News and Events
February 2012 – Skyping with Pennsylvania
Early last month, I received an exciting email from a school in Pennsylvania: their grade five classes were reading two of my books as part of their social studies unit on Canada, and would I be willing to meet with the students over Skype? Without having to factor travel and accommodation into the schedule, we soon fixed a date, and this week, I spent an engaging hour talking to fifty grade-five students on the other side of the continent without even leaving my desk chair. Technology really is amazing, isn’t it?
January 2012 – Four new book contracts!
After what feels like ages without a new book contract, I’m pleased to announce that I now have four with Orca Book Publishers!
My juvenile novel, Not a Chance, will be coming out in Spring 2013. It’s set in the Dominican Republic, and the main character is a thirteen-year-old Canadian girl who spends every summer there in a tiny village where her parents volunteer. This year, she arrives to learn that Aracely, her best friend there, is engaged to be married. Aracely is fourteen, and Rebecca is determined to stop the wedding if she can find a way to do it.
The other three books are part of a nonfiction series for ages 8 to 11. The first one is about how bicycles are used in surprising ways around the world. It’ll be released in Spring 2013, and meanwhile, I’m blogging about the research process. Please feel free to check it out here, and do let me know if you have any ideas of things I should definitely cover.
In other news, I’ve just learned that After Peaches will soon be released in Korean!
November 2011 – Lindsey Carmichael’s blog interview about Out of the Box
A few months ago, I was looking for blogs about Canadian books for young people and discovered Ten Stories Up, by Lindsey Carmichael. Lindsey is a bookseller and writer living in Halifax, and her blog offers diverse, compelling, and honest reviews of the books that she reads. I was delighted when she agreed to review Out of the Box and asked me for an interview. Her questions were both well-thought-out and thought-provoking and made for one of the most enjoyable interview experiences I’ve ever had. Thanks, Lindsey!
July 2011 – Manuscript Consulting
Lately, I’ve enjoyed working with several wonderful writers on their manuscripts for young people. I love reading new writing and talking to the author about how to make it even stronger, so if you’d like feedback on a children’s book manuscript you’ve written, please consider sending it my way!
April 29 to May 7, 2011 – TD Children’s Book Week (Ontario)
Seven planes, eight taxis, six cars, three buses, and two trains. Four cities, five schools, and two libraries. A thousand kids, from toddlers to tweens. All in five days.
Yup, it was an intense week, but what I’ll remember years from now is the kids who leaped up after my first presentation, scrambled to the nearest computer to look at my website and began a passionate discussion of which book they wanted to read first. I’ll remember the school sign welcoming “author Michelle Mulder” in bold, capital letters, and the hand-coloured posters of my book covers lining the hallways. I’ll recall walking into a school where young people filled the hall, smiling, waving and whispering “That’s the author!” and where a grade-two boy came to the library during lunch hour because he wanted to meet a real, live author.
The teachers and librarians who hosted me during Book Week were passionate readers and champions of story. They sparked an excitement about books unlike any I’ve ever seen before, and without exception, every class I talked to was engaged, attentive, and full of excellent questions. “Where do you write?” “Does the editor ever tell you to make changes that you don’t want to make?” “Don’t you get bored rewriting your books so many times?” “What do you love most about being an author?”
Now, even though Book Week is officially over, the memories I’ll cherish for years keep coming. Teacher-librarians email to say my books are flying off the shelves. Kids keep writing with new questions. Book Week is a national treasure, a celebration that inspires kids to be passionate readers and makes authors, illustrators and storytellers feel like rock stars! What an honour to have been a part of it all. A huge thank you to everyone who made this tour possible, and thanks to the kids who delighted me with their enthusiasm and excellent questions.
April 16, 2011 – Bon Voyage party before TD Children’s Book Week
In just a few weeks, thirty Canadian authors, illustrators and storytellers will be traveling around the country to talk to kids about what we love to do. Four of us will be leaving from Victoria, and before we go, we’re having a bon voyage party at Tall Tales Books. Penny Draper, Julie Lawson, Robin Stevenson and I will be reading from our books and answering questions (as well as sharing some of our favourite cookies with our guests). Please click here for all the details!
(And, by the way, I’m off to Ontario on tour. I’ll be in Kenora, King City, London, and Brampton. If you’d like more information about my public readings, please drop me a line.)
April 9, 2011 – Victoria launch of Out of the Box
Please join us at Tall Tales Books for an afternoon of fiction and tango. I’ll be reading from Out of the Box, and musician Jonathan Goldman will serenade us with tango music on the bandoneón – that’s the instrument pictured on the cover of the book. Hope you can make it! Please click here for the invitation.
February 2011 – Out of the Box gets its first review (CM Magazine)
Wow! I’m totally blown away by this fantastic first response to my new book. Thanks to Keith McPherson both for taking the time to review and for the many words of praise.
