Vi Hughes of Vancouver is an educator, children's writer and early literacy advocate. She has a Master of Education degree in Curriculum Studies and Bachelor of Arts degree. She has had a career in Vancouver as a teacher, elementary school principal, Language Arts resource teacher, Faculty Associate in Teacher Education at Simon Fraser University and Sessional Instructor in Reading at the University of British Columbia. She has also served as a director on the board of the West Coast Book Prizes Society. Hughes writes children's books and articles on reading and early literacy development. As a LITE advocate, she makes presentations to community groups and at conferences. Vi lives on Vancouver's North Shore.

With a subsidy from BC Hydro and the support of VPL's chief librarian Sandra Singh, Vi Hughes help to spearhead a Reading Lights programme to erect 61 colored children's book plaques on lamp posts around Vancouver to spark the interest of kids in local books and advance the cause of literacy. VPL provides an interactive map to the plaques, erected in 2016, 2017 and 2018, at http://pwp.vpl.ca/readinglights/ "How wonderful to have all that beautiful art displayed so accessibly around our city," says one of the featured illustrators, Sima Elizabeth Shefrin. The campaign mirrors the ongoing Literary Map of B.C. project co-created by VPL and BC BookWorld.

The Graveyard Hounds was her first novel for young people. Sima Elizabeth Shefrin of Gabriola Island provided the charming illustrations for Vi Hughes' Once Upon a Bathtime (Tradewind, 2010), for ages three to six.

BOOKS:

Graveyard Hounds (Tradewind, 2008)

Once Upon a Bathtime (Tradewind, 2010) $17.95 978-1-896580-54-8

Kaput!

9-1-1 Quack!

Isabella, Princess of the Pens

The Trouble with Geese

A Pod for a Baby Orca (Scholastic)

A Wild Eagle Needs a Beak (Scholastic)

[BCBW 2017] "Kidlit"