Thank you so much to Karen Rivers the author of the XYZ Trilogy for the terrific blog entry below. It’s great to read all of the behind the scenes information about this amazing series!

If you haven’t picked up X in Flight yet I would highly encourage it. Anyone who is a fan of the TV shows Heroes and Supernatural will not be disappointed. For those of you who have read X in Flight only a couple more months until Y in the Shadows is available. Look for it in bookstores everywhere in February.

In the meantime for more fabulous additional content on the series and Karen Rivers herself visit XYZ Website where you will find a What is Your Super Power Quiz, A Poll of what the most popular super powers are, a Q&A with Karen Rivers and a whole lot more.

CONTEST: Visit the XYZ Trilogy and take the What is Your Super Power Quiz. Post what your super power would be under comments and you could win a free copy of X in Flight. Contest closes January 21st.

Good Luck!

I was just sent a wonderful review for King of the Lost and Found on a blog called Jenn’s Book Bag. It contained one of the best quotes I’ve ever read so I thought I had to share:

Every once in a while, a true gem of a book comes along.  King of the Lost and Found is a diamond of a gem.

Read the full review here.

King of the Lost and Found can be found at fine bookstores everywhere. Pick up your copy today, you won’t regret it!

We’ve watched him grow up from a shy awkward school boy playing everyone’s favourite young wizard starting his first day at Hogwarts Academy to a confidant man starring on The London Stage in Equus. I have to admit that I was at a bookstore over the summer and while walking past the magazine rack did a double take when I saw this photo of Daniel Radcliffe on the cover of Details Magazine. Well now Daniel Radcliffe has another accomplishment to add to his resume… writer… well of an introduction that is!

Bloomsbury has just released a new book written by Paul Kieve with an introduction by Daniel Radcliffe called Hocus Pocus. Paul met Daniel while working as Producer of Physical Magic on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. For more information on how the two became fast friends click HERE for a blog that I posted a few months back about how it was magic at first meeting for Daniel and Paul.

The newest rage in book marketing is “Book Trailers” so of course for a book as highly anticipated as Hocus Pocus there has to be a trailer.

Looks exciting doesn’t it! Full of the wonder of magic and the amazing personalities of the greatest magicians of all time, Hocus Pocus is packaged with a magic envelope full of magical curiosities that can be used to baffle and impress.

Now is your chance to win your very own copy! All you have to do is post a comment in our comment section with a link to your favourite Daniel Radcliffe photo. We’ll pick one luck winner and send them their very own copy of Hocus Pocus.

Happy Reading and Good Luck!

Do you know someone between the ages of 13 and 19 who lives in BC and loves to read? If so have them sign up to be a reader for The Stellar Awards. The Stellar Awards are the BC Teen Choice Awards for Canadian Teen Literature and they are looking for your opinion!

Raincoast has two books nominated for the 2007/2008 Season.

The Cure For Crushes (And Other Deadly Plagues) by Karen Rivers the fabulous follow-up to bestseller The Healing Time of Hickeys. Haley Andromeda Harmony is now in her final months of high school and must face the inevitable question: What happens next? Finding the answer isn’t easy. For one thing, having a real boyfriend is causing a strange reaction: Haley has crushes on nearly every other boy she meets. As well, her dad gets a job and starts dating, and Haley misses the life they had before he moved his Much Younger Girlfriend (MYG) into their ramshackle house. From bungee-jumping in winter to supporting best friend Jules at auditions for the TV show “Who’s the Prettiest of Them All?,” Haley’s TGYML 2 ("the greatest year of my life, part two") has more than its fair share of mishap-filled adventures.

Also nominated is The Freedom of Jenny by Julie Burtinshaw a gripping historical fiction that revolves around Jenny Estes, who is born into slavery in the 1840s in Missouri. Through Jenny and her family, Burtinshaw tells the true story of the immigration of a small group of African Americans from the banks of the Mississippi to Saltspring Island, British Columbia, in the 1860s. This first fictional treatment of a fascinating and important piece of North American history follows in the tradition of Barbara Smucker’s classic Underground to Canada.

Today seems to be a perfect type of day to curl up on the couch with a good book.... so here’s another contest!

Who is your favourite author?

Leave an answer in the comment field and we will send one lucky randomly chosen winner a copy of both of our Raincoast Published titles on the Stellar Awards nomination list.

For more information on how to sign up to be a reader for The Stellar Awards visit their website HERE.

From award winning author K.L. Going comes a haunting, spine-tingling new novel just in time for Halloween.

