Foray into Children's Literature: My Internship at Pajama Press

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The past two days have been crazy in all the best ways. I've been working almost non-stop and I'm only disappointed when I have to take a break, or go home, or go to bed.

Yesterday was my first day as an intern at Pajama Press, a new independent children's publisher that has existed for roughly a year and is currently releasing its second season's batch of books. I was lucky enough to hear about it the night before its first launch and offer myself as an intern before anyone else really knew about it. I think they accepted me for sheer enthusiasm—once I got talking with the publisher about children's books, I just couldn't stop.

I love this place! And isn't the name fantastic? For the first time in my life I really feel like I'm doing exactly what I should be doing.

My main job at Pajama Press is publicity. It means a lot of press releases and social media updates—which I have yet to get a handle on because of the aforesaid BUSY two days we've had, what with website changes and getting out review copies of a book fresh from the printer.

Want to see our books? Of course you do!

No Shelter Here was released in November, 2011. It's a non-fiction book by animal activist and biologist Rob Laidlaw. If you've heard about the organization ZooCheck Canada's successful campaign to get the Toronto Zoo's last three elephants moved to a California sanctuary, you've heard of Rob's work. In this book he focuses on the challenges facing mistreated and abandoned dogs and the work of "Dog Champions" who seek to help them. Flipping through it, I can't help thinking of my mother's grade 2 students learning about the features of a non-fiction text. Aside from being engaging in its own right, this book would be a great way to teach those features. It includes pictures, statistics, sidebars, graphics...




Of the three books launched in November, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's Last Airlift was the one that caught my attention the most. In fact, I bought a signed copy at the launch party. I would have been happy enough with a historical fiction book, but this is actually a true story that was written with the collaboration of its main character, Son Thi Anh Tuyet. Tuyet was one of 57 orphaned babies and children to be packed onto the last Canadian flight to make it out of Saigon's airport when the city fell during the Vietnam War. It's the small details in the story that I find really arresting, which makes sense because they are the details that have stuck in Tuyet's memory of her childhood: babies packed in cardboard boxes on the plane; lights in the Toronto sky that she learned were stars, not bombs; learning about grass the first time she played outside. I wish I had discovered this author when I was young; I would have read all her many books.

Deborah Ellis scarcely needs any introduction. Her novels are usually centred around a particular social issue, like refugees in Afghanistan (The Breadwinner), HIV/AIDS orphans in Malawi (The Heaven Shop) and the plotted terrorist attacks in Canada (Bifocal, co-authored by Eric Walters). My personal favourite, A Company of Fools, is about a sheltered choir boy in a fourteenth-century monastery in Plague-ridden France. After titles like these, True Blue is almost an about-face. It's a present-day murder mystery set on home soil, and its protagonist's troubles come in the form of mixed loyalties, peer pressure, mental illness (not her own) and issues with self-worth. Some teen readers are already talking about how much they can relate to her as she struggles with the pressure to betray her best friend, who has been charged with murder.

An aside: if you don't think you're the target audience for this book, at least take a moment to appreciate the cover. It's my favourite.


Acts of Courage is, for me, the answer to years of frustration. When I was twelve I fell in love with War of 1812 history. I especially fell in love with Lieutenant James Fitzgibbon, the clever, crafty, too-often-ignored guerrilla leader who, I feel, saved our country during that war. Laura Secord has become a national heroine, but Fitzgibbon, who was the target of her famous trek and who used her information to capture the attacking American force without bloodshed, has received little attention. At last, in this book, author Connie Brummel-Crook makes him a central character, giving him a compelling fictional back-story and including real-life exploits that only sound fictional, like his dressing as a woman to peddle butter in enemy camps and listen to the gossip.

Oh, and if you're a bigger fan of Laura than of James, the book is actually a dramatization of her life from childhood to the end of the war. But I just can't help excited about James.

Emily for Real will be released on April 15th, 2012. The best part about this book is that I expected to dislike it, and I didn't. It's a teenage coming-of-age story that starts with a breakup and proceeds with a series of unpleasant family secrets, so I expected a lot of angst and drama. Don't get me wrong—I know angst and drama are popular elements in literature and sell quite well, but I personally can't stand them. To my surprise and delight, Sylvia Gunnery made me love her character. Emily is a terse, funny realist who copes with her troubles in reasonable ways that don't make me want to hit her over the head with her own book (which is my normal reaction). I especially like that the main male character, a moody boy named Leo who has just transferred to Emily's high school, is never framed as a love interest, and when Emily does end up in a potential romantic situation, she remembers to use her head. Hooray for sensible girl characters!

Is it possible to tell you how excited I am about this picture book? Don't Laugh at Giraffe is the sequel to Giraffe and Bird, a book Rebecca Bender published through Dancing Cat Press. It stands on its own, though, as a funny, engaging, beautiful book about friendship and self-esteem. I wish I could show you all the art because it's just so gorgeous. You'll have to buy the book yourselves when it goes on sale May 1st. Like all the best picture books, the words and pictures interact and build on each other, resulting in a truly funny story. I hope you won't be laughing at giraffe, but I'm sure you'll be laughing in delight at the expressive illustrations of these unlikely friends.




That's it! I'd better stop writing now, or you'll never want to read my long-winded posts again. I hope you enjoyed this foray into literature, and I promise we'll be back to crafts later this week. Perhaps I'll crochet a giraffe...

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