Apologies for the lame post title and for the long silence of updates around here. My new career as a an elementary teacher is keeping me busier than ever. But that’s not stopping word getting around about the latest book in the Graphic Guide Adventure series: Ramp Rats.

Published in October, it’s receiving great reviews from places like Canadian Materials Magazine who have this to say:

Ramp Rats is a fun graphic novel with a unique storyline which incorporates many attractive features for many types of readers. The characters are believable and well-developed, while the situations are so common that most readers will be able to identify with many of them. Combined with a lot of useful information about skating, as well as helpful guidance about bullying, Ramp Rats is a worthwhile read for young readers.

The September 15 issue of ALA Booklist also thought Ramp Rats was a winner:

Aside from the action-packed story, great characters, and colorful artwork, this graphic novel
adventure includes an array of practical skateboarding tips for beginners. The story also delivers a
deft message about standing up to bullies as it depicts Benny’s growing determination and self-confidence.

Very happy that Marcus and the Ramp Rats crew are being welcomed onto the kids book scene both in Canada and the US. All the Graphic Guide Adventure books are available at your local book store or online at the Orca Book Publisher website.

While I’ve been busy writing Media Makers, Book 4 of the Graphic Guide Adventures series, my illustration partner, the fantastic Michael Deas has been busy drawing the art for Book 3: Soccer Sabotage. Over the weekend, my editors at Orca Book Publishers sent me Mike’s pencils in full colour and they’re looking great! We run a high security facility around here, so I can’t show you the roughs but has put together a very cool Soccer Sabotage banner - it’s the one at the top of the post. Pretty cool, huh?

You’re going to have to wait until 2009 (I know, I know - it says spring 2008 on the banner - we’re working on that!) to get your hands on Soccer Sabotage. But Book 2 in the GGA series, Ramp Rats, hits bookstores in October and is already getting good reviews - which I’ll get up once I have the first draft of Media Makers into Orca - see how it all works in cycles?

A big congratulations to my publishing pal and co-author, Patricia Storms who is taking libraries across Canada by storm (sorry!) this summer as the official artist for this year’s Summer Reading Club.

So far, Patricia has toured Nova Scotia, visiting libraries across the province and now she’s back sharing the love of reading and illustrating to Ontario kids. And that’s where she landed a great profile piece on last night’s OMNI Television’s news. TV time for an author or illustrator is promo gold, so congratulations Patricia. And thanks for convincing them to include a great close up of our book Democracy (it’s the yellow book just to the left of the red one - click the image to make it bigger.)

Visit Patricia’s post about her recent successes at her blog: BookLust.

[via feedingchange] Ok, so here’s how it goes: Writer announces that he’s delving into World of Warcraft, purely for research purposes and doesn’t blog for nearly a month. A classic case of gamer widowhood? Not really (honest!) I have been busy and there is much to report. For instance:

Wild Ride has gone into its second printing AND has been picked up by the Scholastic Book Club for the 2008/09 school year. Very cool. This is first time any of my books have gone into a second printing and it’s completely due to my fantastic publisher, Orca Book Publishers, and their even more fantastic connections in the USA.

Read the rest of the news at my blog: feedingchange.

Not only was yesterday Canada Day, but it was also the day I learned that Max Finder Mystery Collected Casebook Vol. 2 won a 2008 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers in the United States.

This is the second year in a row that my Max Finder Mystery series of graphic novels has received the nod from the AEP. The Collected Casebook Vol. 1 picked up a 2007 Distinguished Achievement Award for its innovation in children’s publishing.

I’m honoured that the AEP enjoyed the second book in the Max Finder Mystery trilogy as much as it liked the first. The AEP seal of approval means a lot because it more librarians will purchase the book and more kids will get to read Max & Alison’s mysterious adventures.

Cool!