Launching the Native American Lives Series

I can’t believe it’s been five years. When asked to reflect on my experience writing the first iteration of “Peggy Flanagan: Lieutenant Governor,” and my thoughts about its newest form, I realized it had been a half decade since this creation took life. Time seems to go by a lot faster the older you get. Five years seems like nothing, but a lot has happened in the interim. Attempting to tell a story that is taking place in real time is incredibly difficult. I tried to stay as close to the facts as I could, while working to navigate between the groundbreaking moments and the shared experiences I hoped the reader could relate to. It’s a tight rope to walk, and I am beyond grateful that this most recent version of the book has incorporated corrections and additions to bring this story even closer to truth and relevance.

The process of writing this book was weird. Most of my writing experience before this project has been academic, closer to math than story telling. But I tried my best to bridge the gap between the two. Facts matter but storytelling tries to pull away from the factual and into the creative. It was especially hard because this is a currently unraveling story. The story this book tries to put into words is continuously expanding. While it might make for a more complicated writing experience, this continuous growth is a beautiful gift to the youth who will read this book. It shows how people’s stories, their stories, are not determined but still in the process of creation.

The re-release of the Native American Lives Series is incredibly exciting. It presents readers the opportunity to engage with these important stories, including readers who might have been too young, or not yet there yet in their reading journey, when these stories first came out. It allows the readers who read the first release to re-experience some of the highlights of the first books and enjoy the contributions of the new. It’s especially wonderful that these books are curated for middle-grade readers. That is really the age when people start to build a strong sense of identity. Not only will these books create an opportunity for people to identify as powerful and impactful, like the subjects of this series, but reading itself will build an identity as a reader. And being a reader can make a huge difference for youth. Reading teaches you how to build worlds, how to empathize with experiences other than our own, how to push the boundaries of possibility.

I’m grateful to SMSC for their support in this project. They truly understand the importance of representation and community investment. These stories are so important, and I’m grateful to be a small part of these histories being told and futures being revealed.