In this edition of Canadian publishing news: seven simultaneously released books tell the stories of seven orphan girls; Mariko Tamaki’s next YA novel features a girl with two moms; the creator of Scaredy Squirrel has a new standalone picture book; and a film-to-book adaptation follows a Chinese girl who helped to build Canada’s transcontinental railway.
Seven Books for Girls in Orca’s New Secrets Series
It’s been three years since VIctoria-based Orca Books published its Seven series, seven simultaneously published adventure books for boys written by seven authors. Since then, the publisher has sold about 110,000 copies combined, plus a series of sequels.
This September, Orca is releasing a new series aimed at girls 12 and up, and has brought together an impressive list of mostly female authors to do it: Kelley Armstrong (whose book is called The Unquiet Past), Vicki Grant (Small Bones), Marthe Jocelyn (A Big Dose of Lucky), Kathy Kacer (Stones on a Grave), Teresa Toten (Shattered Glass), Norah McClintock (My Life Before Me) and Eric Walters (Innocent). The last two authors also contributed to the original Seven series and its sequels.
The new series, called Secrets, is set in 1964, when an orphanage burns to the ground. Seven teenage girls are thrust out into the world, each one with a clue about where she came from. According to Orca publisher Andrew Wooldridge, each of the authors puts a slightly different spin on their book based on their background: Armstrong’s has a paranormal twist, Kacer’s features Jewish themes, and Norah McClintock, a five-time winner of the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award, has written a straightforward mystery. All of the authors collaborated on the book’s first pivotal scene of the fire that ties the stories together, but after that each girl embarks on her own journey.
Not only is this a feat of organization because all seven books will come out on the same day, but Orca Books is also releasing all seven audiobooks at the same time. Each book will have an initial print run of 12,000 copies; the colorful covers were all designed by Orca’s art director, Teresa Bubela.
Since the books can be read in any order, Orca wanted each one to be attractive as a stand-alone book. “We wanted to be able to tie them together and make them appear sophisticated,” says Wooldridge. “We’re trying to give them an individual enough look so that if the book is by itself on the shelf, it’s still going to be picked up.”
Mariko Tamaki Goes Solo for Her Next Novel
After the success of last year’s award-winning graphic novel This One Summer, written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by her cousin Jillian Tamaki, Mariko is now working on a solo YA prose novel due out next April. Saving Montgomery Sole, published by Roaring Brook in the U.S. and Penguin Random House in Canada, tells the story of Montgomery Sole, a teenage girl growing up with two mothers.
Tamaki got the idea while working for an LGBTQ parenting network in Toronto’s Sherbourne Health Centre. “I just thought, this is a unique experience of what it means to be queer by default,” says Tamaki. “It will be interesting to see how that pans out in terms of how the next generation thinks about sexuality, to have a generation of kids who don’t see heterosexuality as any kind of default – for kids to grow up with two moms and have that be what they see as some sort of norm.”
In the book, Monty and her two best friends are the only members of their high school’s Mystery Club, where they meet up and talk about everything from ESP and astrology to super powers. “I am kind of obsessed with unsolved mysteries myself,” Tamaki says.
Connie Hsu, the editor who acquired world rights excluding Canada for Roaring Brook, says she has been a fan of Tamaki’s for years, ever since the “beautiful and enthralling” 2008 graphic novel Skim – another collaboration with cousin Jillian –– left her wanting more.
Hsu also helped recruit American cartoonist Eleanor Davis for this new book’s cover, which features a bold red and blue illustration of a girl with her arms raised up toward the moon. She explains that Tamaki has written about “a run-of-the-mill, loving, slightly sarcastic and funny family who just happen to have two moms.”
Scaredy Squirrel Creator Mélanie Watt Gets in Touch with Her Emotions
Mélanie Watt lives in a small town just outside of Montreal, and she has written and illustrated more than 20 books for kids, including the popular Scaredy Squirrel picture book series. But this month, she’s telling a story she hasn’t told before with Bug in a Vacuum (Tundra Books), a 96-page picture book about a bug that is suddenly sucked into a vacuum cleaner and goes through the five stages of grief, according to the famous Kübler-Ross model: denial, bargaining, anger, despair, and acceptance.
The book features a combination of watercolors, acrylic, and Photoshop, and includes minimal text, as the bug tries to come to terms with his new dark and dusty situation. Watt told PW that she has had this idea on the backburner for years, and the process of creating the book now was especially therapeutic because she has had to deal with a lot of death herself. “For me personally, it’s a very emotional book,” she says. “It helped me go through that time in my life.”
However, Bug in a Vacuum isn’t only about death. “I think everyone is going to go through some event that they didn’t count on, that they didn’t want to happen,” Watt says. “It’s about dealing with a situation where we feel out of control.”
The book’s subject matter is reminiscent of Inside Out, Pixar’s latest animated movie, in which an 11-year-old girl has a hard time adjusting when her family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. “The timing of that movie was really cool, because it seems to be on trend to be OK with our emotions,” says Watt. “They’re not always pretty, but it’s something we need to go through.”
As much fun as it is for Watt to work on her Scaredy Squirrel and Chester the cat books, she says it’s important for her to work on fresh ideas as well. “I tend to put a lot of emotion in critters and animals and try to understand what they’re thinking,” says Watt. “I guess that’s part of my job.”
‘The Iron Road’ Adapted into a Book for Teens
We’re used to seeing bestselling books adapted into movies, but now the feature film and TV miniseries The Iron Road – one of Peter O’Toole’s last screen roles – has been adapted into a YA novel, called Li Jun and the Iron Road (Dundurn Press).
The new book, as with the movie, tells the story of the Chinese workers who migrated to Canada in the 1880s to build the transcontinental railway, and specifically a feisty teenage girl named Li Jun (Little Tiger) who disguises herself as a boy to get work and find her longlost father.
Anne Tait, who wrote the book along with Franklin the Turtle creator Paulette Bourgeois, was also a producer for the movie, and she describes the book as an action-adventure tale as well as a love story – Li Jun falls for the son of the railroad contractor.
The movie, which was written by Barry Pearson and Raymond Storey, has scenes set all over the world and following different characters. The book, however, is written more from Li Jun’s point of view, so it offers a new perspective on the character. “In the novel, we’re able to get into the mind and heart of Li Jun, and that is a huge advantage,” says Tait.
Tait has written plays and screenplays before, but this was her first book, so her collaboration with Bourgeois was fortuitous. Tait says she found writing prose explanations and introspection a welcome challenge. “[Bourgeois] knows how to write in a voice for younger people, and I have a sense of drama from movies and screenwriting. I think it’s a terrific balance.”
Li Jun and the Iron Road, which comes out in November, will also feature 24 color photos from the movie. Tait believes that the book will be of interest to librarians and students, with its mix of action, romance, and Canadian history. “It’s a tragic story, that there were that many deaths to build a railroad,” says Tait. “But there also is, I think, unexpected humor.”
