Annick Titles Snap Up More Awards

It's been another week full of awards news, and we couldn't be prouder of our talented authors and illustrators!

• 50 Poisonous Questions (Tanya Lloyd Kyi) has been nominated for the 2012/2013 Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Awards (she wrote a funny blog post about it, too: click here to read!)
  
• Held (Edeet Ravel) has been shortlisted for the CLA Young Adult Book of the Year
• Fatty Legs (Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton) has been nominated for the 2013 Young Readers Choice Award by the Pacific Northwest Library Association
• The sequel to Fatty Legs, A Stranger at Home, was chosen for the White Ravens 2012, the annual selection of outstanding international books for children and young adults, which will be presented at the Bologna Children's Book Fair next week

Finally, if you're in Toronto this weekend, stop by Little Island Comics on Saturday at 3 pm to meet with Fiona Smyth, who will be talking about her graphic novel The Never Weres. More details on the bookstore's blog: http://www.littleislandcomics.com/2012/march-17th-book-club-pick-the-never-weres/

We Rocked the Drop!

After learning about Rock the Drop on readergirlz--an event in which young adult books are left in public places to celebrate Support Teen Lit Day--we decided to participate by "dropping" four of our Spring 2011 titles: The Never Weres, Chanda's Secrets (movie tie-in edition), Held, and A Sword in Her Hand. Here they are, waiting to get their bookplates:

We printed off bookplates from readergirlz and affixed them to the inside front cover or title page of each book, like so:

Once the books were ready, four staff members each took one to leave in public today. The Never Weres ended up riding the Yonge-University-Spadina subway line (though for how many stops, we don't know!):

Held is ended up in the halls of A.Y. Jackson Secondary School, Chanda's Secrets hung out in a Starbucks around College & Bay, and A Sword in Her Hand was last spotted on a bench at Greenwood subway station:

A big thank you to readergirlz for organizing this event and promoting teen lit. If you happen to spot any of our dropped books, let us know in the comments! And if you want to see more pictures of dropped books, check out the readergirlz blog.

Never Weres launch with Fiona Smyth

On Sunday, Fiona Smyth launched her new graphic novel The Never Weres at the Gladstone Hotel. The well-attended event was organized by This Is Not A Reading Series and Annick Press, and featured:

A comic jam:

A performance of the first chapter by Fiona and four talented actors:

A lively interview with RM Vaughan, art critic for The Globe & Mail:

And, of course, a book signing!

Check out the rest of the photos on our Flickr site and Facebook page. You can read a recent review of the book here, or check out Fiona's blog post about the event. And for a sneak peek inside the book, click here!

Toronto events for March!

Winter finally appears to be giving way to spring, so click here to check out our Spring 2011 list!

We've also got a few neat events to tell you about. On Wednesday, March 2 at 8 pm, the TIFF Bell Lightbox will be screening Life, Above All as part of their Human Rights Watch festival. This film premiered at Cannes last year, where it won a prestigious award and was highly praised by Roger Ebert--so if you're in Toronto, definitely go see it!

A week and a half later, on March 13, Fiona Smyth will be launching her dystopian graphic novel The Never Weres with This Is Not A Reading Series. RM Vaughan, art critic for the Globe and Mail, will be leading a discussion about her vivid career, and audience members of all ages are invited to grab Sharpies and doodle a panel for the event’s collective drawings/comics jam. Should be a fun time!

Details:Sunday, March 13
The Gladstone Hotel Ballroom
1214 Queen Street West
Doors open at 2 pm; event starts at 2:30 pm
Admission is $5 or free with book purchase

Click here to read a sample from The Never Weres. Hope to see you at the launch!