The Gargoyle Overhead flies into Chapters!

Philippa Dowding and her gargoyle puppet visited Chapters (Runnymede) in Toronto on Saturday May 22, 2010.

Philippa read from her books The Gargoyle in My Yard (2009) and The Gargoyle Overhead (2010), both published by Napoleon. Reading from her first book, Philippa gave the audience a taste of what it might be like to have a naughty 400-year-old gargoyle named Gargoth living in your backyard.

After giving clues from her second book, Philippa asked children and their parents to guess where Gargoth’s best friend, another gargoyle named Ambergine, was searching for him throughout Toronto.

Philippa signed lots of books, gave out plenty of bookmarks, and as usual was happy to share her gargoyle puppet with fans!

The Gargoyle Overhead takes flight!

Philippa Dowding launched her new children’s book, "The Gargoyle Overhead" at the Bloor/Gladstone Library on Saturday, May 8th. A full house of nearly eighty people, both children and adults, listened attentively as she read about Gargoth the gargoyle’s first (unfortunate) meeting with a human boy named Philip, 400 years ago.

A lively question and answer period followed, in which Philippa got to explain what it was like to write a sequel, and that no, as far as she knew, gargoyles did not ride dinosaurs!

Lots of books were sold and signed, and a good time was had by everyone in attendance. Thanks to Emma Dolan of Napoleon for playing bookseller for the day.

Heather Kirk Event

Heather Kirk, author of two Napoleon novels for teens will be offering a one-day seminar on writing for children on Saturday May 29, 2010 on the Barrie campus of Georgian College. Recently Heather's YA novel, "Warsaw Spring", set mainly in Poland in 1979, received an endorsement from a distinguished professor of East European and Russian history. Professor Anna M. Cienciala of the University of Kansas wrote: "I liked it very much and I think the italicized thoughts of Eva are a great plus. They explain without being preachy. The drabness of Warsaw at that time is well rendered and Hanna is very intriguing."

Christopher Dinsdale at OLA

Christopher Dinsdale attended the OLA Superconference on February 26th, 2010. He enjoyed the luncheon with Napoleon publisher Sylvia McConnell and the enthusiastic gathering of authors, publishers and librarians. It was also an unexpected pleasure for Christopher to catch up with some old friends, including Peter Rabbit and Winnie the Pooh. Christopher is the author of the Napoleon-published kids' novels Broken Circle, Stolen Away and Betrayed: The Legend of Oak Island.

Nap fall preview!

Here the covers for our fab new lineup of children's fiction and YA for Spring 2010!

The launch of Christopher Dinsdale's new book, Betrayed: The Legend of Oak Island, took place at Chapters Newmarket on November 3rd, 2009. It was an exciting evening for all as many came out in support of the new book. Christopher Dinsdale was pleased to also use the launch as a fundraiser for the Clearmeadow P.S. School Council. The money raised will be used to enhance Clearmeadow's extracurricular school activities.

Brenda Chapman review online

"Highly recommended" by Canadian Materials magazine:
HERE

Brenda Chapman at Shirley Leishman

Saturday, October 24th, Brenda Chapman and C.B. Forrest, held a booksigning at Shirley Leishman bookstore in the Westgate Shopping Centre, Ottawa. This was their second successful co-signing, with many people stopping by to chat or to buy books.



Photo one: Brenda signing a copy of Trail of Secrets to a woman who had previously bought the other books in the series for her daughter.

Photo two: Interested shoppers stopping by.
Photo three: Brenda and C.B. Forrest (left) posing with a mystery fan.

Brenda Chapman at the Children's Lit Gala

Thursday, October 22nd, Brenda Chapman was one of ten local authors and illustrators invited to present from their latest work at the annual Children's Lit Gala in Nepean, Ontario. Afterwards, the authors and illustrators met with young readers and signed books in the Atrium of Ben Franklin Place. This was Brenda's third time participating in the Gala, which is sponsored by the Ottawa Public Library, the Ottawa Literature Roundtable and Capital Parent magazine.

picture one - With two Ottawa Public Library helpers.
picture two - Brenda reading from Trail of Secrets.

Brenda Chapman will be reading from her latest young adult novel, Trail of Secrets, on
Friday, September 11, 7 pm, at the Lighthouse Bookstore, 349 Main Street, Shawville.

