Storyteller and author Greg Rodgers will present the stories from his book “The Ghost of Mingo Creek and Other Spooky Oklahoma Stories and Legends” on Halloween night, Friday October 31st, at The Canebrake, 33241 E. 732nd Road in Wagoner, Oklahoma. Look for more details in the months to come at The Canebrake’s website, at Greg’s website, or here at our 46th Star Press Web site. Come and join in the haunting fun….jack-0-lanterns included.
Bigfoot Sighting at the Canebrake
Our spooky Oklahoma stories and legends book goes to press this week. Look for “The Ghost of Mingo Creek and Other Spooky Oklahoma Legends” by Choctaw storyteller Greg Rodgers (with a foreword by noted storyteller and author Tim Tingle and an endorsement by award-winning author Rilla Askew) in early September…in plenty of time for Halloween!
On July 23rd, Jana Hausburg will do a presentation about the process of researching and writing her non-fiction book on Oklahoma Heroes for an education class at the University of Central Oklahoma. The students will be introduced to the book as well as the many teaching resources available on the 46th Star Press web site at its “Extra Credit” link. The book can be a valuable addition to curriculum for several later elementary, middle-school, and early high school disciplines; including social studies, Oklahoma history, and American history!
Cindy Downes, of Oklahoma Homeschool, has reviewed It Wasn’t Much on her website at http://
http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/teachOKH.html
Here’s the gratifying gist of her endorsement:
Although It Wasn’t Much is recommended for juvenile readers, I thoroughly enjoyed it myself. It makes learning history as easy as eating candy! The stories are short and easy to read, but they are packed with adventure, heroic exploits, historical facts, and
inspiration. There are ten biographies of not-so-well known Oklahoma heroes such as Rosemary Hogan who was a nurse … in the Philippines and a POW, Fern Holland, an Oklahoma Cherokee, who joined the Peace Corp and was killed while serving in Iraq; Rufino Rodrigues who rescued 150 miners at the risk of his own life; and Robbie Riesner, from Tulsa, who kept up the morale of his fellow Vietnam POWs from the time he was captured in 1965 until the time he was released in 1973. Included in each chapter is more information about the setting of the story, definitions of difficult terms, suggestions for additional reading, a list of Internet resources related to the topic, and a list of places to visit in Oklahoma that compliment the story. And finally, on the Web site, there are additional pages of study resources, discussion questions, writing exercises, and teacher resources. A lot for your money!
Women’s advocate and lobbyist Jean Warner has commended “It Wasn’t Much” for its attention to five heroic women on her Oklahoma Women’s Network Blog at
http://oklahomawomen.blogspot.com/2008/07/forty-sixth-star-pressokc-launched.html
Here’s an excerpt:
“Forty-Sixth Star Press, a wonderful new Oklahoma publishing company, focuses on telling Oklahoma’s story. As part of their “Oklahoma Portraits Series,” they recently published It wasn’t Much: Ten True Tales of Oklahoma Heroes by Jana Hausburg with portraits by Cheryl Delany. I loved this book! Aimed at a young audience, this collection of short biographies tells of ten Oklahomans who have contributed in big as well as small ways to the state, the nation and the world. I am delighted that half the Oklahomans featured are women. Those women are Rosemary Hogan (the angel of Bataan), Fern Holland (who was assassinated for her work on women’s rights in Iraq), Bartlesville’s gutsy librarian and civil rights leader Ruth Brown, environmental activist Carrie Dickerson, and Oklahoma City Red Cross volunteer Felicia Daugherty…Oklahoma historians, parents, teachers and librarians, you will want to add this book to your collection.”
The Oklahoma History Center invited me to participate in Living History Day.
From their website:
“Museum galleries will spring to life with characters from our past. Hands-on activities will allow young and old alike to explore Oklahoma’s rich past guided by interpreters in period clothing.”
I planned to read a chapter from my book about Felicia Daugherty, a woman of wealth and privilege who also served as a volunteer for the Red Cross during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. She worked tirelessly to help get Oklahoma City through the worst of the crisis. The city was brought to its knees as scores of healthy, hard-working citizens came down with influenza. As many of us have heard, history has a way of repeating itself. The H5N1 virus, or bird flu, has many public health workers asking, “Can it happen again?”
It didn’t quite work out as I’d hoped. Instead of being placed in an auditorium to do two separate readings, I ended up doing about 20-25 mini-booktalks at a table between a quilter and a cross-stitcher. They had bits of cloth and needlework for children to work on. I had only an information sheet about planning for a flu pandemic. Definitely not as eyecatching as needles and fabric. Only three tables down was a woman grinding corn into meal with a metate. How cool is that? It was a popular destination.
Since I didn’t have anything “hands-on” to pull people in, I had to rely on the old standbys: making eye contact, smiling, and leaning forward. I managed to get some history buffs to come my way, if only because they felt a little sorry for me.
Maybe I would have had more visitors if I’d been wearing an old nurse’s uniform. Or maybe I really need to get one of those metates.
jh
A review of It Wasn’t Much: True Tales of Ten Oklahoma Heroes appeared in the “Living” Section of the Sunday edition of The Oklahoman on July 6th, 2008 (8D). The review praises Jana Hausburg for being able to draw young readers into biographies of Oklahomans, a kind of non-fiction not always amenable to their tastes!
Jana Hausburg will be part of the Oklahoma History Center’s Hands on History event, Saturday, July 19th, signing her book It Wasn’t Much: True Tales of Ten Oklahoma Heroes. Come and be a part of Oklahoma’s history–and get to know its heroes–at 2401 N. Laird Avenue – Oklahoma City, OK 73105. For more information about the event, contact (405) 522-5248.
On August 7th at 2:00, Jana Hausburg will be reading from her book It Wasn’t Much: True Tales of Ten Oklahoma Heroes at Bartlesville Public Library, the home of heroic librarian, Ruth Brown, who worked tirelessly during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s to integrate public library services. Every year, the Oklahoma Library Association honors her by giving an award in her name. Jana will be offering a program of interest to children, young adults, and their parents, too.
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