Happy Book Birthday, Fish!

Hooray! *throws confetti* It’s the official book birthday for FISH OUT OF WATER.

I realize the world is…less than ideal right now, but I’m trying to find light in small things. I also believe that my role in making it a little better is by putting positive words out into it. Thus I’m happy to say that today is the official FISH OUT OF WATER release day. This is a book about a kid who wants to learn to knit as a way to give of himself through his bar mitzvah project. But then he gets pushback from those around him who are supposed to love and support him most. Why? That’s the essential question. And in finding the answer, Fish learns what he knew in his heart already: that following your passions and dreams is always the best way to be your authentic self.

This book tackles gender stereotypes and toxic masculinity in an accessible way that (I hope) speaks not only to the kids out there, but to everyone. We can all use to check our biases.

Don’t take my word for it: “Though brief, this text masterfully connects the toxic masculinity to its roots in deep misogyny, making Fish a hero people of all genders can stand up and cheer for. All readers will appreciate this book’s nuanced messaging around gender roles and trusting yourself.”, Kirkus Reviews

“An excellent story about gender roles and growing up…Fast-paced, and the ending is both satisfying and heartwarming…An excellent read-aloud choice, and its contents would provide many opportunities for discussion. Highly Recommended.”, CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Happy reading, friends. I hope you enjoy FISH. And a big thank you to Orca Book Publishers for welcoming Fish into the pod. (See what I did there?)

p.s. don’t forget there are many ways you can support writers, many that are FREE:

– buy a book (or if you’re related to me: four)

– request it at your local library

– review it at retailers and Goodreads

– tell people about it and help spread the word

Get yours: Bookshop.orgBarnes & NobleIndigoIndieboundOrca Book Publishersamazon.ca,

FISH is swimming to you…

Exciting news! FISH OUT OF WATER is available NOW as an ebook! If you’re too anxious to wait for the paperback (Out September 22) you can purchase the ebook at your local ebook retailer. See links below.

If you prefer to be able to hold paper books in your hand, or you’re ordering for a library or classroom, I encourage you to pre-order from A Different Drummer books in Burlington, Ontario. I will be going into the store to sign copies in September, so if you’d like a personalized copy, please pre-order and let the staff know how you’d like it signed.

“Highly Recommended” – Kirkus

“All readers will appreciate this book’s nuanced messaging around gender roles and trusting yourself.” – CM Reviews

“Definitely a must-have for my classroom.” – Laurie (Goodreads)

“It had great Jewish representation and a great takedown of toxic masculinity, while still being aimed at a younger audience. This book should go in every middle school classroom! ” – Hallie (Goodreads)

Add to Goodreads – don’t forget to review after you’ve read it!

Order yours: Bookshop.orgBarnes & NobleIndigoIndieboundOrca Book Publishersamazon.ca, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books

AND NOW, because you are awesome, here is a downloadable beginner knitting project – a bookmark. This pattern assumes you know the very basics of knitting – casting on, the knit stitch, and casting off, but if you don’t, you should be able to find tutorials online to get you started.

Download the Knitted Bookmark Pattern for Beginners

More books!

There’s been a lot going on lately, between the OLA Superconference and the online events: Get to Know Hi-Lo and #IReadCanadian BUT I am super, SUPER excited to announce that I have more books coming, all with Orca Book Publishers.

First up is Fish Out of Water coming this August. Go here to read about it, but all you really need to know about it at this point is that it’s about a boy who wants to learn to knit as part of his bar mitzvah project but faces a lot of pushback, even from the people who love him the most. Do you love the cover? Yeah, you do. Ordering links coming soon, but until then, add the book to your Goodreads TBR.

Later, in Fall of 2021, the book of my heart, Tree of Life will release. This book has been a long time coming and is so, so, so important to me. Here’s my pitch for it:

Twelve-year-old Evelyn—Evie—Walman is not obsessed with death. She does think about it a lot, though, but only because her family runs a Jewish funeral home. At twelve, Evie already knows she’s going to be a funeral director when she grows up. Even if it means kids at school call her ‘corpse girl’ and say she smells like death. They’re just mean and don’t get how important funeral directors are.

Evie loves her part-time job at the funeral home. She cleans—dusting caskets, polishing pews, and vacuuming the chapel—and on funeral days, she dresses up and hands out tissues and offers her condolences to mourners. She doesn’t normally help her parents with the grieving families, until one day when they ask her to help with Oren, a boy her age who was in a tragic car accident that killed both his parents. Evie is to keep him company while they make the funeral arrangements with his uncle.

Evie knows all about funerals and is ready—even eager—to help the boy. Until it all goes terribly wrong. She quickly realizes that while she may know a lot about funerals, she doesn’t know very much about grief at all. She’s perplexed that her attempts to console and comfort the boy don’t work. He won’t speak, doesn’t care about her attempts at condolences, and even slams a door in her face.

Determined to make it right, and with a little help from her parents, Evie learns better how to deal with the grieving boy and they even develop a friendship. She’s committed to helping him heal as much as she can. Even if what he wants is for her to take him behind the scenes at the funeral home, showing him a side of the operation that few people ever see. And something she’s never seen—a real dead body.

