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Stephanie M. Ward
434 ratings | 299 reviews | avg rating:4.54

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2025 Reading Challenge

Stephanie M. Ward

Goodreads Author


Born
in Spokane, The United States
Website

Twitter
StephMWard

Genre
Children's, Fiction, Poetry

Member Since
January 2012

URL


Stephanie Ward is a children's book author represented by Erzsi Deak at Hen & Ink Literary. After many years in marketing, Stephanie now spends her time writing sweet, silly and sidesplitting stories and poetry for children including...

ALLEN THE ALIEN, illustrated by Aleck Morton, published by Riveted Press (2024)

5 MINUTE CHRISTMAS TALES, illustrated by Karen Saavedra, published by Bookli (2023)

HELLO SHARK! and DON'T LAUGH GIRAFFE, both illustrated by Bethany Carr, published by Imagine That (2023)

ARABELLA AND THE MAGIC PENCIL, illustrated by Shaney Hyde, published by EK Books (2019)

WALLY THE WARM-WEATHER PENGUIN, illustrated by Vanessa Landin, published by Forwards Press (2017).

Currently, she can be found writing the rainy days away in ...more

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?
Stephanie M. Ward I had the opportunity to travel around the world for a year and within three months visited two very remote places, Antarctica and the Galapagos Islan…moreI had the opportunity to travel around the world for a year and within three months visited two very remote places, Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands. When I encountered Emperor Penguins in the extreme climate of Antarctica, I wondered why they never migrated somewhere with warmer weather. A couple of months later, when visiting the Galapagos Islands, I saw the darling Galapagos Penguins playing in the warm ocean waters and frolicking on the beach. And there was the premise for Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin: What if an Emperor Penguin found out there was a colony of penguins living in a much warmer place?

Full blog post (with loads of fascinating background information!) http://stephaniemward.com/2014/07/07/...(less)
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Will we be seeing any sequels to Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin?
Stephanie M. Ward Yes, Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin is headed to Australia for his next adventure. You may not think of penguins when you think of Australia but there…moreYes, Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin is headed to Australia for his next adventure. You may not think of penguins when you think of Australia but there is a "little"-known penguin, called a Fairy Penguin or Little Blue Penguin that can be found on southern shores in Australia and New Zealand. They are the smallest penguin in the world. Wally will meet some fascinating new creatures Down Under, so stay tuned for the next edition later this year.

Thanks so much for the question, Carmela.(less)
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Combine Editions

Average rating: 4.48 · 113 ratings · 74 reviews · 6 distinct works • Similar authors
Arabella and the Magic Pencil
by
4.52 avg rating — 52 ratings — published 2019 — 3 editions
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Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin
4.52 avg rating — 50 ratings — published 2014 — 4 editions
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Allen the Alien
by
4.29 avg rating — 7 ratings
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Hello Shark! (Shake, Roll &...
by
3.75 avg rating — 4 ratings
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5 Minute Christmas Tales
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Don't Laugh, Giraffe Push P...
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Stephanie M. Ward's Blog: Notes from a writer with wanderlust

Book Review + Giveaway: The Last Apple Tree

Title: The Last Apple Tree | Author: Claudia Mills | Genre: Middle Grade | Publisher: Holiday House (2025) |  ISBN: 978-0823461882 Publisher’s Book Summary: Twelve-year-old Sonnet’s family has just moved across the country to live with her grandfather after her nana dies. Gramps’s once-impressive apple orchard has been razed for a housing development, with only one heirloom tree left. …

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Stephanie is Currently Reading

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Nov 03, 2025 12:01PM

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The Lights of Shantinagar by Nidhi Arora
The Lights of Shantinagar
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An absolutely delightful novel!

