Category: Sacajawea Of The Shosone

Perfect Picture Book Friday – Sacajawea Of The Shoshone And a Few Extras!

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As promised, today I’m excited to share Sacajawea Of The Shosone for Perfect Picture Book Friday.  If you didn’t have a chance to read the interview with author Natasha Yim, please go HERE – I think you’ll enjoy it 🙂  And I want to thank Natasha from all of us for taking the time to visit repeatedly, respond to people’s comments, and answer with lots of additional very interesting information!  Thank you, Natasha!  After the Perfect Picture Book, I will announce the winner of the giveaway from Monday, so stay tuned 🙂

Sacajawea Of The Shoshone
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:

VIVIAN!!!

Congratulations, Vivian!

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, as if we weren’t on fun-overload already, on a non-PPBF theme, I have to thank my sweet, four-legged friend, Cupcake, who bestowed the One Sweet Blog

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…
1. Stacy
2. Robyn
13. Natasha

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!

Meet Natasha Yim – Children’s Author (Plus A Giveaway!!!)

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Today I am thrilled to be hosting Natasha Yim on the 4th leg of her blog tour for Sacajawea Of The Shoshone.  Let’s jump right into the interview, shall we?  It’s a little long (I apologize – but there are extra cinnamon sugary cider donuts to help sustain you :))  I think you’ll find it very interesting, and I didn’t want to break it in two because it would have required an extra post on a non-posting day.  Your reward?  (Aside from the extra donuts…)  If you read to the end you can have some fun and there’s a chance you could win a signed copy of Natasha’s brand new book!

…which, BREAKING NEWS!!! was just nominated for the ALA’s Amelia Bloomer Project (Feminist Books For Youth List)!!! (which I happen to know about because Punxsutawney Phyllis was on that list, so Sacajawea is in good company :))  Congratulations, Natasha! 🙂

Natasha Yim

       SLH: Welcome, Natasha!  Thank you so much for joining us today!  Can you tell us a little about your writing beginnings?
NY: My love of writing began when a 7th grade English teacher gave us an assignment where we had to create our own island and make up names of lakes, mountains, forests, villages etc. and weave a story around it. It was so much fun, I was immediately hooked and I’ve been making up stories ever since. I kept several journals and wrote in them daily. I also kept notebooks where I wrote poems and short stories. My Mom knew of my interest in writing and she was very supportive. She encouraged my creative expression, sometimes reading my stories and offering comments, but mostly just letting me write.
       SLH: What was your first published children’s book?  Tell us about the moment when you got your first offer!
NY: Otto’s Rainy Day(Charlesbridge Publishing, 2000). For some reason, Charlesbridge was the only publisher I sent this manuscript to (maybe it was because they wanted exclusive submissions at that time? I can’t remember), but I sent it out and went on to work on other things. The guidelines said they would respond in 3 months. 3 months went by and nothing happened. At the 6 month mark, I received my SASE back. I could feel my heart dropping thinking this was a rejection letter. It wasn’t. The letter said they were really backlogged and hadn’t gotten to my manuscript yet, and to be patient because they will read it—eventually. I remember thinking how nice that was. Usually, you just don’t hear from publishers unless they reject or accept your work. At the 9 month mark, I received a phone call from the editor. I was soooo excited, thinking this was it. This was THE call. It wasn’t. The editor had called to say they were still really backlogged and were catching up on reading manuscripts and that she promised I’d hear from them soon. After my initial disappointment, I thought “Now, that was really nice of them”. Usually, publishers don’t bother to call unless they want your work. Finally, one year after I submitted the manuscript, I got a call from the editor who told me that they wanted to publish my book! My heart leapt into my throat, I was so excited but I had to limit my exuberance because they had called me at work. I did tell my co-workers and allowed myself a few “woo-hoos”. And I did tell my husband who was my boyfriend at the time. My family lived overseas (my parents in Hong Kong and my sister in Australia) so I had to wait until I got home to tell them.
SLH: How did you go about doing the research for Sacajawea Of The Shoshone? Was there anything different or interesting about getting the art for a historical type book?
NY: There weren’t a whole lot of adult books on Sacajawea. Mostly, she gets a mention in books about Lewis and Clark. However, there were quite a few books about her in the juvenile section of the library, so I read about six books on her and browsed about a dozen websites. I found a really good Shoshone website that gave a very comprehensive overview of Sacajawea’s life plus interesting information like the meaning and spelling of her name.  The internet is great for immediate access but you have to be careful about the information on there as there are a lot of misleading information out there, so I did a lot of cross-referencing with books. The publisher and art director are the ones who are responsible for the visual layout of the book including the illustrations.  It’s one of the unique features of the Goosebottom Books books that they use a combination of real-life photographs and illustrations. For photographs, you have to get permission from the appropriate people and get permission to use the pictures, and all that was handled by the publisher. There is also one illustrator for each series so that the books in that series has a uniform look. The Real Princesses series is illustrated by Albert Nguyen, so when Sacajawea was added, he naturally became the illustrator for this book.