December 2010 – After Peaches shortlisted for the Rocky Mountain Book Award
Thanks to everyone who makes this award possible, especially to the kids who so eagerly celebrate Canadian books!
September 2010 – After Peaches shortlisted for the Bolen Books Children’s Book Prize
Wow! What a year this is turning out to be! I couldn’t be more delighted.
August 2010 – Touring with TD Canadian Children’s Book Week 2011
For as long as I’ve known about this week-long celebration of books, I’ve hoped to be part of it one day, and I’m honored to have been chosen to tour in 2011. From April 30 to May 7, 2011, I’ll be traveling to Ontario to talk to kids about reading, writing, and favourite books. A big thanks to the Canadian Children’s Book Centre for all your hard organising work!
July 2010 – Yeny and the Children for Peace released in Korean
This week, a package arrived from my publisher Second Story Press, with a wonderful new book in it. I’ll scan a cover image and include it here in the next few days.
June 2010 – After Peaches shortlisted for a Chocolate Lily Award
I love book awards where kids get to decide the winner, and I’m honored that After Peaches is in such illustrious company. Thanks for the nomination!
February 12, 2010 — VIDEA‘s annual Words at Work event
The Victoria International Development Education Association is hosting a literary event as part of International Development week. Words at Work combines a celebration of local writers with a passion for the welfare and happiness of people far and wide. It’s a brilliant idea for an event! Please spread the word and help raise funds for VIDEA’s many excellent projects.
January 17, 2010 — Christianne’s Lyceum for Literature and Art
Thanks to the Lyceum and its Book Bandits for a fantastic evening. I enjoyed your questions and comments about After Peaches, and I’ve been thinking about our discussion ever since. What an inspiring bunch of kids you are!
Saturday, October 31 — Vancouver launch of After Peaches
When I realised I was going to be in Vancouver shortly after the Victoria launch of After Peaches, I called Portia Tickell, owner of Once Upon a Huckleberry Bush and asked if we could have a launch at her bookstore. I was thrilled when she agreed. This launch will also be particularly special for me because I’ll be meeting for the first time someone who was very important in my research for this book. Erika del Carmen Fuchs from Justicia for Migrant Workers not only answered my many questions about migrant workers but read the manuscript twice and offered to help promote the launch. I’m both touched and grateful and really look forward to meeting her. Please join us for our Vancouver launch on Saturday, October 31 at 11am at Once Upon a Huckleberry Bush. Click here for a copy of the invitation.
Wednesday, October 28 — Victoria launch of After Peaches
Please join me and other Victoria authors for the launch of our newest books at the Belfry Theatre, 7-9pm. Click here for a copy of the invitation.
Out of the Box to be published with Orca in Spring 2011 (October 2009)
My wonderful editor Sarah Harvey, at Orca Book Publishers, has just called to say they’ve accepted the juvenile fiction manuscript that I was working on this year, and it’ll be coming out in Spring 2011! Out of the Box is about thirteen-year-old Ellie who’d rather listen to tango music than go shopping and who can hardly wait to spend a summer rummaging through a basement full of treasures with her eccentric aunt, Jeanette. An unusual instrument with mysterious past and a surprising truth about her own family are about to change forever the way she sees herself and her future. I loved working with Orca on After Peaches, and I can hardly wait to get at revisions for this next novel!
Accolades for Yeny and the Children for Peace (June 2009)
Yeny and the Children for Peace is a starred selection in The Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Best Books for Kids & Teens 2009!
February 2009 — Yeny and the Children for Peace reviewed on papertigers.org
I’m honoured to have my work included on the excellent children’s literature website, papertigers.org Please check out their reviews of books from around the world.
February 12, 2009 — Off the Page Program
This month, South Park Elementary graciously hosted me as part of the Federation of B.C. Writers‘ “Off the Page Program.” What a treat to meet so many enthusiastic and inquisitive students!
January 19, 2009 — Speaking at Victoria Children’s Literature Roundtable
I’ll be speaking on a panel with my good friend and fabulous writer Robin Stevenson. The theme of the talk will be “New Voices,” and Robin and I will be talking about developing our stories and getting them published.
Maggie in Québec, South Korea, and Brazil!
Maggie and the Chocolate War will soon be available in four languages. It amazes me to think that kids around the world will be reading about this amazing bit of Canadian history. I wonder what they’ll make of it!
Sunday, October 19 — Victoria launch of Yeny and the Children for Peace!
I’m launching my newest book at Cadboro Bay Book Company at 5pm, October 19. Please drop by for cookies and other refreshments, and help me celebrate my newest release!
Saturday, October 4 — Reading at Esquimalt Children’s Story Festival
Come find out why Theodore is the friendliest tugboat in the harbour … and why one of the most famous Canadians ever is coming to visit! I’ll be reading from Theodore Too and the Mystery Guest at 1:15pm this Saturday at Esquimalt Town Square.
