Hurray! It’s almost time for the #50PreciousWords 2026 International Writing Contest.
Some of you have been participating since the beginning. But others are here for the first time. So, I’d like to share a bit about the back story of this contest.
In 2012 I had a dream. I wanted to write picture books. One of the most important things I did was to participate in writing challenges like Julie Hedlund’s 12×12 and all of Susanna Hill’s contests. Why was that important? Because it got me writing. It got me revising. It got me submitting. Hmmm….writing/revising/submitting. I believe that if we do those three things enough times, our writing improves, and agents and editors get a chance to see our work. And as much as I am thrilled with my own success, nothing makes me happier than to hear about the success of others in our kid-lit community.
When I first got the idea for this contest back in 2016, I thought a few of my friends might take pity on me and submit a story – to my surprise, there were 128 entries.
Reason #1: It’s World Read Aloud Day! I’ll be sharing ONE GIRL’S VOICE with all of the 4th graders at P.S. 97 in the Bronx, NY.
Reason #2: Today is the anniversary of my very first published book. PIPPA’S PASSOVER PLATE, illustrated by Jill Weber and published by Holiday House, is 8 years old!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR PIPPA!
And Reason #3: We are revealing the cover of Pippa’s next adventure…PIPPA’S HANUKKAH HUNT…which launches this coming fall on September 29!
Oh my goodness…I LOVE this cover…and I hope you do, too! Jill Weber, the illustrator, really knows what young kids love! Her art is JOYFUL! I’m so excited for children to turn the pages and discover the MYSTERY of the Missing Potatoes. There are clues for the reader on every page, not in the text, but in the illustrations. Great picture book illustrators somehow find a way to show other layers to the story in the pictures…I’m grateful to Jill!
This wonderful book will be flying onto bookstore shelves on September 29…delighting children with Pippa’s search for the missing potatoes. Because Hanukkah is coming and Pippa wants to make potato latkes for all of her friends – and SOMEONE has been taking all of the potatoes.
Do you love Pippa? Did you enjoy the first book? While we wait for the new book to launch, there are a few things followers of Pippa can do: 1. Pre-order the book: At any local bookstore or on Amazon 2. Review the book on Goodreads 3. Ask your local library to purchase copies of the book 4. Tell your friends (Sharing this post on your social media REALLY helps!)
I also wanted to thank folks who have been reviewing ONE GIRL’S VOICE. In my previous blog post, I mentioned that even though that book is a finalist for a Golden Kite in the nonfiction for younger readers category and has received other awards and accolades, it only had 35 reviews on Amazon as of a week ago. After my post, 9 more reviews appeared…THANK YOU to everyone who left early reviews or recent ones! Remember, it’s never too late to review a book! It’s such a worthy book, I hope there will be more reviews. And I will let you all know what happens on Friday night when the SCBWI Golden Kite winners and honor books are announced.
Please make sure you return on Saturday when the Heads-Up-The-Contest-Is-Coming-Soon post goes live…with the huge list of INCREDIBLE prizes for the 2026 #50PreciousWords International Writing Contest. I and my awesome judges, Maria Marshall, Carmen Castillo Gilbert, Leah Moser, Pamela Courtney, Amber Bouchard, Shirin Shamsi, and Diane Tulloch, are so excited to read all of your precious words!
I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week…and find joy in every day, no matter how challenging it may be.
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.
VIVIAN KIRKFIELD - Writer for Children 