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Bestselling Author Tyler Knott Gregson and Co-Author Sarah Linden Celebrate True Spirit of Christmas With ‘North Pole Ninjas: Mission: Chrismas!,’ a New Holiday Book and Tradition, Coming This Fall From Penguin Young Readers

New York, NY – This year children can celebrate the true spirit of Christmas by becoming an honorary North Pole Ninja, in a new holiday tradition with NORTH POLE NINJAS: MISSION: Christmas! (Grosset & Dunlap), a gorgeously illustrated picture book that chronicles the legend of the North Pole Ninjas. This interactive holiday story, written by bestselling poet and author Tyler Knott Gregson and Sarah Linden and illustrated by Piper Thibodeau, comes with 50 top-secret missions of caring and kindness, along with a huggable “sensei” plush to help guide young ninjas on their missions.

Missions are simple and universal. Some examples include:

  • “Sweep the floors without saying a word. Enjoy the looks of surprise on your family’s faces!”
  • “Pay one nice compliment to each person you see today. Be honest and be kind.”
  • Sit and chat with a new friend at lunch. Make them feel happy.”

“North Pole Ninjas, and all of the missions that we’ve included in this little package, were all born in the same place,” said co-author Sarah Linden. “A few years back, both Tyler and I were really starting to make charity, and giving back, a much larger part of our lives, and a much more important part of the entire holiday season. After taking a long, honest look at how the holidays had seemed to change and evolve since we were kids, we decided we wanted to infuse a lot more positivity and compassion into it. 

The book and missions ask that families think not just about “naughty or nice” but challenge them to further the holiday spirit by giving back to their communities, whether it be teachers, friends, in their homes, or in their larger communities.  Grosset & Dunlap president and publisher Francesco Sedita said, “What makes North Pole Ninjas so exciting is that it’s all about the spirit of the holidays.  There’s no recording of what we may have done right or wrong and what we are deserving of from Santa here.  Instead, the book and missions sweetly challenge readers to help make people happy and their world a better place.  That is what true holiday spirit is all about!”

Anyone who receives the North Pole Ninja box is called upon to help carry out top secret missions with a bit of stealth and an open heart. The picture book retells the ancient legend the North Pole Ninjas use for new recruits. After reading the book, readers are given their own Ninja missions to carry out: 50 special tasks packed in a special envelope.

NORTH POLE NINJAS: MISSION: Christmas! is scheduled for publication on October 18, 2016.

Tyler Knott Gregson is a best-selling poet, author, professional photographer, and artist who lives in the mountains of Helena, Montana. He is the author of Chasers of the Light: Poems from the Typewriter Series and the upcoming All the Words Are Yours.

Sarah Linden is a poet and photographer with Treehouse Photography. She lives in Helena, Montana.

Penguin Young Readers is one of the leading children’s book publishers in the United States. The company owns a wide range of imprints and trademarks including Dial Books, Dutton, Grosset & Dunlap, Philomel, Puffin, Speak, Firebird, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Viking, Razorbill, and Frederick Warne. These imprints are home to such award-winning, New York Times- bestselling authors as Laurie Halse Anderson, Jay Asher, Judy Blume, Jan Brett, Eric Carle, Ally Condie, Roald Dahl, Tomie dePaola, Sarah Dessen, Anna Dewdney, John Flanagan, Gayle Forman John Green, Oliver Jeffers, Mike Lupica, Richelle Mead, B.J. Novak, Richard Peck, Judy Schachner, Jacqueline Woodson and dozens of other popular authors. Penguin Young Readers Group is also the proud publisher of perennial brand franchises such as The Little Engine That Could, the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series, Peter Rabbit, Spot, the Classic Winnie the Pooh, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Strega Nona, Madeline, Mad Libs, Alex Rider, the Rangers Apprentice, Skippyjon Jones, Flower Fairies, and Pippi Longstocking, among many others. Penguin Young Readers Group is a division of Penguin Group LLC, a Penguin Random House company.

Penguin Random House (http://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/) is the world’s most global trade book publisher. It was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin, with the parent companies owning 53% and 47%, respectively.  Penguin Random House comprises the adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa, and Penguin’s trade publishing activity in Asia and Brazil; DK worldwide; and Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial’s Spanish-language companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile. Penguin Random House employs more than 10,000 people globally across almost 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually. Its publishing lists include more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.

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