SLH: What surprised you the most when you were writing Sacajawea of the Shoshone?

NY: Though Sacajawea has often been mistakenly labeled as the expedition’s “guide” and her name only comes up about 8 times in the Lewis and Clark journals, her presence on the trip was nonetheless invaluable and without her, the expedition could have failed at several points. Not only was she instrumental in providing food for the Corps of Discovery; she gathered edible plants and roots to supplement the game they hunted or in place of game if it was scarce, she patched up and made new moccasins for the men as they were continuously being ripped up by the rough terrain, she saved most of Lewis and Clark’s important instruments and documents when the boat in which she was riding almost capsized, she prevented other native tribes from attacking them because the presence of a woman and a baby indicated that the Corps was not a war party, and as the only Shoshone language speaker, she successfully negotiated for horses that helped the expedition cross the Rocky Mountains. Sacajawea’s contributions have left an indelible stamp on the history of the American West. Today, there are three mountains, two lakes, and twenty-three monuments named after her, yet her tribe, the Shoshone, are still fighting for Federal recognition. That, to me, is not only incredible, it’s outrageous!

SLH: What has been the most challenging thing you have faced as an author/illustrator?
NY: Everything about writing is hard. It’s hard work to make your story as perfect as possible before you send it out. It’s really hard getting the attention of someone who likes your story. If you’re lucky enough to be offered a contract and get your book published, getting it the attention it deserves and the marketing and promotion of it is challenging. But I think for me, the most challenging part was getting over my fear of public speaking and realizing this was something authors had to do. Only this year did I start to agree to assembly-type school visits but having done a few of those, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be, although all the ones I’ve done, I’ve done with another author. It might be a whole other level of anxiety if I have to do assemblies alone.

 SLH: Do you do school visits?  Would you be kind enough to briefly describe your program/presentation?  What is your preferred age range and group size?  Do you have materials available for parents/teachers to go along with your books(s)?