September 21 — Interview on CBC’s North by Northwest
Sunday is International Peace Day, and Sheryl MacKay will be interviewing me about my new book Yeny and the Children for Peace at 7:15 am on Sunday morning’s radio one program North by Northwest. This is the first time that I’ll be speaking about the book, which is the one that’s been toughest to write so far. The biggest challenges were to describe Colombia well enough for the readers to “be” there, and to know just how to portray violence in a believable but not gratuitous way. I’m thrilled that I get to talk about the book on International Peace Day!
August 28, 2008 — Interview on CBC’s BC Almanac
In honour of BC’s 150th birthday this year, BC Almanac has invited me to talk about the unique BC story that inspired Maggie and the Chocolate War. I’ll be on air at 12:45 on Radio One. What an exciting opportunity!
July 2008 — CANSCAIP mentorship program
I’m excited about mentoring four new picture book writers this summer through CANSCAIP’s mentoring program. CANSCAIP is a great organization for teachers, librarians, and anyone who wants to learn more about Canadian books for young people, their authors and illustrators.
June 14, 2008 — Spring Book Hatching
I’m off to Vancouver to join other BC children’s authors and illustrators for a celebration of our latest books. We’ll be gathering at the Vancouver Public Library and get 90 seconds to talk about each of our new stories. I’m looking forward to meeting lots of people who are as passionate as I am about books for young people.
June 1, 2008 — Cadboro Bay Book Company Children’s Writing Contest
I’m thrilled to be hosting the award ceremony of the Cadboro Bay Book Company’s 8th annual Children’s Writing Contest. I had the opportunity to read many of the stories entered in the contest, and I’m blown away by how many great young writers there are, right here in Victoria.
May 23, 2008 — Fraser Valley Home Learning Expo
I’ll be in Abbotsford, BC, this Friday, talking with home-schoolers, their parents and teachers about inspiring books for kids and amazing things that kids have done to change the world lately.
March 25, 2008 — Green College Speakers Series, UBC
Green College is a graduate residence at the University of British Columbia. I’ll be talking to graduate students and professors from a variety of disciplines about books for kids. When I was growing up, children’s and young adult books often stuck to “safe” topics like summer vacations and being the new kid at school. But that’s all changed in recent years. Today, some of my favourite children’s books talk about big, scary topics like child labour, prostitution, female circumcision, and AIDS. And it’s no surprise that young people are reading books about issues that many adults dare not face, because many kids are working toward solving these issues themselves. These days, young people across the country are building wells in Africa, working against child labour worldwide, fighting homelessness here in Canada, and raising money for sick kids at home and abroad. Thinking about the power of young people with great ideas gets me very excited, and I can hardly wait to talk to professors and students at UBC about it.
January 21, 2008 — Christianne’s Lyceum for Literature and Art
I’ve been invited to talk to the Lyceum’s Book Burglars, a book club for kids aged 8-10. This is the first group of BC kids that I will have talked to about Maggie and the Chocolate War, and I’m looking forward to hearing what they have to say.
October 17-23, 2007 — Toronto tour (Boys’ and Girls’ Club, Clairlea Public School, York University, and more)
Maggie and the Chocolate War has just been released, and I’m flying to Toronto to talk about it with as many people as I can. I’ll be speaking with a downtown Boys’ & Girls’ Club, students at Clairlea Public School, a children’s literature class at York University, and with adults and kids at a big book launch at Toronto City Hall. I’m a little nervous, but mostly excited.
October 13, 2007 — Frances Russell Award
This Spring, the International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY) gave me an award for a book that I’m working on called After Peaches. It’s a young reader about a kid whose family will be traveling across the province this summer, following the harvests and working on farms, picking everything from strawberries to peaches. I’ll be receiving the award at a meeting of the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable. I’m thrilled!
September 30, 2007 — Word on the Street, Vancouver
When I lived in Vancouver during university, I used to go to Word on the Street in Vancouver and daydream about how great it would be to be an author and give one of those talks about my books, so it seems kind of surreal to actually have been invited to do it! I’ll be speaking at one of the tents outside the Greater Vancouver Public Library, and I plan to bring newspaper clippings from 1947, picket signs, photographs, and lots of stories of the mishaps of developing a story based on something that happened sixty years ago.
August 24, 2007 — Port Medway Children’s Readers Festival
Port Medway is a small, historic fishing village in Nova Scotia with a thriving tradition of literary festivals. This year, I’ll be speaking to kids about the Theodore Too books, and afterward, there’s going to be a big reception at the village hall, where I’ll get to meet readers, sign books, answer questions. I’d like to go out to the lighthouse and walk along the magnificent coastline, too. I can’t think of a better way to spend a day.