Annick Goes to OLA

They came from all over the province of Ontario--public librarians, elementary school librarians, secondary school librarians and specialty librarians--to the annual convention of the OLA (Ontario Library Association) in Toronto. Despite the snow and cold outside, the mood was cheery and uplifting as hundreds of librarians checked out the publishers' exhibits.

Annick Press was delighted to have three of its authors signing books at the booth of its distributor, Firefly Books: Kevin Sylvester with Game Day, Judie Oron with Cry of the Giraffe and Sharon McKay with Thunder over Kandahar. The line-ups were long as people waited for the opportunity to meet the authors and get a personally signed copy of their books.

Kevin Sylvester signs GAME DAY

Judie Oron signs copies of CRY OF THE GIRAFFE

Sharon McKay with THUNDER OVER KANDAHAR

Kevin delighted people with his drawing of a cat or dog (their choice) in every copy. Judie answered many questions about how she came to write her book about her Ethiopian daughter, and Sharon was told over and over again how much all her books were loved by young people. It was wonderful to see and hear so many people who love books and want to instill their love of the written word in others. Thank you, librarians!

(Click here for more pictures of the event!)

A Sports Book That's Perfect for Fall

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been giving a sneak peek at what our fall list will bring. I've posted about books set in Afghanistan (Thunder over Kandahar) and Ethiopia (Cry of the Giraffe), and now it's time to move to North America and the wide world of sports.

In Game Day: Meet the People Who Make it Happen, Kevin Sylvester takes young readers on a tour of behind-the-scenes jobs in sports. From timekeepers to coaches, and from Zamboni drivers to organ players, there are many careers in sports beyond being an athlete. For more examples, click here to listen to Kevin's podcast about the book (podcasts are in alphabetical order by title), or watch this interview with him:

Turning Authors into Movie Stars!

The office has been quiet these past few days, as many of the Annick staff are attending or volunteering at the National Reading Summit. So it was the perfect time to bring in the BookShorts film crew and chat with the authors and illustrators of some of our upcoming titles! The videos won't be ready for a little while, so here are some pictures to tide you over.

First up: author/illustrator Ruth Ohi talked about her third book in the Chicken, Pig, Cow picture book series: Chicken, Pig, Cow and the Purple Problem (Spring 2010). She even did some quick sketches for us.


Former CBC Radio sportscaster Kevin Sylvester took the stage next to talk about Game Day (Fall 2010), a book about the people who work in behind-the-scenes jobs related to sports.


Next, author/illustrator Andrea Wayne von Königslöw talked about her book How Do You Read to a Rabbit? (Spring 2010) in which a child attempts to read a bedtime story to various animals, with hilarious results. Here's Andrea reading to a rather patient bunny:


Finally, Sharon McKay gave us some background about her book Stones Over Kandahar (Fall 2010), which is set in Afghanistan and grew out of her experiences as a Canadian War Artist. After the interview, she browsed our books and couldn't resist picking up The Apprentice's Masterpiece (Melanie Little).


We're looking forward to sharing the finished videos with you, and giving you more details about these great new books. Until then, you can find more pictures from the video shoot on the Annick Flickr account. Enjoy!