By Gayleen Rabakukk

Author Andrea M. Page

Author Andrea M. Page (Hunkpapa Lakota) died March 5, 2026 at the age of 61, after a difficult battle with breast cancer, stated Walker Brothers Funeral Home. Andrea taught 6th grade English Language Arts for more than 30 years. During that time, she started researching the Lakota Code Talkers, a quest that spanned more than two decades and led to her first book, Sioux Code Talkers of World War II (Pelican Publishing, 2017), now in its fourth printing.

We discussed her long path to publication in a 2017 Cynsations interview and Andrea recounted how challenging it had been to find the right way to tell the Code Talkers’ story. She got a positive response to a query letter from Pelican editor Nina Kooij who said they might be interested if Andrea could double the word count.

“I was excited, but at that time, I had no idea how to double my word count. I knew I put all my solid research in the manuscript, I didn’t know what to do. But, I was not going to give up,” Andrea said.

She detailed her writing journey and how a technique from Tom Bird’s Call of the Writer’s Craft (Simon & Schuster, 2009) opened creative doors and let her discover her voice.

“Basically, you access the right brain, write fast, and write a lot. I stopped editing lines and wrote about topics in my book in no particular order. I filled a huge, blank sketchbook. (I still write this way today) I found my voice while piecing together the chapters in my book,” Andrea said.

Telling the Code Talker’s story wasn’t limited to publishing the book with Pelican. Andrea also lobbied for the veterans to be recognized by Congress, and attended a hearing in support of the Code Talker Recognition Act.

“Some elders testified in their own language. Since the hearings are recorded, this may be the first time testimony was documented in Lakota. I heard the pride in the veterans’ voices when they explained this, and it made such an impression on me that I pursued trying to have some of the code messages translated.”

Andrea worked with elders to ensure the Lakota language that appeared in Sioux Code Talkers would be authentic and readable.

Andrea created educator guides for publishers (see her 2021 Cynsations interview) and also compiled Native book lists for We Need Diverse Books’ Indigenous Reads Rising site.

Andrea was selected for the 2022 We Need Diverse Books’ Native Writing Intensive, where she connected with agent Adriana Dominguez of Aevitas Creative Management and later signed with her. This paved the way for publication of Andrea’s second book, Who Was Wilma Mankiller? (Penguin Workshop, 2025). Andrea was the first Native author to write for the Penguin Workshop Series.

Andrea was very active in the children’s literature community: a former board member of the Children’s Literature Assembly (CLA) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and is a longtime member of SCBWI and RACWI, and was a Highlights Foundation (now Boyds Mills) instructor.

While fighting cancer, Andrea finalized work on her third book, Gabriel’s Winter Count, illustrated by Alfreda Beartrack Algeo, to be published by Charlesbridge Oct. 6, 2026.

In our 2017 interview, Andrea summed up her drive for sharing authentic Native stories. “Our schools teach about historical events, but oftentimes from the non-Native point of view. I hope my book opens the eyes of students and teachers to the two points of view. Both sides need to be studied. This is part of our history as a country.”

Donations in Andrea’s honor can be made to the Rochester Public Library for children’s books, or Boyds Mill for the Andrea M. Page Scholarship for “storytellers who carry that same belief as Andrea: stories matter, representation matters, and generosity is not only our responsibility, but our privilege to provide to one another.“

Author-Illustrator Michael Hague

Author-illustrator Michael Hague died March 10 at the age of 77, Shannon Maughan reported for Publishers Weekly.

Hague was always interested in illustrating children’s books, but as a student at the Art Center College of Design was told classes weren’t offered in that specialty because it would be impossible to earn a living that way, he said in a talk for a Chemers Gallery Show in 2013. After completing his BFA, Hague worked as an illustrator for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, Mo. The card company published his debut picture book, a pop-up version of Gulliver in Lilliput by Jonathan Swift, and adapted by Edward Cunningham.

A few years later, Hague illustrated a fairy tale for Cricket magazine, before being offered the chance to illustrate Jane Yolen’s Dream Weaver story collection (Philomel, 1979). Publishers Weekly described Hague’s work as “mystic paintings in velvety shades, beautiful mirrors of Yolen’s surrealistic tales.”

Hague illustrated many classic works and fairy tales, and also collaborated with his wife, Kathleen Hague on several books, most recently, Good Night, Fairies (Chronicle, 2001).

