Devin Scillian - S is for Sooner: An Oklahoma Alphabet

An Oklahoma Alphabet

Written by Devin Scillian and Illustrated by Kandy Radzinski

For Mike and Burns, two dear friends
and two great Oklahomans.

DEVIN

To my Mom, Lee Williams, who said to me over and over again:
You can grow up to be anything you want to be.

And to my family at Tulsa Christian Fellowship.

KANDY

S is for Sooner
An Oklahoma Alphabet

The wide-open spaces of Oklahoma are brought alive for readers with lilting rhymes, interesting facts, and enchanting illustrations about rodeos, land runs, and yes, even the musical Oklahoma!

The people, places, and landmarks of the Sooner state are thoroughly explored with delightful rhymes and detailed expository text by author Devin Scillian. Artist Kandy Radzinski brings her colorful style of quirky realism to each charming illustration. Sit back and enjoy an armchair tour of the Sooner state with this captivating addition to the Discover America State by State series from Sleeping Bear Press.

OK, were ready. OK, lets go. Were all OK, and by now you know, we come from Oklahoma where prairie dogs play. And where buffalo pound their hooves in the dark red clay.

Impressed with the written language of the European settlers who came to America, a young Cherokee named Sequoyah dreamed of a written language for his own people. He counted 85 different sounds in the Cherokee language and created characters for each one. He called them talking leaves, and when you think about it, words written on a piece of paper are like leaves that talk. After creating his alphabet, Sequoyah came to Oklahoma from Arkansas and became a leader of the Western Cherokee.

A is for the alphabet of the American Cherokee invented by Sequoyah, who taught the tribe to read.

He knew that one who reads and writes is one who best achieves.

So he gave his people a lasting gift, his powerful talking leaves.

The history of African-Americans in Oklahoma is unlike that of any other state. They came to Oklahoma as settlers, farmers, cowboys, and soldiers. Black soldiers built Oklahoma forts and protected the frontier from cattle thieves and rogues. The bravery of these soldiers so impressed the Indian tribes in the region that they began calling them Buffalo Soldiers.

After the Civil War, the state became known as a place where black settlers could lead free and productive lives. In time, Oklahoma had more predominantly black towns and cities than the rest of the country put together.

B is also for Beavers Bend State Park in southeastern Oklahoma. Vacationers love its crystal clear lakes and rivers and 100-foot-tall pine trees.

Sit by my side a second. A moment we should spend.

B is for the bravery of the Buffalo Soldier men.

They saved the territory from cutthroats and knaves.

But they were different for their day, the sons of former slaves.

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was among the first Europeans to explore the area that would come to be known as Oklahoma. He arrived in 1541, marking the beginning of Oklahomas recorded history.

In the late 1800s, cowboys moved enormous herds of cattle from Texas through Oklahoma to Kansas. During the trail-drive days, six million cattle traveled the Chisholm Trail through Oklahoma. The National Cowboy Hall of Fame is located in Oklahoma City and it continues to celebrate the cowboy heritage of the Old West.

A cyclone is another name for a tornado. It can also be called a twister.

From Choctaw to Cherokee, C is everywhere.

Its a cowboy calling cattle. Its a cyclone in the air.

C is for conquistador, the Spanish explorers of old, like Francisco Coronado, searching for a City of Gold.

The sand dunes of Little Sahara State Park near Waynoka are actually growing. The dunes stretch another foot toward the northwest every year. Route 66 is one of the most legendary highways in American history. It runs from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California, and stretches across 400 miles of Oklahoma.

In the 1930s the combination of severe drought and bad farming practices devastated the southern Great Plains. Oklahoma was one of the parched states that became known as the Dust Bowl. John Steinbeck immortalized the drought and its victims in his classic novel The Grapes of Wrath.

Chester Gould was born in Pawnee in 1900. His brilliant comic-strip detective Dick Tracy made his debut in newspapers in 1931. Even though Gould died in 1985, other cartoonists have carried on his work and Dick Tracy is still solving crimes in the comics section today.

D is the dunes of Little Sahara. Its a drive down Route 66.

Its the Dust Bowl drought, dreary and dry, which The Grapes of Wrath depicts.

And D is for detective. Dick Tracy is never fooled.

Dashing and daring and drawn with the pen of the artist Chester Gould.

Oklahoma can be a perfect place to see our national symbol, the bald eagle. Many of the eagles that spend their summers in the northern United States make their winter home in the trees that line the waterways of Oklahoma.

Oklahoma has more man-made lakes than any other state. There are more than 200, adding up to 2,000 miles of shoreline. Six hundred of those miles are found on Lake Eufaula. Due to the red soil, the northern part of the lake has a pinkish hue, but it turns a clear blue as you head south.

Eskimo Joes is a restaurant in Stillwater. Its T-shirts have become so popular you may see the smiling Eskimo Joe and his dog Buffy just about anywhere in the world.

Enid and Elk City. E is either of those.

Theres El Reno and Edmond and Eskimo Joes.

Its the edge of an embankment, where an eagle eyes a snake.

Its evening at Lake Eufaula, Oklahomas biggest lake.

Oklahomas forts are testimony to the complicated nature of Oklahomas history. The Oklahoma story is a tug-of-war between white settlers and pioneers and Native Americans who were stripped of their goods and land. The pioneering spirit helped create the Oklahoma that exists today but at a great cost to the people who lived here long before the first European explorers arrived.

Military forts are still important to Oklahoma. Oklahoma is home to three Air Force bases (Tinker, Vance, and Altus) and one Army base (Ft. Sill).