Transgender teen Ichiro enters a drag contest in hopes of earning enough money to live off the grid.

Ichiro is a transgender youth in his final year of high school. He has a job as a dishwasher to earn money to help support his single mother. But it's not enough. Ichiro dreams of buying a camper van for the two of them so they can escape and live off the grid and not have to worry about money anymore. A budding drag queen, he takes a second job performing drag at a local club and learns of an upcoming contest where the prize money would be enough to pay for a camper van. But nobody knows he does drag. So when some of his friends find out what he’s really doing in the evenings, Ichiro is worried about what they will think of him. Will they still accept him?

C.A. Tanaka is a trans masculine multiracial writer of Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian and Scottish descent. A graduate of The Writer’s Studio program at Simon Fraser University, they have a BFA in intermedia from Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design and, in 2017, were awarded a fully funded literary residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. C.A. is the executive director for the Storytelling with Drag Queens Foundation, a local non-profit organization with a mandate to promote diversity and inclusion in literacy for children, teens and adults. They live in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the unceded ancestral homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Marketing and Promotional Plans

• Print and online advertising campaigns
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• Extensive ARC distribution, including NetGalley
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• Outreach in Orca newsletters

“Ben Doldrums, are you sad? Are you mad? Are you confused?"

Frida Bellows lives in a big house made up of four apartments. Every morning, she gets on her father’s shoulders and taps on the ceiling with a broomstick. This wakes her neighbor, a student named Ben Doldrums who knocks on the wall to wake the Mercredis, who in turn knock on the floor to wake the Reynolds. Frida likes this morning tradition. It makes her feel like she’s part of something big. Things change, however, when Ben stops getting out of bed to wake the Mercredis, which throws off the whole routine. Frida notices that Ben Doldrums is not himself and she wants to help. But how?

Waking Ben Doldrums is a story of community, compassion and hope. It is a reminder that, while we can’t always fix another person’s problems, a simple act of kindness can go a long way.

Heather Smith is the author of several picture books, including the award-winning The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota's Garden. Her middle-grade novel Ebb and Flow was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award, and her YA novel The Agony of Bun O'Keefe won the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award, the OLA Forest of Reading White Pine Award and was shortlisted for the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award and the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People. Originally from Newfoundland, Heather now lives in Waterloo, Ontario, with her family.

Byron Eggenschwiler is an award-winning illustrator whose recent books include Song for the Snow, The Strangest Thing in the Sea, The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt and Operatic. Byron's work has also appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Walrus and GQ. He lives in Calgary.

Marketing and Promotional Plans

• Print and online advertising campaigns
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This year’s fun fair will have a Pride Carnival theme and twelve-year-old Mac couldn’t be more excited.

Mac convinces his best friend, Amy, to do a Sonny and Cher drag number. He has their outfits all planned out, right down to the bellbottoms and fur vests. And he wants their performance to be perfect too so he pushes Amy to rehearse every day. Every step, every wave of the hand, every lyric has to be spot on. But Amy has had enough—the day before the event, she reveals that she never wanted to be Sonny. Why can’t she be Cher? Mac refuses to even consider it. There can only be one diva! With no time to recast, Mac plans to go solo. But he's miserable without his best friend. Can the two of them patch things up in time?

Paul Coccia is the author of the bestselling Orca Soundings title Cub, which was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, and The Player. His most recent book, On The Line, was co-authored with Eric Walters. Paul has an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and lives in Toronto with his family.

Marketing and Promotional Plans

• Print and online advertising campaigns
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★“Immediately takes one’s breath away with its poetry and power…Deeply affecting. An ideal tool to illustrate poetic elements or emphasize stories of sharing scary yet necessary truths.”—School Library Journal, starred review

A young teen's secret is tearing him apart.

He knows he is gay but is afraid to share this knowledge with his parents or his friends. What if they reject him? And what can he do with the feelings he has for his childhood friend when he knows his friend does not feel the same way? The turmoil continues to rise with the force of a hurricane—total destruction seems almost certain.

Told in beautiful, evocative prose with its unique design, Like A Hurricane is a visually stunning exploration of what it means to be true to one's self.

Jonathan Bécotte is the author of a number of works for young people. The French edition of Like A Hurricane, Comme un ouragan, was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2021, as was his earlier young adult novel in verse, Maman veut partir (2018). Jonathan has won the Prix Cécile-Gagnon and the Prix Alvine-Bélisle. He lives in Montreal, where he teaches elementary school.