Heather Kirk, author of two teen novels published by Napoleon, will be offering a course in "Creative Writing Fundamentals" at Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario this fall. The course, which is held on Monday evenings, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., runs from September 21 to December 14, 2009. Heather will also give a one-day seminar called "Writing for Children" on Saturday November 7, 2009. The seminar takes place on the Barrie campus of Georgian College. Heather's courses are part of the Continuing Education program of Georgian College. For more information see the program's web pages.

Brenda Chapman has been visiting Ottawa Public Libraries as part of the TD Summer Reading Club. Her interactive workshop introduces kids to the fun of mystery writing.

Jennifer Maruno was one of twelve authors invited to The Mimico Party in the Park held on June 23 in Toronto. Amid the sounds of jazz and bagpipes and the smell of hot dogs and candy floss, the authors met the neighbourhood and signed copies of their books. Over 1500 residents of all ages visited The Books in the Park area.

Michael Ignatieff, on hand to present his book as a raffle prize, visited with Jennifer to discuss her novel When the Cherry Blossoms Fell and left with a copy.

Celebrating Citizenship
lian goodall, author of Photographing Greatness: the Story of Karsh, has an article about Karsh, Prime Minister King and the first Canadian citizenship ceremony appearing in the June/July issue of The Wayback Times www.waybacktimes.com.

She will be speaking about Karsh and Prime Minister King at 1pm on Sat. July 4th, 2009 at Woodside National Historic Site, Kitchener, 538 Wellington St. North.

In addition, lian is moving to Picton on July 11th. She's excited that she will be living there and exploring Prince Edward County for the next year.

On Thursday, June 18th, at the Picton Library, Peggy Dymond Leavey gave a presentation to a Grade 5 class from Queen Elizabeth Public School. They were a delightful group, who didn't mind walking to the library in the rain TWICE! There was a miscommunication about the time and they showed up both morning and afternoon. They got it right the second time. Their teacher had been reading Treasure at Turtle Lake to the class, and they were happy to discover that the book Peggy was reading from, Trouble at Turtle Narrows, was actually a sequel.

Did you know that at the first Canadian citizenship ceremony on January 3rd, 1947, immigrant photographer Yousuf Karsh was granted certificate Number Ten? Author of Photographing Greatness: The Story of Karsh, lian goodall, has an article about the first citizenship ceremony that will appear in the “Wayback Times” on June 23rd, 2009. The article looks at the historic event in 1947 through the eyes of Yousuf Karsh, and also from the point-of-view of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, recipient of Canadian citizenship certificate Number One. You can check it out at: wwww.waybacktimes.com

Bernda Chapman visited Natalie Shorkey's Grade two/three class at Churchill Public School in Ottawa on June 2, 2009. Two other classes joined in to hear Brenda talk about mysteries and read from Trail of Secrets.

On June 2nd, Peggy Dymond Leavey was one of the guest panelists discussing children's literature in Cobourg, ON before a meeting of the Retired Teachers of Ontario, District 30.
In the photo, left to right: authors Caley Fiddick, Ted Staunton, Richard Scrimger, Linda Hutsell-Manning, Peggy Dymond Leavey and illustrator, Brenda Clark.

Christopher Dinsdale was honoured to be a part of the 2009 Markham Public Library "Battle of the Books". Christopher's Stolen Away had been selected as one of the 25 "battle" books. Over 100 students participated in the big evening of book trivia and it was amazing to see the teams fire off correct answers for all 25 novels. After a brief question and answer session with the team players, Christopher enjoyed meeting many of the families at the end of the contest.

A week later, Christopher participated at Denne Public School's "Literacy Night" in Newmarket. Christopher discussed through a powerpoint presentation the steps he takes to develop a historical adventure novel. The library audience greatly enjoyed the visit and wished Christopher all the best with the launch of his new novel "Betrayed" in November.

Philippa Dowding’s new children’s novel, “The Gargoyle in My Yard”, got a great start in life at the beautiful McNally Robinson bookstore on Saturday, May 16, 2009. The book launch drew more than sixty friends, family and neighbours, who bought every book in the store – the bookstore SOLD OUT!

Philippa read a few chapters (and brought the gargoyle’s dry, gravelly voice into the world for the first time), signed dozens of books, and enjoyed every minute.

Thanks to Napoleon Publishing, and to everyone who came out in support of a naughty gargoyle! Look for a sequel coming soon…