What a blast in Thunder Bay. The librarians up there held their first Forest of Reading event, and it sold out in days. More than a thousand kids packed the CLE grounds for the big event. Thanks to Rebecca Upjohn for this pic of me giving them some food advice. 1. Don't listen to your parents. 2. Listen to your parents.

Amazing Day

The forest of reading event is the best event an author can dream of. I wrote an essay about it for the National Post, and had another chance to live it today.

I was co-winner of the Silver Birch for non-fiction with Cathy Rondina for the totally fun book. Don't Touch that Toad. Here's a pic of me with the award.

And Neil Flambe #2 was an Honour Book (runner-up) for the fiction award! David Skuy won for his great book Undergrounders.

Wow.

Thanks

see everyone next year?

I had an AMAZING week.
It started with the Near North School Board tour of Parry Sound and North Bay.
Here's me in front of the Bobby Orr Community Centre!

Then it was time for the Neil Flambe and the Crusader's Curse book launch!
Mabel's Fables put together a tour and we talked about food to more than two-thousand readers throughout the week. Here's the crowd at All Saints (with 800 more via video-link).

And then the launch yesterday. We did mix and match jelly-bean tastings and also some drawing lessons. (Lovely wife Laura helping out.)

Today... rest. (And I'll be calling my mum of course!) Of course, I'll also be drawing, drawing and drawing....

Thanks to everyone at Mabel's... Simon and Schuster (especially my guide Rita Silva!) and all the great fans who came out to say hi!

The amazing gang at Mabel's Fables has filled an entire window with Neil Flambe´!

WOW.

I was there today and dropped by for a photo op. MF is also going to be there for the Neil Flambe and the Crusader's Curse launch - Saturday, May 12th at 10 am at the Northern District branch of the Toronto Public Library.

We will be doing some cartooning and eating lots of jelly beans!

(I also added a Neil Flambe picture to the amazing authors/illustrators wall upstairs at the bookstore. Drop by and see if you can find it.)

I was at the DSBN Silver Birch blowout today in Niagara on the Lake. Neil Flambe and the Aztec Abduction was the Niagara region winner! They also had a couple amazing food-inspired workshops based on the NF capers. Kids made pasta sauces from a series of ingredients (and I was one of the judges). In the other, they made guacamole and salsa and fried plantains.

Speaking of food and Neil... here he is with Su Style Chicken.

Took a little Neil cutout along for the ride to China. Lots of pics on the NeilFlambe.com website... but here's one of Neil getting a little too close to the many lions around town in Suzhou.