TREE OF LIFE is a heartwarming, honest, respectful, and sometimes wry look at the inner workings of a Jewish funeral home through the lens of a tween who simply sees it as the family business.

What do you think? I’m so, so, so excited to share this book. Still early days so no cover or order links yet, but some kind soul has put it up on Goodreads so you can add it there.

More news coming soon, if you believe it, but until then, thanks for celebrating with me.

OLA Super Conference

Hi. I will have lots of big news coming up but before that, I’m getting out in the world! I’ll be attending the Ontario Library Association’s SUPER CONFERENCE on Thursday, January 30.

I’ll be signing copies of DOUBLE TROUBLE at the Orca Book Publishers booth at 12:30 with fellow Orca pod members Bev Katz Rosenbaum and Lorna Schultz Nicholson.

Please stop by if you’re in the building!

Book Launches and Events!

I hope you can make it out to one of the DOUBLE TROUBLE launch parties this fall with Bev Katz Rosenbaum (WHO IS TANKSY?) and Angela Misri (PICKLES vs. THE ZOMBIES).

Burlington launch at A Different Drummer BookstoreSeptember 7, 2019 – 2pm

Toronto launch at Indigo Yonge & EglintonSeptember 8, 2019 – 2pm


I’m also doing a reading/signing with Lisa Dalrymple at MyTy’s Books, Gifts and Toys, Clinton, Ontario – September 28, 2019 – 2pm

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!

More Books From Me. Sort of.

Happy New Year!

I’ve been a very neglectful blogger, I know, but I find myself so busy with many things at once and end up only posting when I have big news. Well, guess what?

BIG NEWS (you saw that coming, right?)

I have two middle grade books coming out this year from Simon and Schuster, and they are multi-storyline, choose your own path type stories. But they are slightly different from the Choose Your Own Adventure books that you might be used to. These are kind of romancy, and the typical CYOA format doesn’t really allow for a lot of character development and story building (reading more like a walk-through video game), so in these books, there are fewer, but more meaningful choices.

The super-cool covers were illustrated by Cassandra Calin:

There are many ways this story can go. YOU decide what happens next. And if you don’t like how it ends? Just start again! The Yes No Maybe So series is an interactive reading experience about friendships, family, and all the feelings.

Every day before and after school, Tara Singh helps her parents at their Indian sweet shop, but the only business Tara is interested in is show business. When a local theater announces a casting call for The Wizard of Oz, Tara is determined to wear the ruby slippers.

As she prepares for the audition, Tara is distracted by some unexpected drama: There is Rohan, the delivery boy her parents hired. Hiro, her forever crush, who wants to rehearse with her. And Desmond, a shy theater nerd who has started lighting up her heart. Can Tara win the part and get the guy?

You have the power to choose what happens…and the chance to choose differently next time! 

There are many ways this story can go. YOU decide what happens next. And if you don’t like how it ends? Just start again! The Yes No Maybe So series is an interactive reading experience about friendships, family, and all the feelings.


Yael Lewis is dreading her bat mitzvah. Her loving but clueless mother insists on throwing an epic birthday extravaganza, even though Yael hates the spotlight.

Despite herself, Yael is excited when her crush Cam accepts the invitation. But then she meets Gabriel, the emcee’s son, whose chill attitude makes her rethink the party plans. Thank goodness her old friend Eli will be there to keep her steady, even though he’s returned from camping a little bit different. Will Yael’s party be the best…or a bust?

You have the power to choose what happens…and the chance to choose differently next time!

 

Both books are available for pre-order at your retailer of choice and you can also add them to your To Be Read list at Goodreads.

Thanks for your support and stay tuned – I may just have some more news coming soon (I did say I was busy…).

 

A Proud Canadian Ginger

It’s no secret that I’m a redhead. As a kid, I wasn’t so fond of the hair that made me different. As an adult, I now appreciate my gingerness but feel like maybe I needed to grow into it, to be comfortable in my own skin before I could embrace having hair that made me stand out. It took a long time to realize it was an essential part of me, what made me me.

Canadian Ginger So when I heard about the opportunity to participate in an anthology by and about redheads, especially Canadian redheads, a club of which I am a very proud member, I was stoked to join in.

The result is my story SEEING RED which is included in this awesome anthology, CANADIAN GINGER from Oolichan Books, edited by Kim Clarkand Dawn Marie Kresan. SEEING RED is a sassy and tongue-in-cheek look at some of the stereotypes all redheads have endured at one time or another.

I hope you’ll check it out and enjoy not just my short story, but the essays, poems, and fiction that embrace the redhead experience.

Get your copy at Bryan Prince Booksellers, your local indie bookshop, or Indigo.

Telling Tales!

I know, I know, it’s been forever since I posted. I’ve been busy with some writing things (news to come!) and some personal things, like an upcoming move, and an otherwise busy summer, but I wanted to personally invite you to come see me and many other amazing authors at this year’s Telling Tales Festival on September 17, 2017!

This is one of my very favourite book events where tons of authors and book lovers come together for a day of stories and fun at one of Southern Ontario’s best-kept secrets – Westfield Heritage Village.

Check out the lineup.

I hope to see you!

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!

 

Books for tweens and immature adults.