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.

Happy Book Birthday: PLIGHT OF THE PELICAN: How Science Saved a Species

Posted on April 1, 2025 by viviankirkfield

YES! YES! YES! It’s time to sing Happy Birthday to another beautiful new book! And this book has a VERY SPECIAL back story…this book was an Honorable Mention in the 2022 #50PreciousWords Contest. If you check yesterday’s blog post where we announced the prize winners and Honorable Mentions, who knows how many books-in-the-making you will find!

Author Jessica Stremer is such a fabulous writer…and her books are incredible. And what a wonderful partnership the editor created when they signed on Gordy Wright to do the illustrations!! The cover invites and intrigues…and the reader can’t wait to open the book to see more!

And we are so lucky…Jessica stopped by to chat…and to share her story behind the story of how her #50PreciousWords entry became a REAL BOOK!!!

ME: WELCOME, Jessica. thank you for stopping by.

JESSICA: Thank you so much for having me, Vivian. I’m excited to share how PLIGHT OF THE PELICAN came to be a book.

Pelicans are one of my favorite birds. I tried writing a story about them years ago, but it just wasn’t working, primarily I think because it was missing the “so what” factor.

In early 2022, my family and I took a trip up the coast of California when I began brainstorming ideas for the 50 Precious Words competition. Pelicans once again popped into my head. My books GREAT CARRIER REEF and LIGHTS OUT both have a hopeful environmental theme and I wondered if I could find a way to incorporate that approach into my entry. Here’s what I came up with:

Soaring

Skimming

Climbing

Spotting

Diving

Splashing

Scooping

Gulping

Toxins leaching

Silently building . . .

Courting

Nesting

Shells thinning

Eggs crushing

Numbers dwindling

Pelicans needing

HELP

Researchers observing

Laws changing

Toxin banning

Scientists offering

HOPE

Eggs hatching

Numbers growing . . .

Chicks chirping

Feathers molting

Fledging

Flapping

Lifting

Flying

Species SURVIVING

Pelicans on Parade

That entry received honorable mention and had a lot of my critique partners excited, so I decided to flush it out into a full picture book manuscript, sticking to the sparse language while working in some layered text for additional context.

My editor loved the concept, but wanted the layered text incorporated into the main body of the manuscript. She also had the brilliant suggestion to add a few spreads about animals that are currently at risk to show that there is more work to be done. Each revision was a lot of work and I’m really proud of how this book turned out.

I was also excited when my editor said that Gordy Wright, who also illustrated my debut picture book GREAT CARRIER REEF, signed on to also illustrate this book. His work elevates the story to a whole new level.

I’m grateful to Vivian for continuing the 50 Precious Words competition. Without her PLIGHT OF THE PELICAN wouldn’t exist.

ME: AND WE ARE GRATEFUL TO YOU, JESSICA, FOR WRITING SUCH BEAUTIFUL BOOKS!!!

Inside spread from Plight of the Pelicans – text by Jessica Stremer & art by Gordy Wright

Dear friends, here’s a little bit about how you can buy this book and how to find out more about Jessica and Gordy.

Here is the link to the publisher’s website.
Signed copies of the book can be purchased through Books and Company.

Jessica Stremer is a children’s book writer with a background in biology and ecology. Her passion lies in inspiring curiosity, wonder, and respect for our natural world. Jessica’s debut picture book, Great Carrier Reef, also illustrated by Gordy Wright, was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection and received two starred reviews. She lives in Wisconsin with her family.

Gordy Wright is an illustrator and printmaker who paints by hand in gouache and acrylic. Recent projects include Wild In the Streets by Marilyn Singer, and Strange But True by Kathryn Hulic, as well as Great Carrier Reef, by Jessica Stremer, which received two starred reviews. Gordy graduated with a first class degree in illustration from the University of the West of England, and lives in Bristol.

Thank you so much, dear friends, for spending your precious time with us here. And thank you for the books bought at Toadstool Bookshop in Keene for the #50PreciousWords Literacy Initiative that is supporting the Children’s Literacy Foundation’s work in supplying books to underserved schools in Vermont and New Hampshire. And thank you to all who mailed books to me…those will be delivered to Sunset Heights Elementary School in Nashua, NH this month.

