PENGUIN CHA-CHA coloring page

I've created coloring sheets and activities to go with my new picture book, PENGUIN CHA-CHA.

You can download a free Penguin Cha-Cha Storytime Kit to use with your child at home or with a whole group of kids in a bookstore, library, or classroom. The Storytime Kit contains the following:
• Event Invitation
• The Penguin Popsicle Game
• If You’re a Dancer and You Know It
• Penguin Props
• Penguin Family Portrait
• Make a Dancing Penguin Craft
• Coloring Sheet

Enjoy!

Illustration Friday: Together

From the picture book, THE GOODBYE CANCER GARDEN,
written by Janna Matthies, illustrated by Kristi Valiant

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is coming up. Experts estimate that 1 out of every 8 women born today will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point during her life. Hug your little ones and favorite people, and spend your days wisely.

Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me.

-Psalm 23:4a

Penguin Cha-Cha Book Launch

Today was the Book Launch Party for PENGUIN CHA-CHA at my local Barnes & Noble. What a toe-tapping, knee-knocking, rocking good time!

My dashing penguin companion made sure all was ready.

A wonderful local bakery, Fresh Baked by Tracy, made the cakes with my illustrations on them.

The cakes turned out adorable.

The books were set up and ready for readers.

I signed my first Penguin Cha-Cha book. Yay!

The line formed.

The stand-up cut-outs made by www.signsoveramerica.com were a hit. 

Turn yourself into a dancing penguin!

I read the book to the kids.

We learned the basic cha-cha-cha step.

Then we learned how to hold our hands to make them into pretty Latin dancing hands.

Put the steps and arm motions together to cha-cha! 

A sweet group of friends.

A darling dancer.

Thank you to all who came and helped my penguins to dance into the hands of readers! And thank you to SCBWI for the marketing grant that made this super fun book launch possible!

New Books!

Oh, how I love opening a box of new books that I've illustrated and getting to see and touch the real book in person!

WILLA BEAN TO THE RESCUE arrived and she's as funny as ever. 

Over the weekend, we hosted an SCBWI Picture Book Day here in Indiana at beautiful Turkey Run State Park. Our speakers were fabulous and even those of us who are already published learned a lot!  Left to right: Tammi Sauer (Author Keynote Speaker), Katie Mitschelen (Indiana ARA), Jenifer Heidorn (Coordinator), Jeffrey Salane (Scholastic editor), Melissa Manlove (Chronicle editor), and myself (Indiana RA). If you haven't read Tammi Sauer's books, get out there and buy some! They are delightful and hilarious!

My PENGUIN CHA-CHA Book Launch party is coming up this Saturday! You're invited, of course. And this adorable penguin will be there. My mom made this dashing fellow. Here are the details on the Book Launch:

Evansville Barnes & Noble

2:00 Book signing and cake

3:00 Reading, Cha-cha dance lesson for kids, a craft, coloring sheets, and more book signing to follow.

I'll also have a couple stand-up cut-outs of my dancing penguins that you can stick your head through to be a dancing penguin. You won't want to miss that.

If you can't come to the real life Book Launch (and even if you can), I've given some blog interviews lately and a couple even have giveaways that you can still enter by leaving a comment over on that interview:

Elizabeth Dulemba’s Blog:

PENGUIN CHA-CHA by Kristi Valiant - GIVEAWAY! 

Kathy Temean’s Blog:

Giveaway, 40-question interview, and step-by-step process of creating an illustration

Writing for Kids (While Raising Them)

The blog of author Tara Lazar:

From Illustrator to Author-Illustrator: Kristi Valiant’s Process (plus a PENGUIN CHA-CHA giveaway!)

Celebri-DOTS:

My round penguin became a Celebri-DOT

Illustration Friday: Hidden

I illustrated this for the book, STAR BUBBLE TROUBLE, by Cecelia Galante, published by Random House. It's an early chapter book that has about 20 black & white illustrations inside the book plus a full color cover.

Chapter books are a lot of fun to illustrate, especially series like this one, because you get to draw the same characters over and over again and really get to know them. In this series, Willa Bean has such authentic, strong feelings and the way she reacts usually gets her into unintended trouble. She's funny and real and has a big heart. If you'd like to break into illustrating kid's books, you may want to try creating some chapter book illustrations for your portfolio.

