Shadows of Caesar's Creek (Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs Series #3) »

Sharon Draper is a two-time Coretta Scott King Award-winning author, most recently for Copper Sun, and previously for Forged by Fire. She's also the recipient of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Author Award for New Talent for Tears of a Tiger and the Coretta Scott King Author Honor for The Battle of Jericho and November Blues. Her other books include Romiette and Julio, Darkness Before Dawn, and Double Dutch. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she taught high school English for twenty-five years.

LOST!

Ziggy and his Black Dinosaur pals are excited about their overnight camping trip to Caesar's Creek State Park -- it was named after an ex-slave who later became a Shawnee chief! Their camping counselor is descended from Caesar, and she fills the campers' imaginations with intriguing but sometimes spooky stories about her ancestor and Shawnee legends and traditions.

So when Ziggy and his friends discover an old canoe in some bushes by the lake, they decide to sneak outside at night and test their courage like Shawnee youth in their manhood ceremonies. But Shawnee youth probably wouldn't have found themselves drifting in the middle of the lake with their paddles still on shore, or lost in the woods surrunded by strange noises. Could it be a bear? Or the ancient spirits of their counseor's tales?

Children's Literature

Ziggy and his three friends, The Black Dinosaurs, go for an overnight camp out with four girls and a counselor. The children's unique personalities are entertaining and insightful. Ziggy's Jamaican accent and cheerful attitude keep the book upbeat and amusing. The boys' decision to seek adventure adds a suspenseful plot near the end of the story. Sharon Drapers weaves African and Native American history into a delightful story. Through this book, children will gain an understanding of the experiences of the two most oppressed minorities in our history, as well as their place in our present-day culture. Unfortunately, the book is plagued with errors in the placement of quotation marks, which may be confusing to students. A short section at the end of the book provides the historical basis for the story. This initial book of the "Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs" series promises to be the first of many entertaining and educational books for young readers.