Readers posting reviews on LibraryThing.com of The Jumping-Off Place are buzzing.
So far, with 8 reviews posted, the book has received 5 stars all round. It would seem that modern readers are finding the same joy and great reading experience in The Jumping-Off Place that the Newbery Awards committee found almost 80 years ago.
Click on the link to read the reviews in full.
Great opportunity to meet author Jerry Wilson and get signed copies of Waiting for Coyote’s Call: An Eco-memoir from the Missouri River Bluff today. He will be at Barnes and Noble in Sioux Falls, SD from 12-1 and from 7pm to sign his books. The midday signing will also include an interview on SDPB radio’s “Food for Thought” program.
The 4th Prairie Tale will come out in 2009. The Raccoon and the Bee Tree by Charles Eastman and Elaine Goodale Eastman will be illustrated by South Dakota artist Susan Turnbull. We’re in the really early stages at the moment, but we just received the first draft of page layouts from the designer. These have no illustrations, just suggestions, and text splits so that we can see whether the pages will work in terms of telling the story properly and creating a good flow for the book.
As with all the other Prairie Tales there is an introduction that provides some historical context for the story and a word list to help readers with some of the older or harder language that may not be familiar to them.
While we’re on the subject of prairie tales, don’t forget that the prairie tale website has been updated and now includes audio for each page, and interactive and fun, educational games that tie into each book.
SDSHS Press Marketing Director Martyn Beeny spoke with Tara Peterson of the Mom’s Choice Awards at the BookExpo America in Los Angeles earlier this year about the Prairie Tales, and the Press in general.
The whole video is now available on www.sdshspress.com.
The website for the Prairie Tale series has undergone some recent work. www.prairie-tale.com now has games, music, sound effects, and the start of the page for the 4th prairie tale. There are still a few tweaks left to do, but with far more interactivity and connectivity to the series, there are a lot more reasons to stop by for a visit.
Make sure you have your speakers on, and try moving the mouse over various things to listen to different sounds inspired by the series.
Listen to Marketing Director Martyn Beeny talking to Joe Tlustos of South Dakota Public Radio on the “Dakota Midday” show about some of the new titles currently available from the SDSHS Press.
With so much interest surrounding discussions about the relevance of the Newbery Award, it makes us pleased that The Jumping-Off Place won its Honor Medal back in 1930 before much of this controversy emerged.
School Library Journal has a great article all about the modern Newbery Award.
Chad Coppess, photographer for South Dakota Tourism, recently visited Wilde Prairie Winery in Brandon, SD.
He took some great shots of things on the winery that may not immediately spring to mind for those of us without photography talent or for those of us not thinking “outside of the box.” Check out what he found that made interesting pictures on this South Dakota winery.
Our book designer has had the next Prairie Tale hand delivered for him to start work on. Nancy Tystad Koupal, director of the SDSHS Press was in Portland, OR this past week and attended the Oregon Book Awards to see whether Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life would win in its category. Unfortunately, it did not, but that’s ok. At the same time, she dropped off the package of text, front matter, introduction, etc., to our Prairie Tale series book designer Mark Conahan. Now, he will start to work with our illustrator for this book, which, incidentally, is called The Raccoon and the Bee Tree and was originally written by Charles Eastman and Elaine Goodale Eastman.
The first book of the 2009 list is safely into design and production. No firm release date yet, but probably sometime in the spring. Our second springtime release will be the third book in the South Dakota Biography Series. It deals with Seth Bullock, but the title has not been finalised just yet.
The next issue of our email newsletter will soon be winging its way to all those who are signed up. If you are not on that list, but would like to receive it, just send an email to info@sdshspress.com with the subject line as “sign up for e-newsletter,” and we’ll put you on the list.
