STORIES IN STONE: On the November SCBWI Recommended Reading List

I am pleased to have my book STORIES IN STONE: Rock Art Pictures by Early Americans featured on this month’s SCBWI recommended reading list in the nonfiction section. Each month, SCBWI features books written and illustrated by its members. And every month highlights a new theme that will foster discussions, activities, and enjoyment!

The theme for November is Native, First Nations, and Indigenous Heritage, featuring books that celebrate the diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and acknowledge the important contributions of Native people. On this list, you will find fiction, nonfiction, Own Voices books, bilingual books, and more. So pick up a book and become immersed in this rich culture.

STORIES IN STONE: Rock Art Pictures by Early Americans is available as an ebook from Amazon. It was originally published by Clarion Books in 1996.  

STORIES IN STONE is illustrated with photographs by Richard Hewett. This visit to the canyons of the Coso Range in the California desert reveals of thousands of ancient stone engravings of people, animals, and abstract symbols -- evidence of some of the earliest human life in North America.

I frequently discover ideas for new books while I am working on other projects. What is mentioned as a passing fact in one book later turns out to be the main theme of another project. For instance, in my book The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde, I wrote a short section about petroglyphs, or rock art. I was fascinated by the stone images carved into the rock and by the fact that they have endured for hundreds of years. A few years later, as I was leafing through a local museum publication, I learned of a rock art site in the California desert where thousands of petroglyphs lined the canyon walls. I arranged a visit and discovered the subject for a new book, Stories in Stone: Rock Art Pictures by Ancient Americans. In it I explored not only the stone images themselves but the people who made them, how they did it, and what the symbols may represent. Learning about people who lived in the past is another of my long time interests. When I visit an ancient site such as the petroglyph canyons or Mesa Verde, I find it easy to imagine myself living hundreds or thousands of years ago. I am amazed by how much archeologists can learn about the daily lives of people who lived long ago by examining the things they left behind. My goal in writing about these subjects for children is to convey some of that same sense of wonder.

ANASAZI BEAN SOUP and a Visit to Mesa Verde, Colorado

Caroline and her brothers at Spruce Tree House, Mesa Verde, Colorado

When I was fourteen years old my family went on an extended summer camping trip from our home in Minnesota to southern California. One of the highlights along the way was a visit to Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado. At that time, the campground was on top of the mesa, just a stone’s throw away from the visitor center and the ruins of Spruce Tree House. My brothers and I spent hours climbing the ladders and exploring the ruins. Inside the visitor center I loved peering at the dioramas with their tiny houses and people, and reading about the pottery, tools, and other items in the exhibit cases, trying to imagine what life was like when the Ancestral Puebloans had inhabited these mesas and canyons. In the evening, our family cooked our meal and ate it around the campfire, much as the Ancestral Puebloans must have done more than a thousand years ago.

Native Americans known as the Ancestral Puebloans [formerly called the Anasazi] lived at Mesa Verde between A.D. 550 and 1300. They left at a time when there was a long drought and never returned.  Their descendants are among the Native American people who live in the southwest today.

When I returned to Mesa Verde in 1990 with Richard Hewett to do the research and photography for our book, The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde, I found the park just as fascinating as I had as a child.  The campground had been converted to a picnic area and as we ate our lunches there it brought back memories of my childhood visit.  Since then, many more ancient sites within the park had been discovered and excavated, and new research was offering new evidence to explain why the Ancestral Puebloans had abandoned their cliff side dwellings so suddenly.

One of my favorite parts of the park was a small garden plot near the visitor center where the park rangers were growing corn, squash, and beans, just as the Ancestral Puebloans had in prehistoric times.  I have always been fond of bean soup and I was delighted to discover in one of the gift shops a package of red beans with a recipe on the back for Anasazi bean soup. Although I doubt that the Ancestral Puebloans used ham hocks or lemon in their recipes, I can imagine that they might have put a chunk of deer meat and locally gathered flavorings into their beans as they cooked them over the fire.  In any case, as you eat this delicious soup, you can imagine that you are high on a Colorado mesa, gazing across the plain below.

Anasazi Bean Soup

1 package of red, pinto type, beans
2 quarts of water
1-2 ham hocks
Salt and pepper to taste
1 16 ounce can of tomatoes
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1-1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
Juice of ½ lemon

Soak beans overnight.  Drain beans.  Add water, ham, salt and pepper.  Cook until beans are tender.  Add tomatoes, onion, garlic and chili powder and cook another half hour.  Add lemon juice before serving.  Enjoy!

The high elevation of Mesa Verde, which is about seven thousand feet above sea level, makes it slightly cooler in summer and wetter than the plain below.  Both the climate and rich soil made it a good place to grow crops.  Beans were added to the Anasazi diet during the period about A.D. 550-750, and were an important source of protein.  Anasazi beans were very much like today’s pinto beans.  The Anasazi ate them fresh and also dried them to be used later. [Page 25, The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde by Caroline Arnold (Clarion Books, 1992)] Note: the term Ancestral Puebloan replaced Anasazi after my book was published.

Visit Mesa Verde: The National Park Service website for Mesa Verde has everything you need to know to plan a visit to the park including directions, maps, things to do, and links to information about camping and lodging.  There are also pages with downloadable activities for kids and for teachers.

This article was originally published in Stepping Into the Author's Kitchen by Sharron L. McElmeel (Libraries Unlimited)

The Writing Process: One Idea Leads to Another

I frequently discover ideas for a new books as I am working on other projects.  What is mentioned as a passing fact in one book later turns out to be the main theme of another project.  For instance, in my book, The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde, I wrote a short section about petroglyphs, or rock art.  I was fascinated both by the stone images that had been carved into the rock and by the fact that they have endured for hundreds of years.  A few years later, as I was leafing through a publication that I receive as part of my membership in a local museum, I learned of a rock art site in the California desert where thousands of petroglyphs lined the canyon walls.   I arranged a visit and discovered the subject for a new book, Stories in Stone: Rock Art Pictures by Ancient Americans.   Of course, the book wasn’t just about petroglyphs, but the stone images provided me with  a theme that allowed me to discuss the people who made them, how they did it, and what the symbols may represent.
(Both The Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde and Stories in Stone are out of print.  You can look for them in your library.)