Book Giveaway: Pippa’s Passover Plate

Author Vivian Kirkfield has a new picture book titled, PIPPA’S PASSOVER PLATE, illustrated by Jill Weber who was recently featured on Illustrator Saturday. It is available in bookstores now. It is coming out next week. Vivian has agreed to share a book with one lucky winner. All you have to do to get in the running is to leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you do to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you.

Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, reblogging really helps spread the word for a new book. Thanks for helping Vivian!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

An irresistibly adorable mouse tries to find her Passover plate before sundown when the Seder begins in this colorful Jewish holiday story. 

An enchanting mouse scours her cozy, miniature home for her Passover Seder plate with no luck. Sundown is near and the Passover celebration will begin soon. Pippa Mouse must venture out and be brave to ask a cat, a snake, and an owl for help. To her surprise not only are the animals helpful in tracing her plate to the pond, they become her Passover Seder guests. A spread at the end of the book shows the Passover plate with its six essential symbolic items: zeroah (a roasted bone), beitzah,(an egg), maror and charoset (bitter herbs), chazeret (mortar or paste), and karpas (a spring vegetable).

BOOK’S JOURNEY:

You never know what will result in a great story or even a book deal. In 2013, an editor participated in Tara Lazar’s PiBoIdMo Challenge and shared that she was looking for Jewish holiday books. An opportunity to submit to an editor? WOW! I sat down and a rhyming story about a little mouse who couldn’t find her Seder plate tumbled from my pen. Unfortunately, that editor passed on it. I put the story in a drawer and pretty much forgot about it as I got busy writing a slightly different genre—nonfiction picture book biographies.

Fast forward four years. Late in 2017, a critique buddy told me about a contest sponsored by PJ Library. She reminded me about the mouse story. “That would be perfect,” she said. “You should submit it.” I pulled the story out of the drawer and figured I needed to get a fresh pair of eyes on it. I showed it to an author/illustrator critique buddy. “I’m meeting with one of my editors next week,” she said. “Could I show it to her?” Jill brought it to NYC and within an hour, I had an email from the editor, asking if she should send the contract to me or to my agent.

Yes, I know. That is like a dream. And honestly, these days, I keep wanting to ask people to pinch me to make sure all this good fortune is real. But here’s the thing: when you put yourself out there and do the work and embrace feedback and never give up, you will succeed.

The rest of the journey for Pippa’s Passover Plate was equally dreamlike. I know from experience that this is not always how it goes in this business. Some editors don’t encourage collaboration between author and illustrator. Some illustrators have a totally different vision after they read your text. But Jill got the story and shared early sketches and then the book dummy with me. And I loved her joyful palette and her ability to enrich what I had written and bring my words to life with her fabulous illustrations. She’s even going to create a little Pippa Mouse doll for me to take on my trip around the world next year—be on the lookout for Facebook photos of Pippa at the Sydney Opera House, Buckingham Palace, and the Bologna Book Fair.

VIVIAN’S BIO:

Shhh…don’t tell anyone, but for over seventy years, I’ve been having a love affair…with picture books. As a toddler, I devoured them (both literally and figuratively) and by second grade, I already knew I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher (so I could read lots of picture books to my students). But it wasn’t until I was almost retired and my children were married with kids of their own, that I decided to write a book for parents and teachers. Show Me How! Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem Through Reading, Crafting and Cooking, published in 2010, was a joy to write, but difficult to promote, especially since I had self-published it. Then, in 2011, I turned 64 and my son gave me a surprise gift. We were going skydiving!

I’m so glad I took that leap of faith because, when my feet touched the ground, I knew there was nothing I couldn’t do if I set my mind to it. I’d been fearful of starting a blog—but after jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, starting a blog didn’t seen that intimidating any more. I began to review picture books and discovered Susanna Hill’s website where she reviewed picture books. Inspired by many of her followers who were actively pursuing picture book writing careers, I was hooked! That’s what I wanted to be…a picture book author!  I took another leap of faith and with my whole heart I jumped into critique groups, conferences, classes and of course, reading, writing and revising. I signed with Essie White of Storm Literary at the end of 2015 and have been blessed with a bunch of book deals.

But the biggest blessing has been the camaraderie of this incredible kid lit community. There is so much rejection and disappointment that it’s absolutely positively crucial to have the support and encouragement of others. Most of all, I love helping other writers follow their dream because I truly believe that with patience, persistence, productivity, and passion, those dreams will become a reality.

Vivian, thank you for sharing your book and its’ journey with us. Looks like a really good book with cute illustrations. I am sure it will make the winner very happy to receive it. Good Luck!

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy