In this dark room, in this place of fences, strange smells, and men with yellow eyes where finally I am caught and cannot get free, I close my eyes and am home again... Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa band of the Sioux Nation was a warrior, a visionary, a horseman and hunter, and a man who had a deep affinity with nature. Above all, he is remembered as an extraordinary leader who fought for the freedom of his people and helped to preserve their spirit, even in a time of great tragedy. Chosen to be the war chief of the Sioux Nation in 1869 as battles with the United States government increased, he resisted the white soldiers who threatened to exterminate his people, their claim to the land, and their entire way of life. From the acclaimed author and illustrator of Abe Lincoln Remembers comes an unforgettable fictional portrait of Sitting Bull, looking back on the events that shaped his life and fate. Historically accurate, powerfully evocative paintings and words are as moving as the story they tell.
Author
Ann Turner, also known and published as Ann Warren Turner, is a children's author and a poet. Ann Turner wrote her first story when she was eight years old. It was about a dragon and a dwarf named Puckity. She still uses that story when she talks to students about writing, to show them that they too have stories worth telling. Turner has always loved to write, but at first she was afraid she couldn't make a living doing it. So she trained to be a teacher instead. After a year of teaching, however, she decided she would rather write books than talk about them in school. Turner's first children's book was about vultures and was illustrated by her mother. She has written more than 40 books since then, most of them historical picture books. She likes to think of a character in a specific time and place in American history and then tell a story about that character so that readers today can know what it was like to live long ago. Ann Turner says that stories choose her, rather than the other way around: "I often feel as if I am walking along quietly, minding my own business, when a story creeps up behind me and taps me on the shoulder. 'Tell me, show me, write me!' it whispers in my ear. And if I don't tell that story, it wakes me up in the morning, shakes me out of my favorite afternoon nap, and insists upon being told." (from: http://www.eduplace.com/kids/tnc/mtai...)