#50PreciousWords 2025 PRIZE WINNERS and Honorable Mentions

Posted on March 31, 2025 by viviankirkfield

Welcome, everyone! Thank you for your patience. There were SO MANY Fabulous entries…586 total. I and my amazing judges had a very tough time choosing ONLY 65 prize winners. And honestly, we would have loved to give EVERY story an Honorable Mention. Perhaps it sounds corny…but it’s true. ALL of you who participated deserve KUDOS – you WROTE, you REVISED, you SUBMITTED…and that’s what this path to publication is all about! If your name isn’t in the prize winner’s circle or on the Honorable Mention lists, please know that there were elements of your submission that we loved…GREAT TITLES…Opening Lines that hooked us…wonderful Pacing, Lyrical Language, Heart and Humor…and often, an ending that grabbed our hearts or made us roll on the floor with laughter. But the stories that made it into the Prize Winner’s Circle had ALL of those elements – at least according to us judges.

Let me give you a peek into how we chose the prize winners and Honorable Mentions. Just like our writing journey, it’s a process. Maria Marshall and I read ALL of the stories. The other six judges read alternating sections of 20. And so, for the first round, Maria and I read 586 (and Maria kindly read hundreds of them to me because after reading 200, my blurry vision gave out)…and the other six judges each read about 100/ For every 20 stories, I asked the judges to indicate 3 favorites…possible prize winning stories. Then Maria created a Google doc with ALL of the judges favorites…a total of over 200 entries…and then each judge got to choose their favorite 65. If an entry has 8 jnitials next to it, it means that ALL the judges loved it. ..and it is going to rise to the top of the list. Stories that have 7 judge initials follow…and so on. And once we’ve determined the 65 prize winning stories, the rest on that original judge favorite list become the Honorable Mentions. So, you can see that MANY of the other entries might have gotten judge love, but not enough to make the round one list. BELIEVE ME…there are real books in those entries as well. Remember that Federico Erebia entered in 2021 and didn’t win a prize or receive an Honorable Mention, yet he took that 50 word entry and expanded it into a 50,000 word YA novel, PEDRO & DANIEL, that published in 2023 from Levine-Querido to great acclaim and accolades.

Logo art by Vicky Fang

Continue reading →

Perfect Picture Book Friday: JOAN MITCHELL PAINTS A SYMPHONY: LA GRANDE VALLÉE SUITE Plus Giveaway

Posted on March 28, 2025 by viviankirkfield

Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, dear friends! Today’s author is a wonderful kid lit friend of mine…and we are both part of the New England SCBWI chapter. I love her books…and she has graciously offered a choice to whoever wins the giveaway: either a copy of JOAN MITCHELL PAINTS A SYMPHONY or a Picture Book Critique (nonrhyming under 600 words). So, please make sure you leave a comment.

JOAN MITCHELL PAINTS A SYMPHONY: LA GRANDE VALLÉE SUITE

Written by Lisa Rogers

Illustrated by Stacy Innerst

Published by Calkins Creek/Astra (February 25, 2025)

Ages: 7-10

Themes: Creativity, expressing emotions, experimentation, mindfulness

Synopsis: Celebrate the creative process of pioneering American abstract painter Joan Mitchell in this beautifully illustrated STEAM picture book, perfect for all kinds of young creators.

It’s 1983, and American artist Joan Mitchell is in her studio outside Paris, transforming her emotions and memories into a symphony of colors and shapes. Inspired by her friend’s description of an idyllic hidden valley in France, Mitchell creates 21 massive paintings—her Grande Vallée series —bursting with vibrant, energizing hues. But she doesn’t paint the valley’s flowers and meadows. She paints a feeling about them—abundance, freedom, liveliness—creating a harmonious blend of drips, splashes, and brushstrokes in rainbow colors. When the paint dries, it’s time to share her valley with the world.

This inspiring, poetic picture book about an influential yet lesser-known American artist provides a snapshot of a creator who deserves as much acclaim as better-known Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock or Willem de Kooning. Author Lisa Rogers shares both the despair and delight Mitchell experienced throughout her career, while acclaimed illustrator Stacy Innerst’s bright artwork captures the movement and energy of Mitchell’s work, as her paintings develop from page to page.

Celebrate the creative process of pioneering American abstract painter Joan Mitchell in this beautifully illustrated STEAM picture book, perfect for all kinds of young creators.