NY: I do do school visits. The kind of program and presentation depends on the age groups, the needs of the teacher, and the book I’m promoting. For example, sometimes the teachers have been working very closely with their students on practicing writing and editing their work so they’ll want me to talk about my writing process. I’ll show them my edited manuscripts with all the mark ups so they can see good writing takes work and practice. If I have it, I’ll show them the original manuscript and then the final accepted one, and read passages as a before and after comparison. For larger audiences like assemblies, I like to use power point presentations because kids tend to be more engaged with visuals. I do a little intro of myself and show pictures of me as a kid, my kids, my pèts, my workspace etc. I can also show slides of the page excerpts I’m reading and the illustrations which are easier to see on a large screen. For individual classrooms, I’ll sometimes conduct writing exercises. For the biographies, I’ll have the kids pair up and “interview” each other then write a biography of their partners from their interview notes. For younger kids, I have coloring pages and sometimes the teacher or librarian and I will come up with related activities. For a recent library event, I presented Cixi, The Dragon Empress and we had a Chinese fan making activity. Every age group can be fun but I love the 4th to 6th graders. Not only are they the age group for the Cixi and Sacajawea books but they’re the most engaged and the most engaging. They always ask such great questions. You can access and download my school visit program at: http://www.natashayim.com/file_download/13/School+visit+program.pdf
       SLH: What advice do you have for authors/illustrators just starting out?
NY: Keep writing and keep trying. Editors and agents have such different tastes. Just because you get rejected by one doesn’ t mean the next one won’t love your work. My upcoming book Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas (Charlesbridge Publishing, 2014) was rejected by several publishers. Author Richard Bach once said, “a professional writer is an amateur who didn’ t quit.”
Natasha’s work space (which, incidentally is a LOT neater than mine :))
        
       SLH: Can you give us any hints about what you’re working on now?
NY: I have a couple of middle grade/YA projects in the works and a picture book manuscript.
       SLH: Do you attend writer’s conferences?  Enter contests?
NY: Yes. I’ m a conference junkie. I  LOVE writing conferences because I always learn so much and I get to network with other writers. I rarely enter contests though just because I don’t really have the time.
SLH: Any marketing tips?  What have you done that has worked well?
NY: This is in line with a recent question I received on my blog from Amanda J. Harrington who asked, “What is your best marketing strategy for building up a following on line?” I promised to provide a link to whoever posted a question on one of my blog tours. So, here it is: www.thewishatree.com. Please hop over and check out Amanda’s site.
My marketing tip is that every writer has to do some of it. How much or how little will depend on your comfort level and how much time you can afford. I have a blog, Facebook , twitter, Pinterest. I do school visits, book festivals, public speaking engagements. But it’s really difficult to gauge how effective each aspect of marketing is because there is no measurable yard stick that tells you if you do a, b & c, you will sell x amount of books. However, what I do know is that people can’t buy your book if they don’t know it exists. To answer Amanda’s question, in terms of building up a following on line, here’s what I’ve learned:
1)   When I first started my blog, I posted things about my writing life, my home life, how I juggled that with writing, any meagre successes I encountered. But here’s the thing: nobody wants to hear or read about you talking about yourself all of the time. My blog began to feel…well…a little self-absorbed. So, I started incorporating things that I think might be of interest or useful to other people, especially writers, such as interesting writing conferences or retreats, writing tips I’ve gleaned from other sites or articles I’ve read. And now I’ve included a Friday Features segment on my blog that is purely devoted to interviews with other authors. It’s been great fun and I’ve learned so much from the authors I’ve interviewed. Come check out interviews with Deborah Halverson, Linda Joy Singleton, and coming up soon, Gennifer Choldenko (www.writerslife2.blogspot.com).
2)   I see this on Facebook groups all the time: “Come read my new blog post.” or “Check out my new blog.” and my question always is “Why?” Generic announcements like this don’t entice me out of my busy schedule to go look at somebody else’s blog or blog post. I have to give credit where credit’s due. Elizabeth Stevens Omlor, the lovely hostess of the fabulous blog, Banana Peelin’: Ups and Downs of Becoming a Children’s Writer (http://bananapeelin.blogspot.com) which features different writers talking about their slips and embarrassing moments on their way to publication, would post upcoming blog posts with teasers such as, “This week we have Cori Doerrfeld, the author/illustrator of one of my family’s favorite reads, LITTLE BUNNY FOO FOO! She reveals her experience managing deadlines after the birth of her first child.” So, if I was a writer with young kids at home and struggling with time management, I might be really interested in what Cori had to say about this.” I think this is a very effective way to attract readers to your blog and I do this now. I’ll find something in a blog post that others might find interesting or useful  and mention it in my announcement. For example, for my interview with author and editor Deborah Halverson, I mentioned that she would share tips on the YA market trends and how she started her popular DearEditor.com blog. I’ve had quite a few visitors over to read her interview. The Banana Peelin’ blog will be blog stop #7 for the Sacajawea of the Shoshone blog tour on Oct. 23. Stop on by for my top secret blog post. Shhh…
3)   Comment on other people’s blogs or Facebook postings etc. Don’t make it all about you. Congratulate others on their successes, ‘like’ the posts you enjoyed, exchange information. The key word in social networking is “social”.
4)   I have a Facebook fan page for Cixi, The Dragon Empress and Sacajawea of the Shoshone. In addition to posting events and book information, I’ll post interesting tidbits about the characters—Cixi’s six inch long fingernails, for example, or a video of the Shoshone Love song on Sacajawea’s page. It makes the pages more fun and interesting.
I don’t know how much of a “following” I have, but my blog has seen an increase of about 4,000 page views since January when I focused on making it more interactive and informative.
        SLH: Where can we find you?
      
