Written By: Natasha Yim
Illustrated By: Albert Nguyen
Goosebottom Books, September 26, 2012, Non-Fiction
Suitable For: ages 9-12
Topics/Themes: American History, Sacajawea, Lewis and Clark Expedition, Native Americans, real princesses
Opening: "Clouds of dust swirled across the plains, kicked up by galloping horses. Screams shattered the autumn air. Arrows arced across the crisp blue sky, sprung from Shoshone bows...."
Brief Synopsis: From the book jacket: "One minute Sacajawea was picking berries and the next her Shoshone tribe was being attacked by another tribe. As she ran for her life, she was scooped up and taken far away from her village and family—and into history. When Lewis and Clark happened upon her living amongst a new tribe and chose her to accompany them, they greatly benefited from her skills as an interpreter and guide. From her mountain home to the banks of the Missouri River, over the majestic Rockies to the pounding waves of the Pacific, Sacajawea traveled farther than any American woman of her time."
Links To Resources: Shoshone Facts For Kids, make a map of the route Sacajawea took when leading the Lewis and Clark expedition, How To Draw An Easy Teepee, Goosebottom Books Resources (there isn't a resource listed yet for Sacajawea, but resources are listed for the other titles in this series so I expect a link will show up soon!) try a basket weaving or bead work activity.
Why I Like This Book: As you know, this book is a bit of an aberration for me - it's a non-fiction picture book for older readers, and my usual choices lean toward fun fiction for fours and fives :) The fact that I have chosen it as today's PPB is a testament to how much I liked it. The text is clearly written and includes a lot of information I didn't know about Sacajawea and the Lewis and Clark expedition. I especially loved the side bar type sections which gave extra interesting information about certain things, like the spelling of Sacajawea's name, what she ate, and how she got chosen for the Lewis and Clark expedition. The art is beautiful - a combination of painting and photography that works very well. And I like that this book is a title in the Thinking Girl's Treasury Of Real Princesses and includes a bibliography of sources.
For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.
Now that you TOTALLY want to read Natasha's book, I will announce the winner of the giveaway, which was randomly drawn at random by random.org :) And the winner is:
Natasha and I thoroughly enjoyed everyone's creativity and all the wonderful titles that were submitted, but she wanted readers to know that she especially loved:
What to Expect When You're Exploring with...White Men (Elizabeth)
Helping your Teens Deal with Mean Squaw Bullying Without Resorting to the Use of the Tomahawk (Delores)
Reasons Why You Should Always Let a Woman Lead the Expedition (Robyn)
I would add to that list my two additional favorites (because you guys know I can never stop at 3 :)):
Buffalo Again? How To Get Your Kids To Eat It Every Night (Coleen)
Nodding And Other Techniques To Make Your Travel Companions Think They Are Really In Charge (Katie)
You guys were all great!
I'd also like to announce that so many of you wonderful Perfect Picture Book bloggers have offered to spread the word far and wide about PPBF that I have ordered and will soon be mailing out to you, 1000 book marks! Isn't that fabulous? Thank you all for all the hard work you put into PPBF! I think it's a great resource, something that serves people well and will also help make parents, educators, and publishers see the great value in picture books and the continued need to keep them coming! Anyone who didn't ask for bookmarks yet but would like some, I have plenty so see me after class :) (Let me know in the comments or email susann[at]susannahill[dot]com)
and Super-Sweet Blogging Awards
on me. I think she saw all the chocolate treats and donuts and other goodies that find their way onto these pages :) I am truly honored to have been chosen by Cupcake who is one of my favorite people :) As you all know, I am truly terrible at awards, but I'll give this one a go because it involves dessert :)
The rules are, you have to:
1. Give credit to the person who chose you (the lovely Cupcake as mentioned above :))
2. Answer the 5 Super Sweet questions below and,
3. Nominate a Baker's Dozen (13 blogs)
1. Cookies or Cake? YES!
2. Chocolate or Vanilla? BOTH! gosh, these questions are easy :)
3. What is your favorite sweet treat? Oh. Not SO easy... Would it be cheating if I said cookiescakepie? Yes? Hmm... Well, I do love a really good oatmeal raisin cookie... :)
4. When do you crave sweets the most? All day, every day :)
5. If you had a sweet nickname, what would it be? Hmmm.... Superwoman doesn't really count as sweet... How about Piecake?
Now, about those nominees, this is the part I really can't do because I love you all and hate to choose. So consider yourselves all nominated. (I know, taking the wimpy way out!) But this time I do have one person who must be recognized because she is supplying us with sweet photographs of sweet food. So Stacy Jensen, come on down! I pass these along specially to you! :) Oh, and someone else has had a very hard week in which her sweet tooth underwent root canal, so Robyn, you get special mention as well :) Now that I think of it, Natasha was very sweet to visit so much and respond to everyone! So Natasha, you get them too :) So let see... how am I doing...
I did it! 13! A Baker's Dozen!
Phew! That turned into a long post with lots of goodies, but hopefully pretty much fun too what with all the award winning and passing around! PPBF bloggers, please add your post-specific links to the list below so we can all come visit you!
Have a great weekend, everyone!