Jonathan Kaplansky received his BA from Tufts University and an MA in French language and literature at McGill University, as well as an MA in translation at the University of Ottawa. He has translated works by Annie Ernaux, Jean-Pierre Le Glaunec, Lise Tremblay, John Porter, Hélène Dorion, Hélène Rioux, Étienne Beaulieu and Simon Brault. He lives in Montreal.

Marketing and Promotional Plans

• Print and online advertising campaigns
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It’s everyone’s favorite day of winter semester: the class field trip to the museum!

Jordan is excited to see the mummies and Max can’t wait for his first trip to the big city without his big sisters watching over him. But when Jordan gets distracted by an extraordinary costume display and Max flies off to the depths of the Bat Cave, the group carries on to lunch without them. Before the two friends know it, their class has left the museum and they’re all alone downtown!

Jordan knows they should find their classmates, but it’s hard to do the responsible thing when there is so much to do in the city. With Max at his side, the pair run wild: dancing alongside street musicians and tasting food from every single vendor they can find. Just when they think the day couldn’t get any more interesting, Jordan and Max find themselves in a strange neighborhood after dark where an even stranger ceremony is getting underway…a winter solstice celebration!

This is the second book from Suzanne Sutherland featuring Jordan and Max, following Jordan and Max: Showtime!

Suzanne Sutherland is an author and editor of books for young people who is passionate about inclusive and engaging storytelling. Her debut novel, When We Were Good, was selected for ALA’s Rainbow Book List and Under the Dusty Moon was a Toronto Public Library Top Ten Recommended Read for Teens. Suzanne lives in Toronto.

Michelle Simpson grew up in the woods of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and still resides there today. She is a full-time freelance illustrator, focusing mainly on children's publications, and holds a BAA in illustration from Sheridan College. Michelle has worked as a concept artist at KeyFrame Animation for kids cartoons such as Ollie: The Boy Who Became What He Ate (Season 2) and Tee and Mo (Season 1). She is the author of Night Festival: A Silent Picture Book and Monsters In My House, which was shortlisted for Canada's Self-Publishing Awards in 2014. Michelle has also illustrated Hanukkah Harvie vs. Santa Claus by David Michael Slater and Back Home by Shaista Kaba Fatehali. Michelle draws her inspiration for her artwork from nature, animals and folklore.

Marketing and Promotional Plans

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Elsie Rose-Miller loves celebrating the Purim holiday and can't wait for the annual costume party at her local synagogue.

Elsie plans to dress up as the fierce and smart Queen Esther, who saved all the Jewish people. But when financial hardship and a terrible incident of hate-inspired vandalism threaten not only the party but the synagogue too, Elsie, like Queen Esther, takes action to bring her entire community—Jewish and non-Jewish alike—together.

Joanne Levy is the award-winning author of a number of books for young people, including Double Trouble, Fish Out of Water and The Book of Elsie in the Orca Currents line and the middle-grade novels The Sun Will Come Out, Small Medium At Large and Sorry For Your Loss, which was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award and won the Canadian Jewish Literature Award. She lives in Clinton, Ontario.

Marketing and Promotional Plans

• Print and online advertising campaigns
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★ “What makes this sex-ed title stand out is the up-to-the-minute dialogue around age-old concerns combined with discussions about broader concepts…Gariépy’s radiant, curvy, stylized digital graphics are a perfect fit for the body-positive text…Non-judgemental, trustworthy, and savvy, Bernier is the counsellor we all wished we had access to in high school.”—Quill & Quire, starred review

From A to Z, Naked: Not Your Average Sex Encyclopedia is an inclusive guide to sexuality for teens.

The 150 entries cover key ideas about identity, relationships, self-image, sex and body positivity—and no topic is taboo. From bisexuality to Kamasutra to #MeToo, Naked offers answers to questions about sexuality that teens have always had but have been afraid to ask. What is consent? What does gender fluid mean? What kind of contraception should I use? With contemporary examples, vibrant illustrations and additional information and resources for young readers with more questions, Naked is essential reading for today's teens.

Myriam Daguzan Bernier is the author of the blog La tête dans le cul and a regular columnist for ICI Radio-Canada Première’s radio show Moteur de recherche. She is also a communication specialist and instructor at L’inis, Québec’s national institute of sound and image. Myriam is currently studying sexology at Université du Québec à Montréal and plans to become a sexologist focusing on a feminist and inclusive approach.