In The Garden of Eve a girl named Evie reluctantly moves with her widowed father to Beaumont, New York, where he has bought an apple orchard. He dismisses rumours that the town is cursed and that the trees haven’t borne fruit in decades. Evie doesn’t believe in things like curses and fairy tales any more: if fairy tales were real, her mom would still be alive.

But odd things happen in Beaumont: Evie meets a boy who claims to be dead and receives a mysterious seed as an 11th birthday gift. Once planted, the seed grows into a tree overnight, but only Evie and the dead boy can see it—or go where it leads.

The latest and greatest trend in books is creating trailers for your favourite novels. Publishers and fans alike are creating them and putting them up on You Tube. To see what I mean here is one for The Garden of Eve:

Click HERE for a link to a independent short made by a fan of K.L. Going’s previous book Saint Iggy. (Warning the film contains adult language.)

Now a question to throw out to all of you. If you were to create a trailer for your favourite book what book would it be? Leave your answer in the comment field. We will pick a winner at random and send them a free copy of The Garden of Eve and Saint Iggy.

Good Luck and Happy Reading!

It’s time to announce the winner of the Banned Books Week contest! Drumroll please as I conduct a random draw…

Congratulations to Chelsea!

Chelsea will receive a set of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Annals of the Western Shore trilogy: GIFTS, VOICES, and POWERS.

Thanks to everyone who left comments about Banned Books Week—you made some good points about freedom of speech, the freedom to choose, the role of books and reading in our society, as well as the love of reading. Even Dumbledore got brought into the discussion! Click here to read all the comments (and even add your own!).

P.S. For the contest-hungry...

Be sure to check out our CLANCY WITH THE PUCK contest that is on right now. Click here for details and to enter.

Next Saturday marks the beginning of Banned Books Week, held this year from September 29 to October 6, 2007.

What is Banned Books Week all about?

Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.—ALA (Source)

Read more about Banned Books Week on the ALA website. There is also a similar event that happens in Canada: Freedom to Read Week will be celebrated from February 24 to March 1, 2008.

* * *

To celebrate Banned Books Week, I’d like to announce a giveway contest here on the Raincoast blog! The prize: a set of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Annals of the Western Shore trilogy: GIFTS, VOICES, and POWERS, which was just published last month.

These books are great for teen readers who love fantasy and magic. POWERS recently received a glowing review from Sarah Ellis in the Globe and Mail:

“POWERS is rich with action, with battles, escapes, strategy and skulduggery, but it has a still, quiet place at its heart, a place of moral complexity. [. . . ] There is no chicken soup in Ursula Le Guin, no answers you can print on a T- shirt. Instead, she provides a convincing and fully realized narrative that gives the teen reader hope that the huge tasks of growing up, of finding work, love, your people and your self, can be successfully accomplished.”

--Sarah Ellis, Globe and Mail

I’m giving these books away in connection with Banned Books Week because the second book in the series, VOICES, is set in a time and place where reading and writing are considered to be acts punishable by death. It is believed that there is one place where that the last few undestroyed books are hidden, but it is seething with demons…

Enter the Banned Books Week contest by leaving a comment below. Tell us what Banned Books Week means to you… Are you planning to celebrate by reading a controversial book? If so, which one? What would you do if all books were banned? Do you think people have the right to speak out against books they object to?

The contest closes October 4th and is open to Canadian residents only. Good luck!

Yarrrr! Today be the day that we all talk like pirates. ‘Tis truly a day for celebratin’. We here at Raincoast have put together this here fine list of swashbuckling tales to help ye cherish the day. Worth a chest full of Spanish doubloons, this list be!

The Princess and the Captain
Treasure Island
Under the Jolly Roger
The Wave Traveller
Go Saddle the Sea
Sea Stories
The Mutiny on the Bounty
Beware, Pirates!
Prison Ship
Powder Monkey
In the Belly of the Bloodhound
Captain Raptor and the Space Pirates
Backbeard and the Birthday Suit
Backbeard: Pirate for Hire
Captain Wag Pirate dog
How I Became a Pirate
Pirates Don’t Change Diapers
I Love My Pirate Papa
Space Pirates and the Monster of Malswomp
My Pirate Ship
History in Action: Pirate Ship

My humble advice to thee: Reading be the finest of adventures, and if ye think yerself a pirate, ye ought to be living a life of adventure. Savvy?

Today reviews arrived in my mailbox for my two favourite Johns- John Burns and John Lekich. Both contained great quotes.

