday, February 25, 10 – 6pm Bridgeworks in Hamilton (200 Caroline Street North).

I will be signing books with May be an image of text that says 'SHA WRDS RDS HAMILTON'S Winter Book Fair FEBRUARY 25, 2023 SUPER CRAWL' several other kidlit authors. There’s also a full day of programming. See here for details and follow for up-to-date information. 

FREE to attend. 

 

OLA Forest of Reading Festival of Trees – May in Toronto. More details to come. Stay tuned!

 

Books, News, SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS, Uncategorized

I Nearly Lost It!

Hey, remember when I wondered if the SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS puns would ever end? Apparently not. Because I’ve gotten some pretty amazing news about it lately, and I nearly lost it. No, I’m kidding, I did lose it. If ‘it’ is a bunch of emotional tears, because yeah, that happened. 

Bear with me, there’s a lot to tell you – it’s been an embarrassment of riches kind of autumn. 

First up, earlier this fall, SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS won the children/youth category of the The Canadian Jewish Literary Awards.  Later this month, I will travel to Toronto to accept the award and I can’t wait. 

Second, earlier this week, SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS was named as a finalist in The 2022 Governor General’s Literary Awards. This is a huge, huge honour and, well, I’m verklempt. See the full list of finalists here.

Also this week, SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS has also been nominated in the OLA’s Forest of Reading in the Red Maple category.  From the Forest website: “The Forest of Reading® is Canada’s largest recreational reading program! This initiative offers ten reading programs to encourage a love of reading in people of all ages. The Forest helps celebrate Canadian books, publishers, authors and illustrators. More than 270,000 readers participate annually from their school and/or public library. All Canadians are invited to participate via their local public library, school library, or individually.”

This is an absolutely amazing program. I had the honour of participating a few years back when SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE was nominated, and I loved every minute of it. What a wonderful program to get kids reading and talking about books while elevating authors to rock stars! 

Another great thing about the Forest is being nominated among so many talented authors, many of whom I call friends. Writing can be such a solitary endeavor (especially these past few years!), so being able to get together with other authors  in this way is a giant added bonus.

And if all that wasn’t enough, SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS was offered up as one of October’s four monthly choices for PJ Our Way. If you’ve been around these parts, you know that I love PJ Library and PJ Our Way for many reasons (read the acknowledgements in the back of THE SUN WILL COME OUT to get a peek into why) but the biggest one is that they get books into kids hands. I especially love that the site posts kid reviews and kid reviews are the best reviews. 

Whew. That’s a lot of big stuff. Add that to the other great news that SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS has garnered, and, well, I feel like my cup of goodness overfloweth. 

To all of you who have reviewed it, contacted me directly to tell me it touched you,  who have handed it to a kid, or who have simply read and enjoyed it, thank you. There are a lot of amazing books out there and I’m beyond honoured that you chose mine.

 

Books, News, THE BOOK OF ELSIE, Uncategorized

The Book of Elsie is out now!

Great news! I have a book out today. *throws confetti*

The truth is that I wish I hadn’t felt the need to write a book about a kid who has to deal with antisemitism and other forms of prejudice but as long as there is hate out in the world, well, here we are. It hurt my heart to write this book and it hurt again to edit and reread it in preparation for release, but I hope it does a little good out in the world.

This book, my response to antisemitism, is also full of hope, a few laughs, and even a recipe that kids can try, lest you think it’s all doom and gloom.

More about why I wrote it can be found in my Teen Librarian Toolbox guest post here.

