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Born in St-Jean, Quebec, Tiffany Stone graduated with a BFA from UBC's Creative Writing Department in 1991 and has worked at Tradewind Books. Her collection of 'silly' poems about animals is Floyd the Flamingo and His Flock of Friends (Tradewind, 2004), illustrated by Kathryn Shoemaker. It was followed by Baaaad Animals (Tradewind, 2006), illustrated by Cristina Leist, and Rainbow Shoes (Tradewind 2012), illustrated by Stefan Czernecki. Rainbow Shoes was shortlisted for the 2013 Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize; Tallulah Plays the Tuba was voted the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Best Books for Kids & Teens in 2020; and Knot Cannot won the 2021 Gryphon Honor Book. And Stone has also been a nominee and finalist for the Chocolate Lily Awards.
Tiffany Stone lives in Maple Ridge with her husband and three children.
BOOKS:
Floyd the Flamingo and His Flock of Friends (Tradewind, 2004),
Baaaad Animals (Tradewind 2006)
Rainbow Shoes (Tradewind 2012)
Teatime (Simply Read, 2015) $18.95 978-1-927018-67-5 (Illustrated by Jori van der Linde)
Tree Song (Annick Press, 2018) $21.95 9781773210018 (Illustrated by Holly Hatam)
Tallulah Plays the Tuba (Annick Press, 2019) $18.95 9781773213071 (Illustrated by Sandy Nichols)
Knot Cannot (Dial Books, 2020) $17.99 9780735230804 (Illustrated by Mike Lowery)
Silli's Sheep (Schwartz & Wade, 2020) $17.99 9781984848529 (Illustrated by Louis Thomas)
Wood Could (Dial Books, 2021) $17.99 9780735230811 (Illustrated by Mike Lowery)
Little Narwhal, Not Alone (Greystone Kids, 2021) $22.95 978-1-77164-620-8 (Illustrated by Ashlyn Anstee)
Super Small: Miniature Marvels of the Natural World (Greystone Kids, 2023) $22.95 9781771646567
The Day Dancer Flew (Orca, 2024) $21.95 9781459837393
[BCBW 2023] "Kidlit" "Interview"
***
In Tallulah Plays the Tuba (Annick Press $18.95) by Tiffany Stone, a little girl dreams of playing a big instrument in her school band—the tuba. The story revolves around the heroic efforts Tallulah makes in order to play that instrument. This diverse protagonist just won’t give up in her quest. For ages 4-7. Illustrations by Sandy Nichols. 9781773213071
(BCBW 2019)
***
Little Narwhal, Not Alone by Tiffany Stone & illustrated by Ashlyn Anstee
(Greystone Kids $22.95) Ages 4 – 8
In her tenth children’s book, Little Narwhal, Not Alone, Tiffany Stone deals with overcoming differences and the importance of inclusion. Based on the true story of a narwhal that ended up in the St. Lawrence River estuary, about 600 miles away from its home in the Arctic, the lost whale was accepted into a pod of beluga whales despite their interspecies disparities. Marine biologists have continued to monitor this unusual occurrence for over four years as the narwhal has remained with the belugas.
Stone’s story imagines how a restless narwhal came to be so far from its natural habitat. Her playful little whale “longs to roam, to see the sea beyond the ice, past polar bears, to brand-new sights. And so while others hunt and play, narwhal sets off on his way.”
With that, the story follows the adventurous whale past other northern animals like seals and caribou until a strange new sound beckons him. But the noise is coming from the propeller of a large ship and the narwhal immediately senses danger.
“Quick, escape, without a peep! Little narwhal dives down deep,” writes Stone. The narwhal stays in the murky depths as long as it can until, gasping for air, it re-surfaces. But now the narwhal is a long way from its family and despite searching for his own kind, “far off from his frozen home, little narwhal’s all alone.”
Eventually the narwhal encounters “ice-white whales” [belugas] that kind of look like him “or close enough— though no one sports a twisty tusk.” The sounds they make are different and the narwhal doesn’t understand the belugas and vice versa. And the belugas eat the kind of fish that the narwhal is not used to. But they all instinctively know how to play together and that becomes the bonding glue: “Although a lot is not the same, narwhal knows he knows this game! Flippers splish. He joins right in. And…SQUIRT…the new whales welcome him!”
