Kah-Lan The Adventurous Sea Otter: Book Launch (Vancouver and Kelowna)

Celebrate 
Sea Otter Awareness Week, 

Science Literacy Week, 

and 

the launch of children’s author Karen Autio’s new book!

Kah-Lan, the Adventurous Sea Otter

Written by Karen Autio

Illustrated by Sheena Lott

Sono Nis Press

978-1-55039-244-9

64 pp.

Ages 7-12

September, 2015

on Saturday, September 26, 2015

10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

at

Vancouver Aquarium

845 Avison Way

Vancouver, BC

AND

on Saturday, October 3, 2015

2:30 - 4:30 p.m.

at

Okanagan Regional Library

1380 Ellis Street

Kelowna, BC

Special to this event:

Contest for students!

A free author presentation 

for the school or homeschool co-op 

with the most students attending the event

Door prize for teachers!

Draw for a reading circle set of 6 copies 

(donated by Sono Nis Press)
for teachers who attend

Both events include:

• a reading by Karen Autio

• a Q & A with Karen Autio, and 

• a book signing.

Here's the description from Sono Nis Press, the book's publisher, retrieved here:

Kah-Lan, a young sea otter, is hungry. He is sure there are big crabs and sea urchins, his favourite foods, around the point, but his mother won’t let him out of her sight. Then, one day, Kah-Lan sees his chance. He and his friend Yamka race to the point and soon they are swept into danger. At first, the challenges are familiar: strong currents, crashing waves, the open ocean, and Orca, who is hungry too. Then, as the sea otters travel unfamiliar waters, they encounter new and strange dangers: two-legged furless creatures; fearsome, noisy, smelly things that pull log islands; and fish-filled webs that threaten to tangle them up and drag them down. All the while, they struggle to find enough food to keep going. Will they ever get back home? 

The heroic travels of two dynamic and realistic sea otter characters are a wonderful introduction to sea otters, and to the human activities that threaten them. Warm and appealing illustrations by Sheena Lott and a triumphant ending will inspire readers to learn more about these remarkable animals, helped by the factual notes and resources provided by author Karen Autio, who has loved sea otters from first sight.  

This is the fourth book by popular author Autio, and her first foray into illustrated chapter books and natural history.

Some Things I've Lost

by Cybèle Young

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-339-1

32 pp. with fold-outs

Ages 4+

September 2015

Prepare for the wonder of turning and folding out pages to witness the astonishing artwork as twelve everyday objects, from a roller-skate and wristwatch, to a set of headphones and a lawn chair, are transformed through the skill, artistry and marvel of Cybèle Young.

The text is minimal, with a brief introduction about lost items having ends that are also beginnings, and then each small object is identified with a figure number, named and the location given where it was last seen.  Each double spread of an object displayed in a sea of white with accompanying i.d. is so sparse and bare, in such constrast to the detailed images of the object as it transforms into something fantastical and other-worldly.  How each becomes a deep-sea element– jellyfish, sea cucumber, sea urchin, coral, plankton, fish, seaweed–is left to the extension, feathering, weaving, wrapping, folding, trimming of the Japanese paper Cybèle Young favours in her paper sculptures.  How each becomes something new and wonderful is astounding.  A final spread of all transformations tells us simply that, “Anything is possible.”  And in her skilled hands, obviously anything is.

While we have all lost some things, and most of us have lost the very items displayed within Some Things I’ve Lost, never, ever have we seen anything as wonderful, as spectacular, as the creatures into which they have been converted with such skill and originality.  Some Things I’ve Lost is as unique in its premise as it is in its artwork and I suspect we will never, ever find anything like it again.

Through Fire & Sea: Book Launch (Edmonton)

Join

Nicole Luiken

fantasy YA author of

for the launch of her newest

Through Fire & Sea (Otherselves #1)

by Nicole Luiken

Entangled Teen

978-1-633752658

354 pp.

