Perfect Picture Book Friday: WINTER SOLSTICE HILL

Posted on October 9, 2026 by viviankirkfield

Hello dear friends! Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday! Today’s featured picture book is launching on October 20th…and so we are all getting a wonderful sneak peek…PLUS, because the author, Cathy Stefanec Ogren, a long-time kid-lit friend of mine, is such a fab person, we are also getting a mini-interview with her as she shares the story behind the story!

WINTER SOLSTICE HILL

Written by Cathy Stefanec Ogren

Illustrated by Rebecca Evans

Published by Charlesbridge (October 20, 2026)

Ages: 4-8

Themes: Winter Solstice, intergenerational activities, SEL

Synopsis: From Amazon:

A warm, wintry tale that helps kids navigate disappointment, reminding readers that even when plans shift, the magic of tradition can still shine through.

Bundled in snow clothes, Ella waits to join Gramps on her first winter solstice adventure. They go up Winter Solstice Hill, where they will pick a holiday tree and Ella will get to partake on the family tradition for the first time: making a wish on the winter solstice star. But when clouds hide the solstice star, Ella worries she will miss out on this important family tradition. Then a snow storm forces Ella and Gramps to cut their trip short.

Will Ella be the only one in her family to not make a wish on the winter solstice star? Or will Gramps

WHY I LOVE THIS BOOK:
1. I love books that are layered…and this one has so many hooks: SEL (coping with disappointment), intergenerational activities/family togetherness, nature, courage.
2. I love books with lyrical text that weaves a magical web around the reader…Cathy’s writing is so beautiful.
3. I love books where the illustrations fill our eyes…and our hearts…the art is joyous and filled with emotion.

ME: And now, as promised, Cathy is here to share a bit about why she wrote WINTER SOLSTICE HILL. Welcome, dear Cathy! Thank you for stopping by.

CATHY: Thank you for having me, Vivian. It’s a joy to be here…and to share the story behind the story.
Wisconsin. Rural living. Dairy farms. Lowing cows. Cornfields. Colorful fall landscapes. Snow-covered rolling hills. Teaching in a four-room rural school. Gatherings with family, friends, and neighbors.

Those are memories of my life in Wisconsin. We have a joke in our family that I’ve never lived in a house more than ten years because of job transfers by my father and my husband. I was born in Wisconsin and lived there two other times after getting married. Both times we lived in rural communities. I loved the crisp weather and bright colors that fall brings along with the promise of the winter season soon to follow. A few years ago, as the days grew darker earlier and the winter solstice approached, I had the urge to write a holiday story, using my Wisconsin memories. I wrote down a list of ideas and included themes of family, traditions, and new experiences. After many drafts and excellent suggestions from my critique partners. WINTER SOLSTICE HILL came to life. An editor saw potential in my manuscript and wanted to hold on to it. I was over the moon. When the editor went on maternity leave, I had to wait many moons before I was offered a contract. The wait was excruciating, but it was worth it. Rebecca Evans’ illustrations are gorgeous.

ME: Thank you so much, Cathy. I think it’s so valuable for all of us on the path to publication to hear that the wait is often long…and that our patience is often tested…but if we don’t give up…our hopes can be realized!

And, dear friends, here’s a little bit about the author and the illustrator…and some links that will help you connect with them AND purchase copies of this gorgeous book!

Cathy’s Bio:
As a child, Cathy Stefanec Ogren spent her time scripting plays for her neighborhood friends and persuading parents to come and watch with the promise of Oscar-winning performances. As a grown-up, she became a teacher and a school librarian before becoming a full-time writer. Cathy is the author of PEW! The Stinky and Legen-Dairy Gift from Colonel Thomas S. Meacham and The Little Red Chair. She now resides with her husband in New Hampshire.

Rebecca Evans’ Bio:
Rebecca Evans started drawing as soon as she could hold a crayon. She has a BA in visual art from Messiah College, with a concentration on drawing and illustration, and works as an artist and designer. She is the author-illustrator of Alone Like Me and If You Ever Meet a Skeleton.

She has also illustrated many picture books, including Baby’s Opposites and All Will Be Well.

Rebecca lives in Maryland with her husband and their four children.

