Archive for June, 2014

“Innes and Endrulat cleverly tell the story from Teddy’s point of view, so the reader, like Teddy, hears Aileen’s explanations of what is going on as well as William’s and Grace’s secrets.  Like the two children, Teddy ends up spending the war far from his beloved Aileen wondering if he will ever see her again. […]

“One of the best Canadian picture books of 2012 was A Bear in War. The team of Stephanie Innes, Harry Endrulat, and Brian Deines have collaborated again to bring readers another adventure of the teddy bear that now resides in the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa..Those who enjoyed the first book will find the quality […]

“…Nakamura’s imaginative but slimmer version [of the iconic Japanese ‘Peach Boy’ story], features a gender twist and is lighter and somewhat quirky, with a fearless, daring heroine…Bender’s illustrations enhance and mimic the energy of the lighthearted story. Painted in acrylics on illustration board with a textured surface, the results are wonderfully appealing pictures, many featuring […]

“…Based on a traditional Japanese folktale about a peach boy named Momotaro who fights demons, Raymond Nakamura updates the story with a strong female protagonist as an activist, rather than a warrior.  Her no-nonsense attitude and tact are the armaments of her endeavour, ones she embodies rather than carries. …Momoko’s disregard for rumours and the […]

Ken says: “It’s a story from 1912, where there is an epidemic of flies. In 1912 they decided flies were the reason for all the illness in the city. And, so in Hamilton (Ont.) they had a contest: what child can kill the most flies? This is a fictional account of a young boy that […]

“In Skydiver, Celia Godkin tells the stories of peregrine falcons, the severe decline in their population caused by the pesticide DDT, and the human volunteers whose intervention is necessary if the population is to recover. Godkin follows the lives of both the wild and incubated birds, as well as providing background material on the fight […]

“In 1988 Iran, wealthy fifteen-year-old Farrin avoids anything that could draw attention to her family; she knows her mother’s anti-Ayatollah political gatherings could bring trouble. However, Farrin’s burgeoning friendship and then romance with new girl Sadira leads her to become more inquisitive and involved in the world around her, and eventually leads to the couple’s […]

We’ve been busy. In March we launched a new website design. On April 1st we moved into a wonderful new office with the luxury of enough space for everyone to have desks (imagine!) and a nice, comfy sofa for our visitors. The high ceilings give us lots of room to display our illustrators’ framed picture […]

Pajama Press is proud to once again congratulate Karen Bass for her award-winning novel Graffiti Knight. On June 6th the historical YA novel was awarded the R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature at the Alberta Book Awards Gala in Calgary. Administered by the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, the award recognizes an Alberta author each […]

In his engaging debut, author Raymond Nakamura puts a feminist bent on the Japanese folk tale Momotaro (Peach Boy). In Nakamura’s version, a young girl emerges from a giant peach discovered on the doorstep of an elderly couple (who are, notably, a farmer and her husband). Momoko, which translates as “Peach Girl,” is a feisty […]