Here is the review for King of the Lost and Found by John Lekich in The Magazine:

“Raymond Dunne is a 10th grader who doesn’t fit in and is prone to nose bleeds, fainting spells and an assortment of other health problems. When he befriends Jack Alexander, a transfer student, his luck starts to change. Written with plenty of humour mixed in with a few touching moments, this book makes you root for Raymond as the author does a good job of bringing you along for his ride.

VERDICT: This summer’s funniest book yet.” -A.S.

-AND-

Here is my favourite quote from Books in Canada: The Canadian Review of Books from their review of Runnerland by John Burns:

“Told with insight, empathy, talent and skill, Runnerland is an intriguing story about kids, forced to take graduate courses from the school of hard knocks. Every word is worth reading.” -M. Wayne Cunningham

Way to go John and John! Pick up one or both of these books for great summer reading for any teen!

Also a big THANK YOU! to our fabulous Canadian Reviewers.

Happy Reading!

There is nothing better than meeting someone who is the perfect mix of being hilarious and at the same time delightfully charming. That is exactly the feeling I had when I met author John Lekich. He is so funny but not over the top funny. He has this kindness and gentleness about him, a complete gentleman, and just really wonderful. John’s new book, King of the Lost and Found, is exactly the same way. Laugh out loud funny and charming. A book that you want to share with everyone young and old. Your grandma would enjoy this book just as much as your 12 year old nephew.

I’m not the only one that feels this way. John participated in the author breakfast at the BC Bookfair in June and the booksellers went bananas over him. He told this wonderful story about how his first crush had been on a bookseller, and you could completely imagine Raymond Dunne (the main character in King of the Lost and Found) having the exact same experience. This morning a co-worker sent me a review that she found in the latest issue of Geist Magazine. I’ve bolded my favourite line below:

Raymond J. Dunne, the sixteen-year-old hero of John Lekich’s teen novel, King of the Lost & Found (Raincoast), is an outsider. He is a fainter, a bleeder and a sneezer, and that makes him a freak at squeaky-clean Hargrave High. Raymond compensates by participating in the school’s accelerated leadership program, and he lives to do errands and help out a bit too much around the campus. He is so motivated to do good that he starts stealing to ensure the survival of his beloved (and necessary) lost and found. But when a cool, aloof senior named Jack Alexander takes a shine to Raymond, his life changes forever. Lekich creates a funny and believable character whose voice is authentic, charming and compelling. The story, which is always unpredictable and includes a hamster named Houdini, an eccentric millionaire and hidden treasure, is great. -Reviewed by Kris Rothstein

Guess I’m not the only one who finds John and Raymond to be charmers! For a link to the review click here.

Happy Reading!

We just love Monique at www.somisguided.com. We recently sent out beach bags with great summer reading in it along with X in Flight press kits. We sent one to Monique and she thought it was so fun that she did a video blog about it!

Check out the entire blog entry at So Misguided.

Featured in our summer reading mail out were:

-X in Flight by Karen Rivers

-Zoe and Chloe: On The Prowl by Sue Limb

-A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban

-I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter by Lynn Cullen

-Mississippi Jack, A Bloody Jack Adventure: Being an Account of the Further Waterborne Adventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman, Fine Lady, and Lily of the West by L. A. Meyer

Send us a link to a video of you reading your favourite summer books and you could win a collection of Raincoast Summer Reading of your own!

Happy Summer Reading!

All this week our marketing team has been graced with the presence of 11 year old Valerie, the daughter of one of our Raincoast employees. Valerie has been incredible helping us out with all sorts of different tasks around our department. She mentioned to us earlier this week that she was a fan of the Pauline, BTW Trilogy so I asked her if she would review one of them for us. This morning Valerie brought this incredible review into my office for The Mysterious Adventures of Pauline Bovary:

The Mysterious Adventures of Pauline Bovary

The Mysterious Adventures of Pauline Bovary is the second book in the series: Pauline, btw (by the way), by Edeet Ravel. It is set in Canada and follows the life of a fourteen-year-old author named Pauline. Her friends and family, her ups and her downs, are a rare burst of real life for anyone. It is filled with funny remarks, odd characters, and situations that everyone has to go through sooner or later. I think Pauline would bring a smile to anyone’s face who’s just looking for a truthful book. It also has advice if you want to become an author. All in all, it’s a great book!!! I’m looking forward to the third amazing Pauline adventure. The author clearly understands what it’s like to be a teenager without being stereotypical. A series I would recommend to ALL my friends.

