Scholastic Canada Brunch with Montreal Book Bloggers and Author Cecil Castellucci

A couple weeks ago we were invited to have brunch with Nikole and Catherine from Scholastic Canada while they were in town for Salon du Livre. They also invited Canadian author Cecil Castellucci (The Plain Janes, First Day on Earth) to join us! It was one of the most fun things I've been able to participate in relating to books and blogging!

We got to talk about things like blogging, books and most importantly, Cecil's latest novel, First Day on Earth (review).  It's always fun when you get to hear how the author came to write a book and what their inspirations were. We also found out that Cecil has two upcoming projects: a book that alternates between prose and comic illustrations and also a science fiction duology (can't wait!). Her Plain Janes books will be going back into print as well, and I'm definitely going to grab copies!

Back Row L to R: Cat, Avis, Lucy, Cecil, Tina, Melissa, Catherine
Front Row L to R: Me, Nikole

A great surprise was that Nikole and Catherine had prepared personalized bags of Scholastic books for each of us!

Thank you!

• Plain Kate by Erin Bow
• Lament by Maggie Stiefvater
• The Letter Q by Sarah Moon, James Lecesne (ARC)
• The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielson (ARC)

I want to thank Nikole, Catherine, Scholastic Canada and Cecil Castellucci for having this great idea and also for taking the time to meet with us. It was a great experience and great to meet all of you! 

Event Announcement: if you live near Montreal and want a chance to meet Cecil Castellucci, she will be at Babar en Ville this Saturday! 

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The Montreal Book Blogger Meet-Up

So, about a month ago I saw a post on Tynga's Reviews which was a call out to all Montreal book bloggers to join a Facebook group that was developing. Since I am a Montreal book blogger, I joined and we started growing. Soon we were around 15 bloggers of all types of books!

We made a Facebook page for Montreal Book Lovers, open to the public to join. One of our main goals is to bring more (English) author and book events to Montreal, since we are often overlooked on book tours and things.

Well, this Saturday we had our first meeting. We went to restaurant for lunch and we also talked about our love of books and things we would like to do as a group. Here is a picture of all of us:

Front row L-R: PK from Aisle B (in the red dress), Cindy from Cindy's Love of Books, Cat from Beyond Books, Me

Back Row L-R: Avis from She Reads and Reads, Amanda from Tales and Treats, Melissa from YA Book Shelf, Jennifer from Mrs. Q: Book Addict, Cindy B. from Tynga's Reviews, Lucy from Moonlight Gleam's Bookshelf, Donna from Book Bound, Laura from Library of Clean Reads, Tina from Bookshipper

I have to give a shout-out to Lucy and her amazing name tags she made us! Loved it!

Part of the meeting included the goodies publishers sent us when they heard about our group. They were incredibly generous and we were all very thankful!

Here's what I got:

The Map of Time by Félix J. Palma (Simon and Schuster Canada)
Want to go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman (Scholastic Canada)
Cleopatra's Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter (Scholastic Canada)
Dark Eden by Patrick Carman (ARC from HaperCollins Canada)
White Cat by Holly Black (Simon and Schuster Canada)

Plus a bunch of swag!

I really didn't expect to get so many books that I absolutely can't wait to read! A big THANK YOU for all the support from the publishers:

Harper Collins Canada
Random House Canada
Scholastic Canada
Simon and Schuster Canada

Needless to say it was one of the highlights of my book blogging life. Everyone was so nice and friendly and I picture us doing a lot of amazing things for book bloggers and lovers in Montreal!

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