        NY: You can connect with me on my:
       Website: www.natashayim.com
       Blog: http://www.writerslife2.blogspot.com
       Facebook: www.facebook.com/natashayim.author
                  www.facebook.com/cixithedragonempress
                  www.facebook.com/sacajaweaoftheshoshone
       Twitter: www.twitter.com/natashayim
       Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/natashayim

       You can find my books at:
         
       Your local bookstore
       or purchase it at Amazon
       Signed copies can be purchased from Goosebottom Books
Just for fun quick questions:
Left or right handed? Right
Agented or not? Agented: Karen Grencik of Red Fox Literary
Traditionally or self-published? Traditional
Hard copy or digital? Hard copy
Apps or not? Not
Plotter or pantser? A converted Plotter. I used to be a pantser, but now I like having some sort of road map to go by.
Laptop or desktop? Laptop
Mac or PC? Oh definitely Mac
Day or night worker? Day, 5 am. to be exact
Coffee or tea? Coffee in the morning and early afternoon, tea in late afternoon and evening
Snack or not? Throughout the day, unfortunately
Salty or sweet? Mostly salty unless you offer me Lindt’s Dark Chocolate
Quiet or music? Quiet but I’m trying nature sounds to tune me into writing my book rather than doing other things like social media, email or marketing stuff
Cat or dog? I’m a dog person but right now we have two cats
Currently reading? LA Meyer’s Bloody Jack Series, my friend Jody Gehrman’s “Babe in Boyland”
If you’d like to read previous stops on Natasha’s tour, please visit:

Oct. 3 — Frolicking Through Cyberspace Blog,www.http://frolickingthroughcyberspace.blogspot.com, guest post on public speaking
Oct. 8 — The Writer’s Block on Raychelle Writes, http://raychelle-writes.blogspot.com, guest post, “The Journey of a Lifetime”
Natasha, thank you so much for joining us and being so helpful with all your answers!
And now!  The moment you’ve all been waiting for – the chance to win a signed copy of Natasha’s gorgeous and informative book (I have it, so I can attest to how interesting it is and how beautiful the art is!)
You know me.  I like to make things fun 🙂  So here’s what you have to do to earn a chance to win Sacajawea Of The Shoshone:
In the comments, please answer the question “If you were Sacajawea, what would you have written an article/advice column about?”
Here are a few examples to get your minds in gear…  🙂
“Dress Up Your Teepee: Creative Decorating With Buffalo Hide”
“365 Recipes For Corn!”
“5 Subtle Ways To Let Your Traveling Companions Know It’s Time For A Bath!”
You get an entry for every article/advice column suggestion 🙂  (And OK, if you want to be boring serious you can :))
But if you’re not feeling creative at this hour on Monday morning I don’t want to penalize you.  If you can’t think up an entertaining article, you can just say why you’d like to win the book 🙂
I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!  Comments must be entered by Tuesday October 16 at 11:59 PM EDT.  Winner will be drawn at some point on Wednesday or Thursday when I have 5 seconds free by random.org and announced on Friday along with Perfect Picture Books, which, I’m warning you in advance, will be Sacajawea Of The Shoshone, so don’t anyone else plan on doing it 🙂



Would You Read It Wednesday #61 – Phantom And The Boneyard (ER) and Pitch Pick #13

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Boy do we have all kinds of Would You Read It fun for today!  Grab your Something Chocolate and settle in!