Ages 13+

2015

on

Saturday, September 19, 2015

at

2:00 p.m. 

in UTC-06

Happy Harbor Comics 

10729 - 104 Avenue

Edmonton, Alberta

Here is the information blurb from GoodReads:

In the Fire world, seventeen-year-old Leah is the illegitimate daughter of one of the realm's most powerful lords. She's hot-blooded—able to communicate with the tempestuous volcano gods that either bless a civilization or destroy it. But then Leah discovers she's a Caller, gifted with the unique—and dangerous—ability to “call” her Otherselves in mirror worlds. And her father will do anything to use her powers for his own purposes.

In the Water world, Holly nearly drowns when she sees—and interacts with—Leah, a mirror image of herself. She’s rescued by Ryan, a boy from school with a secret he’d die to protect. Little do they know, his Otherself is the son of a powerful volcano god at war in the Fire world…and he’s about to fall.

As Leah and Holly's lives intersect, the Fire and Water worlds descend into darkness. The only way to protect the mirror worlds is to break every rule they've ever known. If they don’t, the evil seeping through the mirrors will destroy everything—and everyone—they love…

(Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25338152-through-fire-sea on August 24, 2015)

Back to School Book List

With the ads starting for back-to-school sales and everyone starting to think about the beginning of the school year, consider some of these 87 (!) books–picture books, novels, young adult and non-fiction– as read-alouds.  Whether dealing with bullies, or undertaking research projects, looking back at schools of the past, these reads have got it all.

Picture Books

A+ for Big Ben

by Sarah Ellis

Illustrated by Kim La Fave

Pajama Press

24 pp.

Ages 2-5

2015

The Best Thing about Kindergarten

by Jennifer Lloyd

Illustrated by Qin Leng

Simply Read Books

36 pp.

2013

Community Soup

by Alma Fullerton

Pajama Press

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

2013

The Day My Mom Came to Kindergarten

by Maureen Fergus

Illustrated by Mike Lowery

Kids Can Press

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

2013

Franklin Goes to School

by Paulette Bourgeois

Illustrated by Brenda Clark

Kids Can Press

32 pp.

Ages 3-6

1995

Get Out of Bed!

by Robert Munsch

Illustrated by Alan and Lea Daniel

Scholastic Canada

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

1998

Gift Days

by Kari-Lynn Winters

Illustrated by Stephen Taylor

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

32 pp.

Ages 7+

2012

Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress

by Christine Baldacchino

Illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant
Groundwood Books
32 pp.
Ages 4-7
2014

Noni is Nervous

by Heather Hartt-Sussman

Illustrated by Geneviève Côté

Tundra

24 pp.

Ages 2-6

2013

Oddrey and the New Kid

by Dave Whamond

Owlkids

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

2013

An Ordinary School Day

by C. J. Hamilton

Illustrated by Cindy Revell

Annick Press

24 pp.

Ages 5-9

2004

The Pocket Mommy

by Rachel Eugster

Illustrated by Tom Goldsmith

Tundra Books

32 Pages

Ages 4-6

2013

Suki's Kimono

by Chieri Uegaki

Illustrated by Stephane Jorisch

Kids Can Press

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

2005

Tilt Your Head, Rosie the Red

by Rosemary McCarney

Illustrated by Yvonne Cathcart

Second Story Press

24 pp.

Ages 4-7

2015

Willow Finds a Way

by Lana Button

Illustrated by Tania Howells

Kids Can Press

32 pp.

Ages 5-7

2013

Violet

by Tania Duprey Stehlik

Illustrated by Vanja Vuleta Jovanic

Second Story Press

24 pp.

Ages 5-8

2009

Fiction

4 Kids in 5E and 1 Crazy Year

by Virginia Frances Schwartz

Scholastic Canada

244 pp.

Ages 10-13

2007

26 Tips for Surviving Grade 6

by Catherine Austen

James Lorimer

168 pp.

Ages 8-12

2011

28 Tricks for a Fearless Grade 6

by Catherine Austen

James Lorimer

189 pp.

Ages 9-12

2014

Athlete vs. Mathlete

by W. C. Mack

Scholastic Canada

172 pp.