Known for her poetic language and silly verses, Maple Ridge-based Tiffany Stone has made animals the protagonists in some of her other books such as Floyd the Flamingo and His Flock of Friends (Tradewind Books, 2004) and Silli’s Sheep (Schwartz & Wade, 2020). Given that she regularly does volunteer work with new immigrants, it is not surprising her stories are often infused with themes of acceptance and friendship.
Little Narwhal, Not Alone includes a summary at the back of the book from marine biologist Marie Noel of Montreal about the real-life incident that inspired Stone. “It is unusual for young narwhals to wander, but this is just too far for him to find his way home or meet up with other members of his species,” writes Noel. “Although they are distantly related, beluga whales and narwhals usually do not interact. However, to everyone’s surprise, it looks like the young narwhal may have been adopted by the group of young belugas. Now, the narwhal has even been observed blowing bubbles from time to time, just like his beluga cousins! What else will he learn? Every summer, researchers keep an eye on the whales of the St. Lawrence and this remarkable friendship.” 9781771646208
BCBW 2021-22
Tiffany Stone lives in Maple Ridge with her husband and three children.
BOOKS:
Floyd the Flamingo and His Flock of Friends (Tradewind, 2004),
Baaaad Animals (Tradewind 2006)
Rainbow Shoes (Tradewind 2012)
Teatime (Simply Read, 2015) $18.95 978-1-927018-67-5 (Illustrated by Jori van der Linde)
Tree Song (Annick Press, 2018) $21.95 9781773210018 (Illustrated by Holly Hatam)
Tallulah Plays the Tuba (Annick Press, 2019) $18.95 9781773213071 (Illustrated by Sandy Nichols)
Knot Cannot (Dial Books, 2020) $17.99 9780735230804 (Illustrated by Mike Lowery)
Silli's Sheep (Schwartz & Wade, 2020) $17.99 9781984848529 (Illustrated by Louis Thomas)
Wood Could (Dial Books, 2021) $17.99 9780735230811 (Illustrated by Mike Lowery)
Little Narwhal, Not Alone (Greystone Kids, 2021) $22.95 978-1-77164-620-8 (Illustrated by Ashlyn Anstee)
Super Small: Miniature Marvels of the Natural World (Greystone Kids, 2023) $22.95 9781771646567
The Day Dancer Flew (Orca, 2024) $21.95 9781459837393
[BCBW 2023] "Kidlit" "Interview"
***
In Tallulah Plays the Tuba (Annick Press $18.95) by Tiffany Stone, a little girl dreams of playing a big instrument in her school band—the tuba. The story revolves around the heroic efforts Tallulah makes in order to play that instrument. This diverse protagonist just won’t give up in her quest. For ages 4-7. Illustrations by Sandy Nichols. 9781773213071
(BCBW 2019)
***
Little Narwhal, Not Alone by Tiffany Stone & illustrated by Ashlyn Anstee
(Greystone Kids $22.95) Ages 4 – 8
In her tenth children’s book, Little Narwhal, Not Alone, Tiffany Stone deals with overcoming differences and the importance of inclusion. Based on the true story of a narwhal that ended up in the St. Lawrence River estuary, about 600 miles away from its home in the Arctic, the lost whale was accepted into a pod of beluga whales despite their interspecies disparities. Marine biologists have continued to monitor this unusual occurrence for over four years as the narwhal has remained with the belugas.
Stone’s story imagines how a restless narwhal came to be so far from its natural habitat. Her playful little whale “longs to roam, to see the sea beyond the ice, past polar bears, to brand-new sights. And so while others hunt and play, narwhal sets off on his way.”
With that, the story follows the adventurous whale past other northern animals like seals and caribou until a strange new sound beckons him. But the noise is coming from the propeller of a large ship and the narwhal immediately senses danger.
“Quick, escape, without a peep! Little narwhal dives down deep,” writes Stone. The narwhal stays in the murky depths as long as it can until, gasping for air, it re-surfaces. But now the narwhal is a long way from its family and despite searching for his own kind, “far off from his frozen home, little narwhal’s all alone.”
