Voices of the Western Frontier - Hardcover

by Sherry Garland (Author)

Western expansion from a personal perspective.

Sherry Garland created the Voices Series to provide personal narratives of moments in America's past. Her newest addition to the series does just that. Focusing on the explorers and settlers who extended the frontier to the western coastline, Garland narrates in the voices of figures from history including Sacagawea, Jedediah Smith, and Annie Oakley. She fleshes out the timeline with characters representing whole populations, including a girl traveling west in a prairie schooner, a Santa Fe merchant, a gold prospector, a Pony Express rider, and a Chinese railroad worker. Artist Julie Dupré Buckner carefully researched the historical details for her evocative illustrations. Each image furthers the storyline and reinforces the emotional connection to the chronicle.

Front Jacket

Sherry Garland created the Voices Series to provide first-person narratives of moments in America's past. Her newest addition to the series does just that. Focusing on the explorers and settlers who extended the frontier to the western coastline, Garland narrates in the voices of figures from history, including Sacagawea, Jedediah Smith, and Annie Oakley. She fleshes out the timeline with characters representing whole populations, including a girl traveling west in a prairie schooner, a Santa Fe merchant, a gold prospector, a Pony Express rider, a Chinese railroad worker, a young boy chugging across the Great Plains in a steam locomotive, and a vaquero, or cowboy of Spanish ancestry.

Talented artist Julie Dupré Buckner carefully researched the historical details for her evocative illustrations. Each image furthers the storyline and reinforces the emotional connection to the chronicle. Together, the narrative and the art tell the fascinating and moving stories of the people who expanded the American nation.

Sherry Garland has written more than thirty books and won more than forty awards, including an ALA Notable recognition and a Reading Rainbow book selection. She is a frequent presenter at conferences and schools across the country, particularly in her home state of Texas. Garland created the Voices Series to encourage readers to learn the personal aspects of pivotal moments in American history. The series includes Voices of Pearl Harbor, Voices of the Dust Bowl, Voices of Gettysburg, and Voices of the Alamo. Her other titles include Best Horse on the Force, The Buffalo Soldier, and Children of the Dragon: Selected Tales from Vietnam, all available from Pelican. Garland is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She lives in central Texas.

Julie Dupré Buckner received a BFA from Louisiana Tech University. A member of the Portrait Society of America and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, she has illustrated many notable books, including Pelican's Army Camels: Texas Ships of the Desert, Jubilee!, Clovis Crawfish and Echo Gecko, Clovis Crawfish and Silvie Sulphur, and Clovis Crawfish and the Twin Sister.

Author Biography

Sherry Garland has written more than thirty books and won more than forty awards, including an American Library Association Notable recognition and a Reading Rainbow book selection. She enjoys writing about history and created her Voices Series to bring a personal note to pivotal moments in America's past. Her writing career began as early as high school, when she won first place for her essay entitled "Why I Love Texas." This essay later served as inspiration for her much-acclaimed children's book Voices of the Alamo, which was named to the Children's Book Council's Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People list and chosen as a Scholastic Reading Counts! selection.

Garland received her BA in French and English from the University of Texas at Arlington and is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Although she began her writing career by publishing adult novels, Garland quickly transitioned to children's and young adult literature. She has spoken at many schools across Texas and the United States and traveled to Asia three times to speak at international schools.

A fifth-generation Texan, she and her husband reside in Bryan, Texas, amidst the wildlife of the countryside.