In the Chemers Gallery talk, Hague shared the most useful advice he got about creating art: “Stick to it, because eventually you get a break.” He explained that after years of sending out portfolios and receiving rejections, new editors came on board who saw his work differently. “That’s why you should never give up.” Hague illustrated nearly 100 books over 38 years, working with Henry Holt, Simon & Schuster, Doubleday and HarperCollins.

Author Marsha Wilson Chall

Author and writing instructor Marsha Wilson Chall died March 29 in Maple Grove, Minnesota at the age of 72, reported Shannon Maughan for Publishers Weekly. Chall published one chapter book and 11 picture books.

On her website, Chall explained why chose to write for young readers. “Writing for children allowed me that joy of experiencing the world over and over again for the first time. Adults lose this childlike appreciation through over-complication. I like to make the complex simple. Not simple-minded, but pared down to the essential.”

Chall also taught in Hamline University’s MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. “Teaching critical and creative writing for children’s writers at the college level has given me that rare chance to study children’s literature and the writer’s craft so that I learn what I know and how it’s of value. Teaching teaches the student and the teacher,” Chall wrote on her website.

Bookseller Jewell Stoddard

Jewell Stoddard, who opened one of the first children’s bookstores in the United States, died March 10 at the age of 92, reported Shannon Maughan for Publishers Weekly. After teaching third and fourth grade nearly a decade, Stoddard and colleagues Charlotte Berman, Helen Neuberg and Pamela Sacks opened Cheshire Cat Children’s Books in Washington, D.C. in 1977. First daughter Amy Carter was one of the store’s first customers, Stoddard told Allie Bruce in a 2014 interview for Shelf Awareness.

Stoddard served on the 1994 Caldecott Committee and on the committee that nominated Jon Scieszka as the Inaugural National Children’s Literature Ambassador.

Stoddard’s son, Philip, wrote a moving tribute on his blog, Eye of the Cormorant. He recalled how she befriended many authors including Maurice Sendak, Tomie de Paola and Allen Say.

“As an extra attraction for the store, Jewell raised monarch butterflies from the egg – when the caterpillars were ready to pupate she moved them to a tree branch in the front window. In a week, they would emerge as butterflies and be released.” Philip Stoddard noted this drew a flock of humans to the store to watch the butterflies each morning.

After the Cheshire Cat closed in 1999 Stoddard became the children’s buyer at Politics & Prose (P&P), where she continued the monarch tradition. P&P booksellers Ron Tucker and Maria Salvadore elaborated on the butterfly details in their tribute to Stoddard. “Jewell always seemed to know when each monarch was ready to fly, because at just the right moment she (or someone else under her direction) would carry the full-grown monarch with those dry wings outside and let it fly away.”

Stoddard also worked diligently to expand the depth, diversity and direction of the children’s collection at P&P and shared her motivation in the Shelf Awareness interview with Bruce. “I don’t think we can ever become an integrated society until we have diverse books. If children grow up not knowing how others live, not knowing how others are, what their joys are, how can they know what the world is really like? It’s critical.”

Editor Ellen Rudin

Longtime children’s editor Ellen Rudin died March 18 at the age of 92, reported Shannon Maughan for Publishers Weekly. Rudin began her career in publishing at Random House as an assistant in school and library marketing in 1957. Three years later she moved to Putnam, Coward McCann and John Day as director of school and library publicity, then took a job as editor of School Library Journal in 1961. Over the years she worked at Harper & Row Junior Books, E.P. Dutton, Follet and Golden Books.

Rudin is credited with discovering Caldecott winner Emily Arnold McCully after seeing her subway posters of “children at play” ads for a radio station. “She tracked me down and asked if I would illustrate a book called Sea Beach Express by George Panetta (Harper & Row, 1966). It was an incredible stroke of luck. It led to another assignment, then another,” McCully wrote on her website.

Rudin later commissioned a book from a humor writer she found in Scholastic’s teen magazine Bananas. The result was How to Be Funny: An Extremely Silly Guidebook by Jovial Bob Stine (Dutton, 1978), who soon shifted to writing scary novels as R.L. Stine.

Cynsational Notes

Gayleen Rabakukk holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and recently completed a Master’s in Library Science at the University of North Texas. She also has an undergraduate degree in Journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma. She has published numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and two regional interest books for adults. She is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.

She’s a Librarian at the Lago Vista Public Library, where she leads a book club for young readers. She also teaches creative writing workshops and loves inspiring curiosity in young readers through stories of hope and adventure. Follow her on Instagram and Bluesky.