From Astra: Celebrate the creative process of pioneering American abstract painter Joan Mitchell in this beautifully illustrated STEAM picture book, perfect for all kinds of young creator

Why I Love This Book
1. I love books that celebrate creativity!
2. I love books where the text and art work so perfectly together!
3. I love books filled with glorious illustrations – how wonderful for kids to see Joan Mitchell’s abstract paintings come to life in these pages!

I was chatting with Lisa and mentioned that we all love to hear about the path to publication for our Perfect Picture Book Friday books…and she graciously stopped by.
ME: Welcome, Lisa! Can you share a bit about why you wrote this story and how it came about?

LISA: Thank you so much for featuring JOAN MITCHELL PAINTS A SYMPHONY, Vivian. I’m thrilled to share about the spark for this book!

Since childhood, I’ve loved poring over paintings – from illustrations in my poetry and folktale books to the art in museums. I’m fascinated by how each individual brings something unique to their art, and how that act of personal creation can speak to others.

I didn’t know much about Joan Mitchell’s art when I was researching her life and work for my book DISCOVER HER ART: WOMEN ARTISTS AND THEIR MASTERPIECES. I read an essay about her inspiration for a series of 21 monumental paintings – a special valley in France that was a safe place for Mitchell’s dear friend and composer Gisèle Barreau. Mitchell became entranced with the idea of this valley. She began creating enormous abstract paintings using her own memories and emotions of places, people, poetry, and music that she loved—and even her dogs, who lounged in her studio while she painted!

I’ve long been interested in what sparks creativity, and in this book I focused on Mitchell’s process. I viewed a retrospective at the Baltimore Museum of Art that included some of her Grande Vallée paintings, and even after the manuscript was finished I went to New York to see another exhibition. Each time, I was struck by the beauty and power of her energetic brushwork and brilliant color palette.

Illustrator Stacy Innerst studied Joan Mitchell’s work while he was in art school, and he used acrylic paint to create the glorious illustrations in the book. You can almost feel the texture of the paint he used. The brilliant color jumps off the page. I love that he chose to end the book with an image of two children taking in a Mitchell painting. I hope that young readers take the time to not only study the illustrations but seek out Mitchell’s paintings in museums or online.

I have been awed by the power of abstract art—and I hope young readers will feel that power, too.

ME: WOW…thank you so much, Lisa. I loved hearing your path to publication for this book. And thank you for providing the painting activity! It’s a great way for readers to create their own abstract art!

RELATED ACTIVITY:

Paint like Joan Mitchell!

Inside spread from book: Text by Lisa Rogers and art by Stacy Innerst

Materials:
Paper bags, cut and unfolded to the largest possible size, or large pieces of watercolor or drawing paper.
Acrylic or watercolor paint or pastels, markers, crayons, paint pens –whatever is on hand.
Large brushes
List of emotions. Some examples: happiness, sadness, excitement, calmness, love. Add your own emotions to the list.

Steps:

Spread the paper out on a protected surface. Play some music that you like. Close your eyes and think of a place or person or animal that is important to you. How does that place or person or animal make you feel? Let your mind drift as you put yourself in that place or with that person or animal.

Open your eyes and choose a color that expresses how your place, person, or animal makes you feel. Make a few strokes that represent the feeling they give you.

Leaving some open spaces, try another color and make more strokes. You are expressing a feeling, so there is no wrong way to paint it. You might make different kinds of strokes for different emotions. You might use different colors for different emotions.

Try making drips, or layering one color partly over another. Remember to leave white space.

Keep painting until you feel like you are done. No one can decide that except for you!

Keep all of your work, even if you don’t like it at first. Try another painting. Maybe you will create a series, just like Joan Mitchell!

This is a great activity for kids…but also for adults. Next time you are feeling stuck with your writing, why not try painting?

Thank you all for stopping by and spending your precious time with us. Please make sure you leave a comment to be entered in the FABULOUS giveaway! And please remember that the best way to tell an author or illustrator that you love their work is to:
Busy their books
Review their books
Tell friends about their books (please share this post on your social media)
Ask local libraries to purchase copies of their books!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I’ll be in Massachusetts at two school visits and then, on Saturday, at the Silver Unicorn Bookstore in Acton MA at 11am – if you are local to that area, please stop by for a fabulous story time! And then pop in to the blog on the last day of March for the #50PreciousWords Prize Winners and Honorable Mentions reveal!!!