Since my picture book, PENGUIN CHA-CHA, launched last week, I've been featured on a few blogs. There's a giveaway and interview on Elizabeth Dulemba's blog. Check out my guest post on the difference between illustrating someone else's text and illustrating my own text on Tara Lazar's blog. Then dance on over to the Celebri-DOTS blog to see my round penguin as a Celebri-DOT (inspired by Peter H Reynolds' picture book, THE DOT).

Cha-Cha-Cha!

Penguin Cha-Cha Release Day

Today is my Book Release Day! Penguin Cha-Cha has hit the store shelves. Send me a photo if you find my book in your store or library. I'll be heading to Barnes & Noble tonight to see it there in the wild!

Dance on over to Tara Lazar's blog to read a guest post I did on illustrating my own manuscript versus illustrating other authors' manuscripts. Comment on that post for a chance to win a Penguin Cha-Cha prize pack! And then check back here in the coming weeks for other places to win.

If you buy Penguin Cha-Cha, you can still send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and I'll send you a signed bookplate with your name on it, a magnet, a sticker, and a bookmark. (Kristi Valiant, PO Box 8211, Evansville, IN 47716)

Happy Birthday to my dancing penguins! Let's all eat some chocolate! (You know you were looking for an excuse to anyway.)

Illustration Friday: Rescue

Swag giveaway

My picture book, Penguin Cha-Cha, comes out in 2 weeks, and I have some fun swag for you! 

If you pre-order the book from online or your local bookstore, send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope and I'll stuff your envelope with a signed bookplate to stick in your book (it's a way to autograph your book without me needing the actual book). Tell me who you want the book signed to. I'll also throw in a bookmark, magnet, and sticker. Yay!

Send to:

Kristi Valiant

PO Box 8211

Evansville, IN 47716

Please let others know too. Thanks and happy reading!

International SCBWI Conference in LA

Thank you, Lin and Steve, for creating SCBWI! I drew Lin Oliver, Steve Mooser, and their grandbabies in my Penguin Cha-Cha book to thank them for the marketing grant for that book and all SCBWI has done to help me with my career. 

Last weekend was the international SCBWI conference in LA. It's a crazy huge conference with over 1200 attendees, lots of keynotes, breakout sessions, parties, and the works. You can read some notes from each of the sessions on the extensive conference blog: http://scbwiconference.blogspot.com

My favorite session was Mac Barnett's keynote. He told us that kids who read his picture book about a boy with a pet whale can send in for their own pet whale. In reply they receive a letter from a Norwegian law firm saying the whale was held up in customs, but they can leave messages for their whale by calling a 1-800 #. The phone number has whale sounds and then a beep. Kids would call and leave messages for their whales, and Mac played a number of messages left by a sweet boy. Kids are so willing to suspend disbelief!

Loved the photo booth at the SCBWI Black & White Ball!
With fellow Regional Advisors: Anushka Ravishankar from India, Leslie Helakoski from Michigan, and Susanne Gervay from Australia.

The winners of the Black & White Ball costume contest.

We headed to the Santa Monica pier at sunset after the conference was over. Ahhh... 

Picture Book Trailer for PENGUIN CHA-CHA

Below is my book trailer for my picture book, PENGUIN CHA-CHA! A book trailer is like a movie trailer giving a glimpse of what the story is about and hopefully it'll make you interested in reading the book. The book is available for pre-order from bookstores. 

I made the book trailer myself in Photoshop CS6 and then Random House uploaded it to their YouTube channel. Yes, Photoshop does video! I illustrate digitally in Photoshop, so the jump to making a video in Photoshop wasn't too hard for me. I read up online and watched some YouTube videos on it. I found a great music site called Incompetech in which you can use royalty-free music in any project and either give credit or pay a small fee. I chose not to have credits in my book trailer, so I paid the small fee for the music. I'm not sure if having a book trailer will help sales of my book, but it sure is fun and the trailer is already spreading on Facebook. Have you ever seen a book trailer before?