Social Media:
Author Website: https://cathystefanecogren.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cathy.ogren
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathyo.likes/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/CathySOgren
Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/cathyso.bsky.social

AND THERE IS A SPECIAL OFFER IF YOU PRE-ORDER FROM CATHY’S FAVORITE INDIE BOOKSTORE (it’s my favorite indie bookstore also)

Pre-order WINTER SOLSTICE HILL @ BOOKERY MANCHESTER

Receive an author-signed copy, a bookmark, and a wishing star craft

Well, as Elmer Fudd used to say, “That’s all folks!”
Please remember that we can help beautiful books become a success if we:
Buy a copy
Review the book
Tell friends about the book (Please share this post on your social media…the share buttons below make it easy)
Ask your local library to purchase copies for their shelves

Thank you all for spending your precious time with us. Fall is a wonderful time for new books…and we have a full schedule of blog posts coming up…Book Birthdays and Perfect Picture Book Fridays galore. And I’ve even started gathering prizes for #50PreciousWords…an author friend, Heather Stigall, reached out to offer a PB Critique…and she asked if I’d be interested in a prize from her agent…and when I said YES (as if there could be any other answer), she connected me with her agent and voila. we now have another agent prize…a PB Critique from the lovely Amy Nielsen from the Purcell Agency. So, if you are an author or an illustrator and you have an agent or an editor you think might want to hop on board the #50PreciousWords prize train, please reach out and let me know…the more, the merrier!

Perfect Picture Book Friday: LIZARD INVASION

Posted on August 15, 2025 by viviankirkfield

Happy Perfect Picture Book Friday, dear friends. I always love featuring books that entertain and educate…and when they are written by dear kid lit folks I have met in person, that makes it even more enjoyable! Author Marta Magellan and I met at NCTE in Boston last November…and it was wonderful! And so, when I discovered that one of her books has been updated, I knew I’d want to share it with you. PLUS, Marta stopped by to share the story behind the story.

Written by Marta Magellan

Illustrated by Mauro Magellan

Published by Eifrig (Update printing September 15, 2025

Ages: 5 and up

Themes: Lizards, Animal Habitat, STEM

Why I Love This Book:
1. I love books that entertain and educate – books that spark a child’s interest and get them to want to know more!
2. I love books that can be enjoyed at home as well as used in the classroom!
3. I love books that provide young readers with great illustrations and photos!

And now the promised treat…a visit from author Marta.
Welcome, my friend! Thank you for stopping by to chat with us. Can you tell us a little bit about the book…and how it came to be?

MARTA: Thank you so much, Vivian. I’m so happy to visit Picture Books Help Kids Soar.
Synopsis:
The little green lizard called the Carolina or green anole is the only native anole in the United States, and it is in trouble. An invasion of lizards from other countries is taking their territory, eating their eggs, even eating them. Green anoles are important to gardens and forests because they are unintentional pollinators. As they search for insects to eat, they spread pollen and help plants grow. Green anoles belong here, but the invading lizards moving into Florida from other areas are more aggressive. Will the little green anole survive?

How I came to write the book:

For some reason, I love watching lizards. I even had several lizards for pets until I decided wild animals belong in the wild. Back in 2009, I wrote a book titled Those Lively Lizards for Pineapple Press, a Florida regional publishing house. A librarian in the north of Florida found it on her stack and suggested it be used for a summer workshop called Nature Detectives, sponsored by the St. Augustine Garden Club. They invited me to present the book. The St. Augustine Garden Club gave each child a plant, and they were willing to buy the kids who attended a book, too. Those Lively Lizards was about all types of lizards from anoles to Komodo dragons, and my presentation had nothing to do with pollination (which is what they wanted). So my book just wasn’t quite right for them (I had heard that before–the story of my writing life–“it’s not the right fit for us” LOL).

Five years later, the director of the program wrote to me again. She wanted a book solely on anoles, the small kinds that unintentionally pollinate plants, and she asked me to recommend one. I could not find any still in print. A small independent publisher, Eifrig Publishing (a PAL publisher with SCBWI), had just published my picture book, The Nutty Little Vulture, which my brother, Mauro Magellan had illustrated. I proposed a book about anoles to Penny Eifrig, and she said she would publish it with a caveat “…if Mauro illustrates it.” Anole Invasion was published in 2019. Since then, every book but one that I wrote for Eifrig Publishing has been illustrated by Mauro (interspersed with photographs). Together we have created several books about pollinators, and the garden club always uses them for their Nature Detectives workshops. He also illustrated one we wrote for Pineapple Press, Python Catchers, Saving the Everglades, about the Burmese python invasion.

Why an update?

Five years after using Anole Invasion in the St. Johns County libraries, the director of the Nature Detectives workshops, Cathy Snyder, wrote that she wanted to use it again (they usually bought from 200-250 copies). In those short few years, Florida has been overrun with nonnative reptiles. You might have heard about the Burmese pythons that invaded the Everglades, but all kinds of reptiles now call Florida home. Because Eifrig is a small publisher, she had run out of copies of the original, so she agreed to update the book when Cathy Snyder suggested it. The person listed as Science Editor, Kirsten Hines, is a herpetologist, who is environmentally focused, and she once again vetted the manuscript. We changed the title to Lizard Invasion because now all kinds of lizards are invading the little native lizard’s territory, not just anoles. My brother also redesigned the cover to be bolder and cleaner, and the publisher listed it and got a new ISBN number. Those leaves are design elements; I don’t think Mauro illustrated them. He illustrated the lizards on page 4, 10, 15, 19, 20, 23, and the cover. I am attaching a photo of both of us if you need it.

Other information:

The only one of the Eifrig books Mauro did not illustrate was Amazing, Misunderstood Bats, which sold to schools and even to use as a mentor text in an education class at Columbia University. Although Eifrig Publishing is a very small publisher, it has been delightful writing for Penny Eifrig. I love presenting the pollinator books to children all over Florida, and especially to the Nature Detectives workshops. The kids enjoy getting a new book, signed by the author and a plant to boot. It’s a great program.

Bios:

Author Marta Magellan and Illustrator Mauro Magellan are a brother and sister team who have collaborated on picture books focused on conservation and wildlife. Almost all their books have won honors from Eureka! Nonfiction Award, Green Earth Book Award, Florida Book Award Bronze, Crystal Kite and more. Marta spent most of her career teaching English Composition, Creative Writing and as advisor to the literary magazine at Miami Dade College. Now she writes full time. Mauro is a songwriter as well as an author, illustrator, and drummer with the band Dan Baird and Homemade Sin.

Lizard Invasion will be in print on Amazon and Barnes & Noble September 15. It is also available in print in advance on the Eifrig website from June 15.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lizard-Invasion-Floridas-Little-Survival/dp/1632334062/ (until Sept. 14, Kindle only)

Amazon link for the paperback updated version which should be available Septembeer 15.

Eifrig Publishing: https://www.eifrigpublishing.com/products/anole-invasion

Thank you all for spending your precious time with us. If you love the books that are featured here, I hope you will help them become successful. You can:
Buy the book
Review the book
Tell friends about the book (Please share this post on social media)
Ask your local library to purchase copies for their collection.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Perfect Picture Book Friday AND Book Birthday: THE DOG WHO SAVED THE BEES Plus Giveaway

Posted on August 1, 2025 by viviankirkfield

Well, dear friends, this is a very special post!!! It’s a double your pleasure/double your fun because it’s a Happy Book Birthday for this book…PLUS, it’s a Perfect Picture Book Friday also!!!

THE DOG WHO SAVED THE BEES

Written by Stephanie Gibeault

Illustrated by David Hohn

Published by Sleeping Bear Press (August 1, 2025)

Why I Love This Book:
1. I love stories that are inspired by true events!
2. I love stories where the text engages young readers…and encourages them to get in touch with protecting our planet!
3. I love stories that have glorious illustrations!

This Perfect Picture Book Friday/Book Birthday post includes quite a bit from author Stephanie Gibeault…I’m grateful to her for stopping by to chat and share.

ME: Hello Stephanie! Thank you so much for giving us your time…and for the generous giveaway of a copy of THE DOG WHO SAVED THE BEES…and for telling us about this fabulous new book of yours. Can you tell us what the book is about…and how you came to write it…and how we can get a copy of our own?