Cécile Gariépy is a Montreal-based illustrator. She has illustrated in many different media for clients such as the New York Times, Google and Esquire UK. Cécile loves images that tell stories, and her playful art puts an emphasis on color, composition and character design.

Charles Simard is a Québécois editor and translator from Tiohtià꞉ke / Montréal. He works as poetry, fiction, and nonfiction editor for Talonbooks in Vancouver on Coast Salish Territory. His published work includes the essay Littérature, analyse et forme: Herbert, Tolkien, Borges, Eco (EUE, 2010) and a number of translations for Orca Book Publishers, including Elise Gravel’s The Wrench and Myriam Daguzan Bernier’s dictionary of sexuality, Naked!. As a lexicographer, he has collaborated on the making of the popular linguistic suite Antidote in its bilingual editions. He holds a PhD in literature from Université de Montréal and was a postdoctoral fellow at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center.

Marketing and Promotional Plans

• Print and online advertising campaigns
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Thirteen-year-old basketball star Jordan Ryker feels like his life is falling apart.

All Jordie wanted was for his parents to stop fighting. Soon, he gets his wish. His parents separate and then his dad announces he’s gay. Shocked, Jordie struggles with how to process all this. His dad taught him everything he knows about basketball, and there’s an important championship game coming up. He needs him more than ever. But Jordie feels like his dad has abandoned his family. He doesn’t want anything to do with him now and he definitely doesn't want to meet his dad’s new boyfriend. It takes a new girl with wicked basketball skills and a revelation from his best friend to help Jordie realize that while some things change, other things never do.

Eric Walters is a Member of the Order of Canada and the author of over 125 books that have collectively won more than 100 awards including the Governor General’s Literary Award for The King of Jam Sandwiches. A former teacher, Eric began writing as a way to get his fifth-grade students interested in reading and writing. Eric is a tireless presenter, speaking to over 100,000 students per year in schools across the country. He lives in Guelph, Ontario.

Paul Coccia is the author of the bestselling Orca Soundings title Cub, which was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, and The Player. His most recent book, On The Line, was co-authored with Eric Walters. Paul has an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and lives in Toronto with his family.

Marketing and Promotional Plans

• Print and online advertising campaigns
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An engaging introduction for very young children to the basic facts of life in a way that is gentle, age-appropriate and accessible.

Research shows that children are learning about sex at an increasingly young age and often from undesirable sources. The Q&A format, with questions posed in the child’s voice and answers starting simply and becoming gradually more in-depth, allows the adult to guide the conversation to a natural and satisfying conclusion. Additional questions at the back of the book allow for further discussion.

Child psychologist Dr. Jillian Roberts designed the Just Enough series to empower parents/caregivers to start conversations with young ones about difficult or challenging subject matter. Other books in the series deal with diversity, death, separation and divorce.

Dr. Jillian Roberts is a child psychologist, author, professor at the University of Victoria and mother of three children. Considered a go-to child psychology expert for journalists, Dr. Roberts is a regular contributor to HuffPost, Global News and CBC. She is the author of two bestselling and award-winning series of children’s books: the Just Enough series explains topics like birth and diversity to children ages 3–6, while the World Around Us series introduces kids ages 5–8 to issues like poverty and online safety. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Cindy Revell’s illustrations have been used on billboards and wine bottles, and in magazines and numerous children’s books all over North America. She has worked with clients like Disney, Penguin Putnam, the L.A. Times and Scholastic. Her illustration of Mallory and the Power Boy (Annick Press) was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award for children’s book illustration. She lives in Edmonton.

Marketing and Promotional Plans
• Print and online advertising campaigns
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Jillian Christmas is a queer, afro-Caribbean writer living on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam people (Vancouver, BC). Jillian works as an artist, educator, curator and consultant, she is the long-time spoken word curator of the Vancouver Writers Fest, and former artistic director of Verses Festival of Words. She has won numerous Grand Poetry Slam Championship titles and represented both Toronto and Vancouver at eleven national poetry events, notably breaking ground as the first Canadian to perform on the final stage of the Women of the World Poetry Slam. Christmas is the author of The Gospel of Breaking (Arsenal Pulp Press 2020), and the forthcoming children’s book, The Magic Shell (Flamingo Rampant Press 2021).

Raised in Stoneville, North Carolina, Diana Mungaray grew up enthralled by the world around her. She would start her journey painting watercolor pine trees in her composition book, to getting a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Animation and Interactive Design. As an avid artist, her work comes from a place of whimsy- creating stylized work that amuses her, and hopefully her readers.