Totsapalooza: 12th Annual Festival (Toronto, ON)

Need a Christmas gift for children 
that is fun, literary, interactive and more?

Get your Early Bird tickets before they sell out 
–they always seems to do so–


for

Small Print Toronto's

 

annual kids' festival of books, music and crafts

 TOTSAPALOOZA

Saturday, February 1, 2020

 2:00 -4:00 p.m.

at 

Revival

783 College St.  (at Shaw)

Toronto, ON

Tickets:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/totsapalooza-12-tickets-84832567493

Early Bird Prices:
$10 for adults
$5 for kids

Regular Prices:

$15 for adults

$10 for kids

Free for non-walkers ages 0-2 (who will not be participating in crafts)

Activities and guests include:

● Eric Hogan and Tara Hungerford who have adapted their hit CBC-Kids TV show Scout and The Gumboot Kids into a set of four picture books which they will launch with Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter Jessie Farrell and full-sized mascots of the show's stars, mouse duo Scout and Daisy;

Gumboot Kids Nature Mysteries:

The Case of the Growing Bird Feeder
The Case of the Story Rock 

The Case of the Wooden Timekeeper

The Case of the Vanishing Caterpillar

by Eric Hogan and Tara Hungerford

Firefly Books

● author James Gladstone and illustrator Gary Clement who will present their  new picture book My Winter City;

My Winter City

Written by James Gladstone

Illustrated by Gary Clement

Groundwood Books

• co-authors Susan McLennan and Mike Erskine-Kellie who will present their upcoming debut picture book I Got You A Present!;

I Got You a Present!

Written by Mike Erskine-Kellie and Susan McLennan

Illustrated by Cale Atkinson

Kids Can Press

● drag performers and arts educators Fay Schlift and Fluffy Soufflé who are hosting and running their wildly popular, interactive reading program Drag Queen Storytime;

• music by indie-folk singer-songwriter Pete Moss;

● city-building project Mouse City will let kids create a city within a valley out of craft materials and recyclables;

● Wanda’s Pie-in-the-Sky pop-up bakery will be selling healthy, handmade snacks; and

● books for sale and signing by authors and illustrator will be available.

Be sure to get your tickets before they are sold out 

(and sold out they will be!) 

•••••••••••••••••••••

Swimming, Swimming

by Gary Clement

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-449-7

48 pp.

Ages 4-7

April 2015

It's summer and a boy who is obviously obsessed with swimming (note the posters hanging on the blue water walls of his room, his t-shirts, and the goggles and flippers on the floor) is just getting up, getting dressed, packing his backpack and meeting his friends. Any guesses where they’re heading?  Yep, it’s summer so it’s the local swimming pool.

And once they’re changed and pre-showered and on the deck of the massive outdoor pool, it’s time for the Swimming, Swimming song.  What? You don't know the camp song “Swimming, swimming, in a swimming pool?” No worries.  Gary Clement will take you along for a colourful and quirky illustrated rendition of the song, and even share with you, via video (which I've also shared below), the gestures that go with it.  Ready?  Sing!

Swimming, swimming
In a swimming pool.
When days are hot
When days are cold
In a swimming pool.
Breaststroke
Sidestroke
Fancing diving too!
Oh don’t you wish you never had anything else to do?

From the boy and his friends, to moms and dads with little ones, swimmers with balls, flutterboards, an innertube or waterwings, everyone is getting into Swimming, Swimming.  I defy you to not find yourself amongst the goggled, sunglassed, gotteed, bearded and clean-shaven, bikini- and tankini-ed, full-suited and trunked floaters and active swimmers at the swimming pool.  Gary Clement has included everyone!  And when the day is done and they leave the community pool, stopping at the Mister Ice Cream truck before heading home for dinner, the boy ends the day tending to a small orange swimmer for whom he is responsible, before he’s in bed resting so he'll be ready for another day of Swimming, Swimming in a swimming pool.

Many Canadian readers will be familiar with Gary Clement’s political cartoons in the National Post but I believe that his illustrations have that originality and funniness that are the heart of great humourous picture books.  Obviously others think so as well, since Gary Clement did win a Governor General’s Award for Illustration for his book The Great Poochini (Groundwood Books, 2010).  Just like his loveable relatives in Oy Fey So? (Cary Fagan, Groundwood Books, 2013), Gary Clement’s very real characters who are less-than-perfect-morphologically steal the story, again bringing all readers into the book, whether they want to go swimming or not. (And, for reference, the endpapers will show you the different strokes!)

(BTW, thanks, Gary Clement, for keeping the Speedo-ed strutter out of the community pool!)

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Swimming, Swimming Sing Along

Uploaded by House of Anansi on April 27, 2015 to YouTube.

Oy Feh So?

by Cary Fagan

Illustrated by Gary Clement

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-148-9

40 pp.

Ages 4-7

2013

Our families can be the fodder of so much humour.  Obviously Cary Fagan's family has provided him with a wealth of laughter if his numerous children's books are any indication.  From The Fortress of Kasper Snit (Tundra, 2004) and its 2 sequels, to My New Shirt (Tundra, 2007) and Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas (Tundra, 2009), Cary Fagan capably finds the comedic in relationships, familial and otherwise.

In Oy Feh So?, the arrival of Uncle Sam's old Lincoln marks the beginning of the ritualistic Sunday visit from Aunt Essy, Aunt Chanah and Uncle Sam.  As routine as their visits are, so too are their habitual use of interjections or exclamations before commenting on everything and anything.  Aunt Essy of the "Oy" always seems exasperated.  Aunt Chanah is the champion of "Feh", ever contemptuous.  And Uncle Sam's indifference is clear from his favourite interjection, "So?"  

Anticipating no deviation from their relatives' same-speak ("Do you think they'll say something different today?" my sister asked.  "Not a chance," my brother answered.), the three children in the household hatch a plan of multiple role-plays to flabbergast some new vocabulary out of their aunts and uncle.  But, it's not until the kids go overboard and shamelessly mimic their three relatives that Aunt Essy, Aunt Chanah and Uncle Sam discover their own farcical natures and begin to speak freely and uncharacteristically.

Gary Clement's ink-and-watercolour illustrations of Aunts Essy and Chanah and Uncle Sam bring out the boring attributes of all us older relatives: less than trendy eyeglasses, an unwelcome paunch, out-moded hairstyles, double chins and clothing lacking in style.  The details in the faces and hair and attire may be different, but they are the relatives we were all encouraged (forced?) to embrace and chat up because they were family.  And, if we were lucky, as the three children in Oy Feh So? are, we saw beyond the façade of their drudgery and stale vocabulary and glimpsed the fun-loving children they once were and now were willing to share with us.  This collaboration between Cary Fagan and Gary Clement is priceless in allowing us to see ourselves in the story, and hopefully recognize that it's up to us to help change those Sunday visits from doom to delight.  Oy!