STEPHANIE:
Thank you so much for having me, Vivian. It’s always a pleasure to stop by your blog.
Summary of book:
Cybil Preston needs a dog. But not just any dog. She needs a dog to help her with her
work. Cybil is a beehive inspector who works to ensure the health of commercial
beehives in Maryland. Hundreds of hives are shipped across the country as farmers
need bees to pollinate their crops. Without the bees, there wouldn’t be foods like apples,
almonds, and strawberries. But the bees must be healthy to be shipped, and there’s a
deadly disease, foulbrood, that is highly contagious. If even one infected hive left the
state, entire bee populations could be wiped out. Dogs, with their ultrasensitive sense of
smell, can sniff out even the tiniest scent of foulbrood in a hive. A well-trained, focused
detection dog can inspect 50 hives in 10 minutes. Work that would take Cybil an entire
day to do. When Cybil meets Mack, an unruly and lonely dog, she wonders if she has
found her canine colleague. Can rambunctious Mack be trained to meet this important
challenge? Readers of all ages will enjoy this warmly illustrated true story of Cybil and
Mack as they work to save the bees.

Inspiration:
Thank you, Vivian, for celebrating The Dog Who Saved the Bees with me! This is a
book of my heart, so I’m overjoyed to see it out in the world. And David Hohn’s
illustrations are incredible. The first time I saw them, I cried.
The path to publication for this story started in 2018 when I first met Cybil Preston, the
apiary inspector in the book. I interviewed her about her sniffer dog Mack for an article I
wrote for the American Kennel Club. After I sent the article in, I couldn’t stop thinking
about Cybil and Mack’s story. Before she rescued him, Mack was living all alone in a
garage. He was untrained and unruly, but Cybil couldn’t bear to leave him in that
situation. So she took him home and began months and months of training. First, she
had to teach this easily distracted dog just to listen and focus. Then Mack needed to
learn to detect the scent of foulbrood, a deadly bee disease. Eventually, Mack became
the only certified foulbrood scent detection dog in the United States! After working for
the Maryland Department of Agriculture for nine years, Mack retired last summer. He’s
now enjoying a life of leisure on Cybil’s farm.
The story of Cybil’s determination and Mack’s transformation pulled at my heart, and I
just knew I needed to share it with young readers. Thankfully, Cybil was on board for
countless interviews. Over the years, I tried many approaches to this biography,
including a middle grade version. Eventually, after loads of revisions (a special thank
you to my critique group The Word Weavers) I received an offer from Sleeping Bear
Press in April of 2023.

ME: Oh, this is wonderful, Stephanie. And dear friends, here’s a little bit about Stephanie and illustrator

Here’s a little bit about Stephanie:
Stephanie Gibeault is an award-winning author of children’s picture books and middle
grade nonfiction including Making Sense of Dog Senses (a Eureka! Honor book),
Calculating Chimpanzees, Brainy Bees, and Other Animals with Mind-Blowing
Mathematical Abilities (a Mathical Honor book and Best STEM Book by the NSTA), and
Dogs vs. Humans: A Showdown of the Senses among others. As a former biologist with
a Master of Science in animal behavior, Stephanie used to spend her time grunting with
gorillas and stinking like marmoset monkeys. Years later, being a certified professional
dog trainer meant being covered in fur and drool. Now she spends her days just outside
of Toronto, Canada, sharing her love of dogs and other animals through her writing.
Find out more at stephaniegibeault.com.
Social Media Links:
Bluesky: @stephaniegibeault.bsky.social
Instagram: @stephanie_gibeault
Purchase Links:
Blue Heron Books (my local indie in Uxbridge, Ontario)
Bookshop.org
Barnes & Noble
Walmart
Amazon Canada
Amazon US

And here’s a little bit about the illustrator:
David Hohn is the illustrator of Just Like Beverly: A Biography of Beverly Cleary, which garnered starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews and Booklist. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Thank you for spending your precious time with us today, dear friends! And please remember to leave a comment for a chance to WIN a copy of THE DOG WHO SAVED THE BEES…you get one ticket in the giveaway hat for the comment, and if you share on social media, you get another ticket…so please share widely…that’s a wonderful way to help new books get discovered by parents and teachers and the kids who will love this book!