Ages 9-12

2013

The BEDMAS Conspiracy

by Deborah Sherman

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

172 pp.

Ages 8-11

20011

Bernadette and the Lunch Bunch

by Suzanne Glickman

Illustrated by Mélanie Allard

Second Story Press

123 pp.

Ages 7-9

2008

Dunces Anonymous

by Kate Jaimet

Orca Book Publishers

157 pp.

Ages 8-12

2009

Dunces Rock

by Kate Jaimet

Orca Book Publishers

215 pp.

Ages 8-11

2014

Egghead

by Caroline Pignat

Red Deer Press

173 pp.

Ages 11-14

2008

Ghost Most Foul

by Patti Grayson

Coteau Books

192 pp.

Ages 10-13

2015

The Glory Wind

by Valerie Sherrard
Fitzhenry & Whiteside

222 pp.

Ages 11+

2010

How to Tame a Bully

by Nancy Wilcox Richards

Illustrated by Drazen Kozjan

Scholastic Canada

80 pp.

Ages 7-10

2006

Invasion of the IQ Snatchers

by Arthur Slade

Coteau Books

115 pp.

Ages 8-12

2007

Jolted: Newton Starker’s Rules for Survival

by Arthur Slade

HarperCollins Canada

203 pp.

Ages 11-14

2008

Late for School (Haley and Bix)

by Scott Higgs

Scholastic Canada

30 pp.

Ages 6-7

2007

The Mealworm Diaries

by Anna Kerz   

Orca Book Publishers

176 pp.

Ages 9+

2009

Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze

by Alan Silberberg

Aladdin

288 pp.

Ages 8-13

2011

The Missing Dog is Spotted

by Jessica Scott Kerrin

Groundwood Books

204 pp.

Ages 8-12

March, 2015

Monsters in the School
by Martyn Godfrey
Scholastic Canada
86 pp.
Ages 7-9
1991

No More Dead Dogs

by Gordon Korman

Scholastic Canada

192 pp.

Ages 8-12

2002

Not Fair, Clare
by Yvonne Prinz
Raincoast Books
197 pp.
Ages 11-13
2008

Overtime

by David Skuy

Scholastic Canada

216 pp.

Ages 11-14

2011

Pigboy

by Vicki Grant

Orca Book Publishers

101 pp.

Ages 9-13

2006

Rain Shadow

by Valerie Sherrard

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

150 pp.

Ages 10+

2014

Revenge on the Fly

by Sylvia McNicoll

Pajama Press

224 pp.

Ages 8+

2014

Rex Zero: The Great Pretender

by Tim Wynne-Jones

Groundwood Books

224 pp.

Ages 10-14

2009

Running Scared

by Beverley Terrell-Deutsch

Red Deer Press

176 pp.

Ages 9-12

2013

Schooled

by Gordon Korman

Scholastic Canada

208 pp.

Ages 8-12

2007

The Secret of Grim Hill

by Linda DeMeulemeester

Lobster Press

187 pp.

Ages 8-12

2007

The Sixth Grade Nickname Game

by Gordon Korman

Scholastic Canada

160 pp.

Ages 8-12

2004

Speechless

by Jennifer Mook-Sang

Scholastic Canada

184 pp.

Ages 8-12

September, 2015

The Spotted Dog Last Seen

by Jessica Scott Kerrin

Groundwood Books

196 pp.

Ages 8-11

2013

The Strictest School in the World: Being the Tale of a Clever Girl, a Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines, Mostly Broken

by Howard Whitehouse

Illustrated by Bill Slavin

Kids Can Press

252 pp.

Ages 11-14

2006

This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall

by Gordon Korman

Scholastic Canada

116 pp.

Ages 8-12

1978/2011

The Time Time Stopped

by Don Gilmour

Scholastic Canada

151 pp.

Ages 8-11

2011

Ungifted

by Gordon Korman

Scholastic Canada

260 pp.

Ages 8-12

2012

Young Adult

Alice, I Think
by Susan Juby
HarperCollins Canada
244 pp.
Ages 12+
2003

The Baby Project

by Sarah Ellis

Groundwood Books

144 pp.