The Lights of Shantinagar is a peek through the window of life in a small India village. In goregeous, wise prose, readers are dropped into the intertwined lives of five families dealing with sins of the past and the ri ...more
Nov 01, 2025 05:21AM  ·   · see review ·  preview book
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101 Books to Read Before You Grow Up (Revised Edition) by Bianca Schulze
101 Books to Read Before You Grow Up (Revised Edition): Timeless Tales and New Adventures Kids Will Love to Read
by Bianca Schulze (Goodreads Author)
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A reading reference book for every bookshelf! As a bonafide list maker, I have countless spreadsheets, checklists and good old-fashioned handwritten logs organising the books that I’ve read or want to read. It will save me hours of inputting info wit ...more
Oct 26, 2025 02:15PM  ·   · see review ·  preview book
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The Last Apple Tree by Claudia Mills
The Last Apple Tree
by Claudia Mills (Goodreads Author)
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In this multi-generation, contemporary middle grade novel, tweens Sonnet and Zeke clash over a class project that shows just how differently two people can approach the same challenge. But additional layers reveal issues of dementia, family tragedy, ...more
Oct 08, 2025 07:03AM  ·   · see review
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Sawyer's Big Idea by Kimberly Horch
Sawyer's Big Idea
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Sawyer has a lot of ideas...and creativity...and energy! So what project is he going to work on? Maybe, all of them! A sweet story about a boy with big ideas and not enough time in the day to get them all done. This cleverly-written story perfectly p ...more
Sep 15, 2025 01:40PM  ·   · see review ·  preview book
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O'win and the Moon by Roseanne Baxter Frank
O'win and the Moon
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A very sweet story that introduces young children to constellations and the phases of the moon. Dreamlike illustrations create an ethereal feel to the folktale-style of storytelling. Truly a unique picture book. Wonderful back matter and activities i ...more
Aug 28, 2025 03:06PM  · 1 like ·   · see review
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Aussie Readers: [Ends 27 Jan] Australia Day Giveaway 1 13 Jan 23, 2015 09:01PM  
Support for Indie...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Introductions - Retired 3036 3043 Jun 29, 2016 05:22AM  
Aussie Readers: This topic has been closed to new comments. Share Your Reviews (and Thoughts) Here - 2019 3102 329 Dec 31, 2019 06:58PM  
Aussie Lovers of...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Currently reading/Just finished! CLOSED 7094 741 Dec 31, 2019 07:03PM  
Fiction Fanatics: This topic has been closed to new comments. 2019 reads 1653 171 Jan 09, 2020 11:13PM  
Books, Blogs, Aut...: Book review request-book reviewers please post here 124 1474 Mar 28, 2020 08:12AM  
Review Group: * Group 243. Children and YA - Mod. L.N. 117 63 May 28, 2020 11:33AM  
WACKY READING CHA...: What are You Reading? #2 1385 107 Jan 01, 2021 10:16PM  

Stephanie’s Quotes

Patrick Dennis
“Morning, I soon discovered, was one o’clock for Auntie Mame. Early Morning was eleven, and the Middle of the Night was nine.”
― Patrick Dennis
tags: humor, mornings
6 likes

Sue Fitzmaurice
“You must go on adventures to find out where you belong.”
― Sue Fitzmaurice
tags: travel
52 likes

Mary Botham Howitt
“Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly”
― Mary Howitt, The Spider and the Fly
tags: humor, lessons, poetry
27 likes

Mo Willems
“If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave.”
― Mo Willems, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs
tags: fairy-tales, humor, humorous, philosophy, psychology
4132 likes

P.T. Barnum
“The noblest art is that of making others happy”
― P.T. Barnum
268 likes

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Stephanie’s Friend Comments

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message 2: by Kate
Dec 24, 2015 11:02AM

Kate Larkinson Hi Steph

Have you seen this?:

LIBRARYBUB FEATURE GIVEAWAY SWEEPSTAKE

Get your book into libraries via a feature with LibraryBub. They connect best-selling and award-winning indie & small press authors with around 10,000 libraries in the USA.

As a best-selling or/and award-winning author, sign up for the giveaway and you can win a feature in their weekly email to around 10,000 US libraries.

The current retail price of the feature is $299.

To enter, click on the link below, answer the difficult (not!) question and fill in your email address.

http://alinkarutkowska.com/giveaways/...

Good luck! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Kate xxx


message 1: by Raven Haired Girl
Jun 05, 2015 10:48AM

Raven Haired Girl Thanks so much for your friendship Stephanie, I look forward to learning more about you and chatting about books. Have a great weekend.


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