Eventually the narwhal encounters “ice-white whales” [belugas] that kind of look like him “or close enough— though no one sports a twisty tusk.” The sounds they make are different and the narwhal doesn’t understand the belugas and vice versa. And the belugas eat the kind of fish that the narwhal is not used to. But they all instinctively know how to play together and that becomes the bonding glue: “Although a lot is not the same, narwhal knows he knows this game! Flippers splish. He joins right in. And…SQUIRT…the new whales welcome him!”
Known for her poetic language and silly verses, Maple Ridge-based Tiffany Stone has made animals the protagonists in some of her other books such as Floyd the Flamingo and His Flock of Friends (Tradewind Books, 2004) and Silli’s Sheep (Schwartz & Wade, 2020). Given that she regularly does volunteer work with new immigrants, it is not surprising her stories are often infused with themes of acceptance and friendship.
Little Narwhal, Not Alone includes a summary at the back of the book from marine biologist Marie Noel of Montreal about the real-life incident that inspired Stone. “It is unusual for young narwhals to wander, but this is just too far for him to find his way home or meet up with other members of his species,” writes Noel. “Although they are distantly related, beluga whales and narwhals usually do not interact. However, to everyone’s surprise, it looks like the young narwhal may have been adopted by the group of young belugas. Now, the narwhal has even been observed blowing bubbles from time to time, just like his beluga cousins! What else will he learn? Every summer, researchers keep an eye on the whales of the St. Lawrence and this remarkable friendship.” 9781771646208
BCBW 2021-22
Articles: 1 Article for this author
Interview
BCBW: Have you always enjoyed "nonsense"; verse?
STONE: Yes. My mum was British (and a teacher) so she read me the original Mother Goose poems. Dennis Lee's Alligator Pie came out when I was in elementary school and I absolutely loved it. When my teacher asked the class to make up our own verses to the title poem, I was in heaven!
BCBW: Have you always written it?
STONE: I have written poetry basically since I could write but most of my early stuff was descriptive and unrhymed, not a bad way to begin since it got me looking at ordinary things in a different, often slightly twisted, way. And rhyme can be limiting when you're just discovering poetry (and later on, too). I studied writing at UBC, working in several genres, and I must say that my best work was always humorous in one way or another. After I graduated, I spent a lot of time and effort trying to be a 'serious' writer and have only fairly recently come full circle and rediscovered the joy of writing silly poems. It was a risky process since children's publishers are generally reluctant to publish collections of rhyming verse by unknown poets. I don't know what I would have done if Mike Katz at Tradewind hadn't taken a big chance and published my first book, Floyd the Flamingo and his flock of friends. And then people actually went out and bought the book, proving what I'd always known: kids (and many adults) love nonsense verse, especially when it's illustrated by great artists like Kathryn Shoemaker and Christina Leist.
BCBW: Were some of the poems written for your own kids?
STONE: "I guess all my poems are written for my kids. They have to pass the Emory Test before anyone sees them. Now that my daughter Jewell is almost four, my poems will have to meet her approval soon, too--and she's a tough critic! Luckily, I still have a few years before Kaslo, age one, will be throwing in his two cents' worth--although if he gets hold of a pen, he's already more than happy to 'edit' my manuscripts.
BCBW: Do you pick and animal and go from there? Or do the poems come to you unbidden?
STONE: Sometimes they just show up in my life. We've always had a lot of cats around so I have to do at least one cat poem. And several of the poems for Baaaad Animals were written during a very long drive to the Yukon in our ancient RV so that explains the mosquitoes and moose and grizzly bear. Other times I pick an animal and challenge myself to write a poem about it. "Our Club"; is an example of this. And then there's the fact that animals and kids (okay, kids are technically animals) have a lot in common. Sharing a small basement suite with three kids, uncountable cats and a pet rat gives me lots of inspiration!
Sometimes poems arrive all wrapped up in shiny paper and tied with a bow. These poems are usually short. Most of the time, I have to work on them A LOT. Since my poems are meant to be read aloud, I read them aloud as I'm working on them. In fact, by the time my poems are ready for publication, Emory has heard most of them so many times, he knows them by heart.