THE BOOK OF ELSIE is a book that I think all kids (and adults) can enjoy and learn from but don’t take my word for it:

“Strong first-person narration thoughtfully explores experiences of antisemitism and prejudice…Levy presents a realistic, gutsy, problemsolving youth navigating difficult situations with the love and support of community, friends, and family.” – Booklist

“Both Jew­ish and non-Jew­ish read­ers will be inspired by Elsie’s brav­ery while learn­ing about Jew­ish hol­i­days and com­mu­ni­ty sup­port.” – Jewish Book Council

“Allows readers to find the space to ask questions and have conversations about racism and antisemitism in society. Recommended.” – CM: Canadian Review of Materials

And my favorite review so far from the awesome E Train:

https://anchor.fm/e-train5/episodes/My-Book-Review-of-The-Book-of-Elsie-by-Joanne-Levy-e1kn8mu

p.s. Don’t miss my video interview with the smart and insightful E Train.

I hope you’ll check out The Book of Elsie and don’t forget to drop a review at retailers and/or Goodreads – that helps spread the word.

Get your copy: Your Canadian indie bookstore, Bookshop.org, Indigo, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, Amazon.ca

About the book:

Elsie Rose-Miller loves celebrating the Purim holiday and can’t wait for the annual costume party at her local synagogue.

Elsie plans to dress up as the fierce and smart Queen Esther, who saved all the Jewish people. But when financial hardship and a terrible incident of hate-inspired vandalism threaten not only the party but the synagogue too, Elsie, like Queen Esther, takes action to bring her entire community―Jewish and non-Jewish alike―together.

Read an excerpt here.

**Activity and discussion guide coming soon.**

 

Books, Cool Stuff, News, Uncategorized

Sorry For Your Loss – cover reveal!

Hooray! It’s time to share the cover reveal for SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS, my book set in a Jewish funeral home. Sounds dark, I know, but there’s a few laughs, crafts, and lots of hope in this book for tweens that will come out in the fall of 2021.

If you want to see the brand new cover and learn about the inspiration behind why I wrote the book (and who I credit for it) check out the exclusive cover reveal over at Pop! goes the Reader.

Check out the cover reveal at Pop! goes the Reader.

Before you go, I’d love it if you’d add the book to your Goodreads TBR list. And if you’re inspired to do so, you can even pre-order the book from Bookshop.org or from Orca directly. More retailers coming soon.

Uncategorized

Double Trouble – new book coming soon!

Yes, it’s been forever since you’ve heard from me but I’ve been busy behind-the-scenes and haven’t had much of interest to share, but now I do!

I have a new book coming out this year and I just got the cover and am so very excited. Check it out:

I. Love. It.

What do you think? It has all the great elements a cover should have – fun image, author name, and the name of the awesome publisher. Trifecta of awesomeness! Oh right, and the fun title. Okay, so that’s four things. A square of awesomeness?

About the book:

Victoria Adelman is lonely. Her best friend has moved away, leaving her to spend the summer alone. One day, on her way home from a bat mitzvah, she meets Jasmine, her next-door neighbors’ granddaughter. Tori hopes her friendless status is about to change.

Later, in her garden, she meets Jasmine again, but Jasmine doesn’t recognize the filthy, smelly girl as the one she met earlier. In a moment of insecurity, Tori tells Jasmine that the girl she met before was her twin sister, Vicky. Tori is sure she can fake being that girl in the dress—it’s only for two weeks.

But then Jasmine announces she’s staying with her grandparents for the school year. Tori needs to figure out what to do: come clean and lose her new friend, or live her life as a fake.

DOUBLE TROUBLE, coming from Orca Book Publishers, will land at the end of this summer but the great news is that it’s already available for pre-order. You can get it by ordering from:

Orca, Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Chapters/Indigo (coming soon!)

Stay tuned for book launch info – I’m planning a couple of events for September (in Toronto and Burlington) and would love to see you!

Cool Stuff, CRUSHING IT, Launch Party, Uncategorized

CRUSHING IT Launch Party!

Even if you’ve already bought (and hopefully loved) CRUSHING IT, if you’re in the Hamilton, Ontario area, why don’t you come out to help me celebrate the book? I’ll be reading from the book and answering questions AND will be signing while you mingle and consume snacks.

