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Thinking of using the French version of my picture book Sergeant Billy in your classroom? Need ideas for fun activities linked to this story? If yes, you can download the FREE, French activity sheet by clinking this link: Fiche d’activités Sergent Billy
Have fun!
Youpi! Youpi! Today is my book birthday. Well, kind of… but not really…
Today is the day that my historical picture book Sergeant Billy: The True Story of the Goat Who Went to War comes out in FRENCH! Isn’t he “trop mignon”? 🙂
Sergent Billy : La vraie histoire du chevreau devenu soldat, is published by Éditions de l’Isatis whom I have had the pleasure of working with in the past with my picture books “Une bestiole à l’école” and “À qui le coco?”. It’s good to be back with such a great team!
So, from this day forward, I can come to your school or event and introduce kids to Billy, in either French or English or (why not!) BOTH!
Also, there is now a teacher’s activity sheet available in French that is available to dowload here: Fiche d’activités Sergent Billy
Au plaisir!
Start the holiday festivities by joining me for the launch of my new picture book, Nutcracker Night on Wednesday December 4th at 6:30pm at Mabel’s Fables!
Light refreshments and holiday cheer will abound! Book and ballet lovers, big and small, are welcome. The more the merrier 🙂
Each year in November, the illustrious Kirkus Review issues their Best Books of the Year list. And each year I get my pen and paper out, jot down those titles and run to the library with my list to put those books on hold so that I can read and learn from them.
So imagine my surprise and joy to learn that Treasure, MY picture book, is on this year’s list! It’s nice to rub shoulders with authors I admire. Thank you Kirkus for having such good taste 😉
Great news! My picture book, Nutcracker Night, has won the Northern Lights Book Award in the ARTS category. What a beautiful way to highlight the splendid work of my friend and illustrator, Gabrielle Grimard! Shine on, Nutcracker Night!
Here’s a confession… I am plucky! So when my new picture book Sergeant Billy: The True Story of the Goat Who Went to War came out, I thought “Hey! This would be the perfect book to present at the War Museum in Ottawa”. So, I called them up and I told them so. And, guess what? They agreed!
I was invited to present Sergeant Billy, in French and in English, at the War Museum on a special evening of Remembrance activities for Youth groups. I was pretty stoked. But I had no idea what I was really in for…
At 6pm, they started arriving. Troops and troops of scouts, brownies and guides from all over Ottawa. At 6:45pm there were over 300 hundred kids in the auditorium. I was ready to start. But the organizers asked me to wait a little bit longer as more were still on their way. “More?” I thought. “Oh dear…”.
By 7pm the hall was full – standing room only. Some even watched from the second floor. I was given the green light and presented Sergeant Billy. The energy in the room was palpable. We all had a wonderful time.
After the event, I was told over 900 people attended the presentation. It’s all a bit of a wonderful, happy blur. It’s days like these were I LOVE my job!
Thank you to the organizers at the War Museum and to all who came out to listen to the story of Billy. I hope we get to do it again soon. It was the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time)!
November 3rd was the launch party for my new historical picture book, Sergeant Billy : The True Story of the Goat Who went to War. What a wonderful day we had!
It was also the opportunity for me to meet for the first time (in person) the illustrator of our book, the oh so nice and oh so talented Kass Reich!
It was so nice to finally all be under the same roof!
The happy event took place at one of my favourite indie bookstores – Queen Books in Leslieville (Toronto). If you haven’t been yet I highly recommend a visit. It is a magical place full of books, old creaky wood floors, fancy rugs, bossy wallpaper and a kids section that dreams are made of!
Thank you again to everyone who came out to celebrate Sergeant Billy with us!
Yipee! The finalists for the OLA Forest of Reading program have been announced! In this 2020 edition there are 13 different award programs with over 90 English nominees, 46 French nominees, 37 English publishers, and 16 French publishers – whew! That’s a lot of great books!
I’m very happy to announce that my picture, Tellement sauvage, is a finalist in the Prix Peuplier program (French picture books). I am excited and honoured to be amongst the selected titles. This means that hundreds of students (francophones and francophiles) will read my silly story about what nocturnal animals are up to while we sleep. I giggle just thinking about it!
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As some of you know, when I’m not writing kids books, script writing or being a mom, I’m also a voice-over actress. This gives me the opportunity of working on some really cool projects like being the narrator for a new kids science series, ScienceXplosion, and… voicing a book trailer for my new picture book, Sergeant Billy: The True Story of the Goat Who Went to War. Here is the little gem of a trailer, directed by Ian Partridge.
Thank you to all those who came out for the official book launch of Treasure/Trésor! Illustrator Irene Luxbacher and I had a wonderful time meeting with old friends and new readers at Ella Minnow Bookstore on September 21st.
If you missed the event, we signed some extra copies. You can swing by Ella Minnow to pick one up!