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About viviankirkfield

Writer for children - Reader forever - Mom of 3, educator, author of FOUR OTTERS TOBOGGAN: AN ANIMAL COUNTING BOOK (PomegranateKids, PIPPA'S PASSOVER PLATE (Holiday House), SWEET DREAMS, SARAH (Creston Books); MAKING THEIR VOICES HEARD: THE INSPIRING FRIENDSHIP OF ELLA FITZGERALD AND MARILYN MONROE (Little Bee Books); FROM HERE TO THERE: INVENTIONS THAT CHANGED THE WAY THE WORLD MOVES (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Jan 19, 2021); PEDAL, BALANCE, STEER: Annie Londonderry, First Woman to Bike Around the World (Calkins Creek/Astra, Feb 20, 2024) picture book junkie, lover of travel, hiking, fly-fishing, cooking, and playing Monopoly with my grandson.

Perfect Picture Book Friday: Bedtime Daddy PLUS Giveaway

Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, dear friends! I took a little PPBF blog break, but I am back with four straight weeks of awesome picture book reviews…and of course, on Mother’s Day which is this Sunday, May 10, I’ll be posting all of the #50PreciousWordsforKids stories…oh my gosh…the ones that have come in are amazing! So, please make sure you come back to read them.

But meanwhile, here’s another story you will want to read. It is launching on May 12! And thanks to the generous publisher, EK Books, you might be the lucky winner of a copy!  I’m really excited about it – the author, Sharon Giltrow, lives in Australia…maybe if I return there, we’ll get to meet in person. And the illustrator is one of my Storm Literary Agency sisters, Katrin Dreiling…love her art!

bedtime daddy Continue reading

Happy Book Birthday: GRANDMOTHER SCHOOL

New books are always a cause for celebration. And this new book by fellow Storm Literary Agency sister, Rina Singh, has me jumping for joy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY,

GRANDMOTHER SCHOOL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

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#50PreciousWordsforKids2020 is OPEN

What could be more perfect while we are #ShelteringAtHome? Here’s a great activity for the kids…grades K through 12. I’m sure many of them complain when a teacher gives a writing assignment and requires a full page or a word count of 200 or 300. And I’m sure many of them would say it was easy-peasy to write a story in only 50 words or less.

50PreciousWordsforKids flyer 2020revised3b1024_1

A few years ago, I decided to challenge children to write a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end using only 50 words or less – the same guidelines we use for the adult contest that I host in March. Past challenges have brought stories from Singapore, Canada, Switzerland, the UK, and many states across America.

So, girls and boys: your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to write a story in 50 words or less. Please read the guidelines in the flyer. If you love creating graphic novels or cartoons, that works also. Just have your parents scan the page and email it to me. And if you have any friends who’d like to give it a try, please invite them to join in!

Parents and teachers can email the stories to me, I will post all of the stories on Mother’s Day, May 10,  and everyone will receive a certificate of participation.

Certificate JPEG (1)

Girls and Boys…Please sharpen your pencils or click on the computer.

Get Ready! Get Set! GO!

There is a storyteller that lives in every child’s heart…and I can’t wait to read all of your precious words.