There will be giveaways, too! Bring the book you’ve already purchased for me to sign or there will be copies there to buy.

Please join the official Facebook event so I know you’re coming.

Hope to see you!

 

CRUSHING IT, Uncategorized

How to Show Love to an Author

1 Comment

Hi again! I know it’s only been a short time since my last post–the awesome cover reveal for CRUSHING IT–but as exciting things start to happen, you’re going to hear more from me.

This means something exciting has happened!

Crushing ItCRUSHING IT is well on its way to being out in the world. Yes, it’s still early, but the fine people at Simon & Schuster have loaded it at many of the various retailers, their site and Edelweiss, which means electronic and paper review copies are coming soon*!

So, getting back to the title of this post, how can you show your love? Well, here’s the thing, publishers don’t just load books early because they’re super-organized, they do it also to get a feel for how popular a book is going to be. If it looks like a book will be popular, they’ll print more of them and that means everyone wins. See where I’m going with this? So, if you pre-order books, that tells the publisher, “Hey! I’M SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THIS NEW BOOK FROM JOANNE LEVY THAT I’M SURE IS GOING TO BE HILARIOUS.” And isn’t that exactly what you want my publisher to know?

If you were going to buy my book anyway (THANK YOU) please consider pre-ordering it. If you weren’t going to buy it, well, now that you know it’s going to be hilarious, please consider pre-ordering it. Even if you’re not a tween, I’m sure you know one who would love this book. If not, there will be a lot of charities looking for toy drive donations in December and I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a toy drive bin overflowing with books (until I come along, of course) but many kids would love nothing more than a few good books to read for the holidays.

So without further ado, here are some handy retailer links (more to come as available):

My home bookstore, Bryan Prince Bookseller (if you buy from them I will sign them for you–just let them know you would like your book signed/personalized. Plus, they will ship anywhere!), Amazon, Amazon Canada, Chapters/Indigo.

And if you prefer digital, you can also pre-order your ebook at iBooks, Google Play, Kobo.

If you are not planning to buy my book, that’s okay–there are still ways to help, though we’ll talk about those ways down the road a little because it’s early yet. Though I will thank you for reading this far and being a great supporter and cheerleader!

cheerleader

*If you are a reviewer and would like an advanced copy, please contact me or your Simon & Schuster rep.

Uncategorized

CRUSHING IT – Cover reveal!

7 Comments

Hi! Remember me?

CRUSHING IT doesn’t come out until December of this year, but the fine folks at Aladdin M!x have already got their ducks lined up and there’s a sweet cover for it.

You want to see it, right? I know you do. And you’re going to love it because they got it just right, from Kat and Olivia right down to Tyler and his mysterious hair. Seriously, it’s the cutest cover I could ever imagine let alone hope for.

To see it, though, you’ll need to visit my friend Evie’s blog over at Bookish. She’s hosting the cover reveal and a giveaway to celebrate it.

One of the reasons I love Evie and wanted her to help with my cover reveal is that she is such an amazing book reviewer. Her reviews are ALWAYS thoughtful and interesting and it’s obvious she takes a lot of time reading and making an effort to articulate her thoughts about what she’s read thoroughly and concisely. Evie reviewed SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE a while back and while it’s obvious she liked the book (whee!), what I really appreciate about the review is the way she put so much thought into it and talked about why she liked it. Authors may pretend we don’t read reviews, but we do (although sometimes secretly) and when someone puts this kind of effort into it, it makes the writing that much more worthwhile.

Thank you, Evie!

So go on and click through to see what those cover magicians created for me. Enter the raffle and check out some of Evie’s amazing bookish designs too–she’s created so many cool things for book lovers!

I’ll wait here. 🙂

I should note that CRUSHING IT is also available for pre-order at some retailers. You may not know this, but pre-orders are a great way to support authors because it tells their publisher that people are REALLY EXCITED about the book. So, if you were going to buy it anyway, please pre-order it at your retailer of choice.