Ages 12+

1986

Bifocal

by Deborah Ellis and Eric Walters

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

280 pp.

Ages 12-15

2007

Branded

by Eric Walters

Orca Book Publishers

136 pp.

Ages 10-14

2010

Cape Town

by Brenda Hammond

Great Plains Teen Fiction

326 pp.

Ages 14+

2012 

Chance to Dance for You

by Gail Sidonie Sobat

Great Plains Teen Fiction

172 pp.
Ages 14+
2011

Creeps

by Darren Hynes

Razorbill/Penguin Canada

309 pp.

Age 13 +

2013

Cut the Lights

by Karen Krossing

Orca Book Publishers

129 pp.

Ages 11-14

2013

Depth of Field
by Chantel Guertin
ECW Press
208 pp.
Ages 13+
2014

The Dewpoint Show

by Barb Howard

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

231 pp.

Ages 11-14

2010

Drummer Girl

by Karen Bass

Coteau Books

192 pp.

Ages 14+

2011

Fragile Bones: Harrison & Anna

by Lorna Schultz Nicholson

Clockwise Press

217 pp.

Ages 13+

March 2015

Game Plan

by Natalie Corbett Sampson

Fierce Ink Press

351 pp.

Ages 12+

2013

Kissing Frogs

by Alisha Sevigny

Fierce Ink Press

231 pp.

Ages 12+

2014

My Parents Are Sex Maniacs: A High School Horror Story
by Robyn Harding
Annick Press
235 pp.
Ages 14-16
2009

The New Normal

by Ashley Little

Orca Book Publishers

222 pp.

Ages 12+

2013

The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen

by Susin Nielsen

Tundra Books

243 pp.

Ages 11-14

2012

Straight Punch
by Monique Polak
Orca Book Publishers
249 pp.
Ages 13-16
2014

The Taming

by Eric Walters and Teresa Toten

Doubleday Canada

229 pp.

Ages 13-17

2012

The Throne

by Beth Goobie

Red Deer Press

281 pp.

Ages 14+

2013

Tribes

by Arthur Slade

HarperTrophy Canada

166 pp.

Ages 12+

2004

The Truth Commission
by Susan Juby
Razorbill Canada
272 pp.
Ages 14+
April 2015

We Are All Made of Molecules

by Susin Nielsen

Tundra Books

246 pp.

Ages 12+

May 2015

What We Hide

by Marthe Jocelyn

Tundra Books

275 pp.

Ages 14+

2014

When Kacey Left

by Dawn Green

Red Deer Press

228 pp.

Ages 12+

April 2015

Non-Fiction

The Delta is My Home

by Tom McLeod and Mindy Willett

Fifth House

26 pp.

Ages 7-10

2008

Fatty Legs: A True Story

by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

Illustrated by Liz Amini-Holmes

Annick Press

104 pp.

Ages 7-11

2010 

Goodbye Buffalo Bay

by Larry Loyie

Theytus Books

142 pp.

Ages 10-14

2008

Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World

by Susan Hughes

Owlkids Books

64 pp.

Ages 8-13

2011

Razia’s Ray of Hope: One Girl’s Dream of an Education
by Elizabeth Suneby
Illustrated by Suana Verelst
Kids Can Press
36 pp.
Ages 8-10
2013

Reptile Flu: A story about communication

by Kathryn Cole

Illustrated by Qin Leng

Second Story Press

24 pp.

Ages 5-8

April 2015

School Days Around the World
by Margriet Ruurs
Illustrated by Alice Feagan
Kids Can Press
40 pp.
Ages 4-7
2015

Shannen and the Dream for a School

by Janet Wilson

Second Story Press

206 pp.

Ages 8+

2011 

The Way to School

by Rosemary McCarney and Plan International

Second Story Press

32 pp.

Ages 7-12

September 2015

When I Was Eight

by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

Illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard

Annick Press

32 pp.

Ages 6-9

2013