Children's Book Bank

I had a great visit to a great place today - the Children's Book Bank here in Toronto. Just look at how warm and inviting the space is! It's like the library of your warm and fuzzy dreams.

The amazing staff take gently used books and hand them out to readers who can't afford to buy their own.

I talked about Neil Flambe to a group of grade 6ers who actually like the obnoxious ginger chef. This is me giving them a quick cartooning lesson.

And there's a great student-run trivia night fundraiser coming up in TO on November 21st. Emceed by the great Robert Paul Weston.

Click here for more details!

Some pics of the tardis porch

WOW! A little Neil!

So.... we did a Dr. Who themed porch yesterday (pictures will be posted later)... BUT the coolest thing was that there was a young man dressed as NEIL FLAMBE!

Look at the hair!

He didn't even know that I lived in the hood... so it was a totally unexpected and COOL!

I am very touched.

Tintin

There's been a lot of Tintin news these days (can't wait for the movie!).

Here's a flight of fancy. Tintin as a Canadian saving the Stanley Cup.

I mean, his dog is named Snowy (at least in English)... shouldn't he be Canadian?

Sneak Peek Neil Flambe #4

I handed in the pics for Neil Flambe #4 yesterday. NF and the Tokyo Treasure. It's due out next year but I can tell you there will be some manga... here's a sneak preview.

Golly

So I'm up for the Silver Birch Award again! Multiple times, as it turns out.... which is completely mind-blowing.

Neil Flambe #2 is up for fiction. Neil #1 won the award this year (thus the picture). And as with last year, great co-nominees. It is honestly an amazing honour to be included with all these amazing writers.

Canadians are so lucky to have such a great kid-oriented literary culture and we authors are so lucky to have such amazing librarians and educators... and readers too!

Game Day is nominated in the non-fiction category as is Cathy Rondina's Don't Touch that Toad! which I was honoured to illustrate.

See everyone in May!

See ya tomorrow!

I'm giving a talk on non-fiction tomorrow at the Young Writer's Festival... at the North York Central Library.

It is definitely a different challenge than writing fiction.... and is often more rewarding.

I loved giving the people in Game Day a chance to shine. The book is a series of stories about all the people behind the scenes in sports.

They inspire me. They have to do their jobs just as well as pro athletes... or else the athletes are not going to be able to do anything.

Do they get the recognition? The money? No.

Are they happy? Yes.