Valdivia, Kristine

Kristine Valdivia has been a teacher for many years. She taught bilingual elementary for 10 years, and now teaches English Language Learners at the High School level. She is the mother of three grown and nearly grown children, two of whom have special needs. The resiliency, perseverance, dedication, and commitment she's observed in many of her students and children have inspired her greatly. Some of those characteristics have found their way into the characters in The Adventures of Ducky and Pippy. She searched for a story in which the hero had a disability, but the story didn't center around