I’m thrilled to be taking Pudding Tat to Austin, Texas for the Texas Library Association conference. I’ll be signing books at 11:00 am on 16 April, 2019. Please drop by if you’re in Austin! For more about Pudding Tat, Adventuring Tat, click here.
So pleased to have my 16th children’s book come into the world! Read more about this adventuring cat and his miserable six-legged sidekick here.
I’m excited to share the cover of my upcoming middle-grade novel, The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat! Thank you to illustrator Stacy Innerst for the beautiful art work and to Groundwood Books. Pudding will be sauntering into the world April 1st.
I am just one of many children’s authors devastated by the news of Sheila Barry’s passing. I began working with Sheila at Kids Can when she nurtured Jasper John Dooley into print. She moved on to become publisher of Groundwood Books, where we also worked together. Over the years we became snail mail correspondents and friends.
From Sheila I learned that children’s literature is every bit as creative and challenging to write as adult fiction; more so, if you dare. Despite the misconception that kidlit is didactic, she had only one rule that I ever heard her mention: if someone is jumping on a trampoline, give her a net. She urged us to take chances, walked us through the impossible, and so she kept her writers safe and published books that gave kids the chance to soar.
Sheila was our net.
Please read her Publishers Weekly obituary.
How thrilling to see a book translated into a another language. Now Jasper John Dooley is making all kinds of new friends in … Turkey! Here’s the information for Turkish speakers. 
I’m thrilled that the latest Jasper John Dooley book — Public Library Enemy #1 — has been nominated for a Chocolate Lily Award. The Chocolate Lily is a young readers’ choice book award which encourages BC kids to read BC books. This is my 6th nomination! Thank you to all the BC kids for reading! See the list of 2017-18 nominees here.
Eat, Leo! Eat! is now included in Vancouver Public Library’s wonderful early literacy initiative. You can visit the plaque at Grays Park in Vancouver, BC. Here’s a complete list of the Reading Light plaques and where they are located.
I’m one of the judges for the inaugural Joan Betty Stuchner Oy Vey Funniest Children’s Book Award! “The $1000 Joan Betty Stuchner—Oy Vey! —Funniest Children’s Book Award will be presented biannually to a Canadian author or illustrator of the work of juvenile fiction that had the jury most: buckled over with guffaws, incapacitated with giggles, and/or rib-ticklingly, side-splittingly, thigh-slappingly entertained.” That I am! Thank you to all the publishers who sent in submissions!
I’m so happy to be presenting Jasper John Dooley, Public Library Enemy #1 at Word. Come by and help with the Toast Restaurant! Sunday 23 September at 1:20 at VPL Library Square. See the full Word schedule here.
I’m thrilled to have received this gorgeous BC-shaped trophy for Jasper John Dooley NOT in Love. The award is for the best BC chapter book published in 2015-2016, chosen by BC kids. Thanks so much to all the readers!