First off, we have the September Pitch Pick, and all 4 participants have revised their pitches with an eye to your wonderful comments, so this should be very interesting!

#1 Tina
Melody Wants A Piano (PB)
When Melody returns from Grandma’s with a song in her heart, she wants a piano.  Perhaps street singing, a baseball game, and a talent show will help her raise the funds to share her song with others.

#2 Elizabeth
Buff The Magic Dragon (PB)
Buff the Magic Dragon is afraid of EVERYTHING.  But when his magic trick-gone-wrong lands the baby Princess Ponypants in the tentacles of Captain Meanie Bones Jones, Buff must swallow his fear to save her.

#3 Catherine
Once Upon A Toilet (PB)
Mr. Eubend, a plumber for King Fartsalot and Queen Piddle, was called away to an emergency in a neighbouring kingdom. En-route he finds he is in great demand.

#4 Vivian
Confessions Of The Tomato Turner (PB)
Peter proudly helps his mom in the family vegetable garden, but when he pulls up a baby tomato plant instead of a weed, Peter is torn between telling his mom and hiding the evidence in the compost pile. 

Please vote below for the pitch you think is best and should get a read by editor Erin Molta!  Voting will be open until Friday October 12 11:59 PM EDT.

Many thanks for your vote!  I can’t wait to see how it turns out! 🙂

Next, we have today’s pitch which is fun because it’s an early reader and we don’t get too many of those.  Our pitcher today is Sidney Levesque, who is a former newspaper reporter and editor.  She now works for a university and writes freelance.  She is a wife and the mother of a toddler, and is enjoying dipping her toe into the great ocean of fiction!

Here is her pitch:

Working Title: Phantom And The Boneyard
Age/Genre: Early Reader
The Pitch: The Phantom awakens to find himself separated from his squadron and relocated to a military “boneyard” in the Arizona desert with other retired airplanes used for spare parts. But Phantom isn’t ready to retire and starts plotting his escape with the help of new friends before he, too, ends up in permanent storage with his “eyes” wrapped shut.

Sidney also asked to include the opening of her story, which I thought would be very fun to share 🙂 so here it is:

All around him were endless rows of military airplanes he didn’t recognize, planes that looked very old, as if they hadn’t been flown in years.
Some had noses missing. And doors ajar. Wires hanging out like spaghetti.  Tires deflated. Entire planes dismantled into a thousand pieces.

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?

If your answer is YES, please feel free to tell us what you particularly liked and why the pitch piqued your interest.  If your answer is MAYBE or NO, please feel free to tell us what you think could be better in the spirit of helping Sidney improve her pitch.  Helpful examples of possible alternate wordings are welcome.  (However, I must ask that comments be constructive and respectful.  I reserve the right not to publish comments that are mean because that is not what this is about.)
Please send YOUR pitches for the coming weeks!  For rules and where to submit, click on this link Would You Read It or on the Would You Read It tab in the bar above.  There are openings in December, so you have time to polish 🙂 for a chance for it to be read by editor Erin Molta!
Sidney is looking forward to your thoughts on her pitch!  And I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that on Monday we will be having a very special visitor and a giveaway!  So please plan on saving a few Monday moments for an interview with the one and only Natasha Yim and a chance to win her new book, Sacajawea Of The Shosone!!!  (I’m sorry Short & Sweets is getting bumped, but I think you’ll find it’s worth it! :))