Sitting Bull Remembers

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.

Publishers Weekly

A somber picture of the legendary Sioux chief, Sitting Bull, crouched alone within the confines of a dark room after defeat, opens this lyrical biography: "In this place of fences, strange smells/ . . . where finally I am caught/ and cannot get free,/ I close my eyes and am home again." With a turn of the page, readers go from near blackness to a landscape of bright sky and water, where Sioux families gather outside tipis and horses gallop in the background. In realistic detail, Minor (previously paired with Turner for Abe Lincoln Remembers) paints close-ups (e.g., of a young Sitting Bull battle-ready atop horseback or hunting buffalo), as well as panoramic illustrations (Custer's troops overrunning a Sioux winter encampment in the Black Hills). Sometimes pictographic symbols (based on Sitting Bull's own pictographs) float above the main scene to represent the Sioux's visions. For example, several uniformed soldiers ride upside-down across the top of one spread, denoting a dream Sitting Bull had prior to the Battle of Little Bighorn. In it he sees Cavalry troops riding this way, which he correctly interprets as an omen of the soldiers' deaths. The poignant final scene shows a meadowlark overlooking the empty plains ("It is all gone," says Turner's Sitting Bull, "and only my voice is left"); the significance of the imagery is explained in historical endnotes, as Sitting Bull "claimed to hear words in a meadowlark's song." Turner and Minor's dramatic and insightful work ensure that readers will listen for Sitting Bull's voice, too. Ages 6-9. (Sept.)

Ann Turner is the author of many novels, picture books, and poetry collections for children. Her novel A Hunter Comes Home was an ALA Notable Children's Book, and her first picture book, Dakota Dugout, received the same honor. Among her other books are Abe Lincoln Remembers, illustrated by Wendell Minor, a Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies; When Mr. Jefferson Came to Philadelphia; Rosemary's Witch, a School Library Journal Best Book; Through Moon and Stars and Night Skies, a Reading Rainbow Book; and two poetry books, A Lion's Hunger and Learning to Swim, which were both ALA Best Books for Young Adults. She lives in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, with her husband and two children.