Every year, four amazing, creative KidLit folks get together and organize a super fun writing contest called The KidLit Chuckle Challenge. April Berry, Julie Hausworth, Kris DeCaro, and Bri Lawyer provide a list of characters and objects. Those of us who enter are challenged to choose one character and one object and create a brief (no more than 200 words) chuckle-worthy story. Here are the choices from this year's contest:

Anyone who knows me knows I HAD to choose the World's Loveliest Toad; I mean, come on, how could I resist?! And immediately, Super Squeaky Sneakers in a woodland setting made me laugh out loud.

Fast forward a few weeks (the judging was done in RECORD time!) and I found myself on the winner board! Hooray!

But the BEST news is that I won signed copies of Charlotte Offsay and Abi Cushman's The Quiet Forest and The Quiet Ocean! I am so excited about these two fantastic prizes! Thank you for donating them, Abi!

Writing contests like this one always help me stretch my writing skills and are just so darned fun! Thank you to the organizers, judges, and every writer who entered! And without further ado, may I present Toad's Super Squeaky Sneakers.