-Review by: Valerie, age 11

The Secret Journey of Pauline Siddhartha the third and final book in the Pauline, BTW Trilogy will be released in stores everywhere October. Pre-order your copy today at your favourite bookstore!

Are you a huge fan of Raincoast Children’s Books? Send us a review and we’ll post it here on the Raincoast Blog! If your interested leave us a note in the comments field and we’ll send you the email address to send your reviews to.

Happy Reading!

Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks is popping up on everyone’s summer reading list. This weekend I was at the Symposium of the Children’s Book at the SFU Summer Publishing Program, and while on stage speaker John Burns (aka the author of Runnerland) mentioned he was reading it.

Also reading Evil Genius- Hannah Schwartz, owner of Children’s Book World in Haverford, Philadelphia. It was on her summer reading list in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“This kid is super, super smart and, after he finishes school, finds out he’s adopted and his actual father is a super-evil genius who wants him to join the Axis Institute for World Domination. Really smart and clever."

Check out their full list of summer reads from “fun to functional” from a variety of booky people here.

Who else is reading Evil Genius? Mr. Bill Sass of the Edmonton Journal. Normally the assistant business editor for the Journal, Bill returned to his young adult days and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.

Jinks has done a good job putting into words a complex plot that kids will be able to understand.

The inevitable question bouncing around juvenile fiction these days is whether a replacement for Harry Potter is on the horizon, with that last book of the boy wizard’s adventures hitting bookshelves July 21.

Might Cadel fit that bill? The answer is a resounding maybe.

Jinks’s first book doesn’t present a sympathetic character a la Harry. But there is a magic in technology and flawed heroes can be heroes just the same.

At the very least, Evil Genius is a rousing summer read and a distraction for any genius who fancies altering traffic light patterns and learning the Pentagon’s secrets.

Now a blog entry about Evil Genius wouldn’t be complete without directing you all to the Axis Institute For World Domination. While at the website you can check out the course catalogue, meet the kids on the class roster, read up on the faculty, see what kind of school supplies you will need and most importantly find out how evil you really are with the Are You An Evil Genius? Quiz. But make sure to come back and let us know"How Evil You Are”!

Happy Reading!

Praises continue to pour in for John Burns‘ YA title Runnerland. From The Vancouver Sun and The Edmonton Sun to CM Magazine and even KidsWWwrite... everyone loves Runnerland’s hero Peter.

Today Monique at So Misguided wrote:

The thing that I like about Peter’s story was that it was believable. Believable enough for someone who doesn’t live on the street and who’s never run away. I like that he doesn’t follow the path of drugs. But he gets messed up in his own way. I feel that Peter is lost, but I also feel like he’s smart enough to survive.

Read the entire review here.

While you’re at it check out the John Burns Runnerland Blog for behind the scenes information on what it is like to be a first time YA author.

Have you read Runnerland? We would love to hear what you think! Drop us a line in the comments field.

Great News from Danielle in the publicity department:

Gretzky’s Game, The Freedom of Jenny and Jack’s Knife are all Our Choice 2006 Selections.

Sensational Scientists received an Our Choice Favourite mention.

Our Choice is sent to CCBC members each year as part of their membership and is included with every TD Canadian Children’s Book Week kit distributed across Canada. Our Choice is also distributed at the Bologna International Book Fair as well as various Canadian conferences and fairs, including Word on the Street, OLA, CLA, and BookExpo Canada. For the past three years Our Choice has been going into every school in the Toronto District School Board.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gretzky’s Game by Mike Leonetti (Raincoast, 1-55192-851-5, $21.95 cloth)
“ ... Leonetti’s latest winner focuses on overcoming obstacles and believing in yourself."

** Starred selection **
The Freedom of Jenny by Julie Burtinshaw (Raincoast, 1-55192-839-6, $12.95 paper)
“Burtinshaw tells the story of Jenny, born into slavery in the 1840s in Missouri, and her family who immigrated from the banks of the Mississippi to Saltspring Island, British Columbia."

** Starred selection **
Jack’s Knife by Beverley and Chris Wood (Raincoast, 1-55192-709-8, $12.95 paper)
“ ... Dog lovers will relish the second thrilling novel in the series that began with the highly recommended Dogstar."

Sensational Scientists by Barry Shell (Raincoast, 1-55192-727-6, $24.95 cloth)
“First published in 1997 as Great Canadian Scientists by Polestar Book Publishers, Our Choice 1998/1999 Starred Selection.”