Today we’re celebrating the upcoming publication of Gabriel’s Winter Count by Andrea M. Page, illustrated by Alfreda Beartrack Algeo (Charlesbridge, Oct. 6, 2026). From the publisher’s website:
A warm, intergenerational picture book introducing the Lakota tradition of winter counts and celebrating resilience, remembrance, and connection across distance. A moving story of love and tradition – perfect for kids discovering their role in their family and the power of remembering.
Gabriel’s parents are leaving to serve, and he will stay with his grandmother, his unci. When Gabriel forgets to give his parents a parting gift, an important tradition in their Lakota family, he is bereft. But then he learns about winter counts from Unci, and slowly but surely he both waits for his parents to return and becomes the keeper of the winter count in their family.
Take a look back to a 2021 Cynsations interview with late author Andrea M. Page (Hunkpapa Lakota) on creating educator guides.
Teacher’s Guides: Andrea M. Page on Creating Guides as a Freelancer
As a former teacher, did you use teaching guides in the classroom?
Yes, I found some very helpful. Well-written guides saved time in the classroom.
You also wrote an educational guide for your own book. Do you ever find yourself thinking about what will go into the guide as you’re writing?
At the time, I was learning how to craft a story of the Sioux Code Talkers of World War II (Pelican Publishing, 2017) while I was still teaching. I always thought about how topics in the manuscript would connect to the curriculum, but I wasn’t actively thinking about creating an educator guide while writing my book.
You’ve written resource guides for other authors as well. How do you approach those assignments?
Each project is different and I like to discuss ideas with the person first in order to map out a plan. I need to know what their expectations are for the guide and who the audience will be. Then, I read the book. I’m a slow reader, so I plan my time.
Reading rates change according to your purpose for reading, so when I’m plugging away, at first I want to read to enjoy the story. I’ve found using the post it flags (or creating my own if needed) lets me mark a spot to revisit. When I’m done, I write a summary of the story and go back to reread the flagged sections.
Then, as I make my way around to the story again, stopping to re-read all around those flagged sections, I want to make sense of why that passage stood out for me. Analyzing the story scenes requires a slower, closer reading.
At that point, I rewrite the parts that grab my attention, by hand on index cards. (This is the same approach I used with my students when they did some kind of research.) For me, using index cards is easier to manage. They can be shuffled into different categories or ranked in an order of significance. Once I have those sorted, I reflect on the themes in the story.
Thinking about themes is challenging because as an author, you have an idea of what you hope a reader will take away from the story. But when I was teaching, there were several books I read with children again and again because they were fabulous models of writing. As I re-read and discussed these stories with students, we uncovered more and more themes within a single title.
When thinking about themes as I’m writing an educator guide, I gravitate to more generalized values to cover a broader audience. And it helps to search different grade level state standards to see what topics to highlight in the discussion questions as well.
I’m mindful when creating questions, hopefully leading the reader through the book from beginning to end.
When you’re creating these guides, are you most often hired by the author or by the publisher?
So far, it’s been an equal amount of authors and publishers that I’ve been honored to work with, and I’m booked through next summer.
Cynsational Notes
Author Andrea M. Page (Hunkpapa Lakota) died March 5, 2026. 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.
Andrea’s second book, Who Was Wilma Mankiller? was published by Penguin Workshop in 2025. Andrea was the first Native author to write for the Penguin Workshop Series. Adriana Dominguez of Aevitas Creative Management represents Andrea’s literary estate.
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.
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.