 Sherry Shahan
Sherry Shahan's Web site
Photographer and children's author Sherry Shahan takes research seriously. She's galloped a horse through an African plain, hiked in an Australian rain forest, kayaked in the frigid waters of an Alaskan fjord and ridden in the famed Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Exciting moments during these trips inspire and inform her action-packed stories.
"The idea for Frozen Stiff came at two in the morning when I was awakened by water seeping into the tent," she said, recalling her journey in the Russell Fjord Wilderness Area near Yakutat, Alaska. The water reminded her that in 1986 the Hubbard Glacier had taken a sudden surge, pushing mud and rock against the opposite shore to turn the fjord into a temporary lake. "I half jokingly remarked, 'Maybe Hubbard has surged again. Maybe the water in the fjord is rising because it doesn't have any way out.'" Her guide quickly assured her that the rising water was caused by the high tide. "But my mind was already reeling with 'what ifs?'" she said. "What if two kids had been kayaking in the fjord when Hubbard surged? What if they'd lost most of their food and supplies on the swelling water? What if no one knew they were there? When I start asking myself 'what if,' I know a story is about to unfold."
To research Dashing Through The Snow: The Story Of The Jr. Iditarod, she lived with a family of dog-mushers in Alaska. "Not only did I document their daily chores of caring for fifty Alaskan huskies, but I followed them on a snowmobile during day-long training runs into the vast white wilderness," she said. "Sometimes I helped them 'clean' the kennel, which isn't as easy as it sounds. Scooping with a shovel doesn't work when the dog poop is frozen to the ground!"
Shahan is now working on a novel called Death Mountain,about two kids who get caught in a deadly electrical storm in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. As usual, the idea came from a personal experience.
"A few years ago I was backpacking with a group on this same mountain when a barrage of lightning pinned us down. The pack mule and horse were struck by lightning and killed; three people were airlifted to a nearby hospital by a helicopter. All were released with minor injuries. But my mind was already spinning with 'what ifs'."
Sherry Shahan's books include:
Nonfiction Books:
Feeding Time at the Zoo (Random House 2000)
Working Dogs (Troll 1999)
The Little Butterfly (Random House 1998)
Dashing Through the Snow (Millbrook Press 1997)
Barnacles Eat with Their Feet (Millbrook Press 1996)
The Sunflower Family (Carolrhoda 1996)
Middle Grade Novels:
Frozen Stiff (Delacorte 1998)
Eerie Indiana #6 (Avon 1998)
Wait Until Dark (BDD 1996)
Telephone Tag (Bantam 1996)
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