Perfect Picture Book Friday: SALLY’S MUSICAL TALE

Posted on April 4, 2025 by viviankirkfield

Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, dear friends. #50PreciousWords 2025 is over…at least until next year. I’m immersed in distributing prizes, but don’t know if I’ll get through the entire list before I leave on my next trip. YES…I’m just getting ready for another trip…to Vienna and Salzburg (Sound of Music) in Austria and Lisbon and Porto in Portugal…my vision may be blurry, but I am moving forward with life – because forward is the way to go. And I’m excited to share a brand new book from one of my favorite kid lit folks, Rosie J. Pova.

SALLY’S MUSICAL TALE

Written by Rose J. Pova

Illustrated by Claire Zhang

Published by Yeehoo Press

And hurray…we are very lucky because Rosie has stopped by to tell us a little more about the book and the story behind the story! Welcome, Rosie!!!

ROSIE: Hello Vivian! Thank you so much for inviting me to chat about my newest book!
Here’s a little bit About the book’s journey to publication

This story idea sparked during a writing exercise at an all-day, in-person workshop with Tammi Sauer back in 2015. After that, I drafted the manuscript, revised it, and began submitting it to agents and publishers over time.

Along the way, the story caught the attention of several publishing professionals, which was both encouraging and validating. I even received multiple offers of representation from agents. Ultimately, this manuscript found its perfect home with Yeehoo Press, the same publisher behind The School of Failure: A Story About Success.

Now, in 2025, I’m thrilled to finally share this book with readers—ten years after the idea first took root. Its journey to publication has been long, but I truly believe it’s arriving at just the right moment.

What makes this release even more special is that the book will also be translated into Chinese, debuting in the year of the Snake—how perfect is that?

Yeehoo Press has some exciting plans for educators, including a fun poster with snake facts, a Teacher’s Guide, and other classroom resources. I can’t wait to see teachers and librarians use these tools to engage their students and share the story!

Here’s a little bit about Rosie:

Rosie J. Pova is an award-winning children’s book author, poet, writing coach, and speaker. Her picture book Sunday Rain was featured in The New York Times and Parents magazine and has been translated into Arabic. She received a silver medal from the Readers’ Favorite Awards for The School of Failure: A Story About Success, and her latest book, Sally’s Musical Tale, was just released.

Rosie enjoys visiting schools to inspire children to read, write, and pursue their big dreams. As a writing coach, she has guided many aspiring picture book authors toward publishing success through her Mentorships, Picture Book Writers’ Hub Mastermind, and Picture Book Mastery course.

Follow Rosie on social media and find out more about her and her work at www.rosiejpova.com

www.facebook.com/RosieWrites/

Here’s a little bit about the book:
Sally is an ambitious snake who dreams of playing the piano. Everyone says, “It’s hands-down impossible!” But she’s determined to succeed…

And, because we know how important it is to support new books, here are Book Order links:

Local indie, Interabang: https://interabangbooks.com/book/9781953458803

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sallys-musical-tale-rosie-j-pova/1145986523

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sallys-Musical-Tale-Rosie-Pova/dp/1953458807/

Thank you, dear readers, for spending your precious time with us! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! And even though I won’t be here from April 10 through April 24, I’ve scheduled a couple of posts – because Martha Self Simpson has a new book, A RING FOR A KING – and we’ll be celebrating with a Perfect Picture Book Post on April 11…and Dana Miroballi has a new book, INVENTIONS TO COUNT ON, and we’ll be celebrating with a book birthday post on April 15 – that’s tax day, right? Have you filed yours yet?

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.