With a love for Texas and history, local author Sherry Garland has taken the children’s book industry by storm, sharing a variety of historical accounts through picture books and juvenile novels.
Winning over 40 awards and honors during her career including a Western Writers of America Spur Award and having her books on the Reading Rainbow Book and Texas Bluebonnet Lists, Sherry has used her platform to share more about historical events with young minds. Hailing from Texas, Sherry has always loved the great state and even lived on on a dairy farm where her family raised pigs, cows and chickens.
“I’m a fifth generation Texan and I do a lot of genealogy research,” Sherry says. “When you do genealogy, you have to do historical research to find out what was going on during that time and I’ve oftened researched Texas history so it has been a lot of influence in what I write.”
Sherry’s love of books and writing began young and as a child she often visited the library to check out books to learn more about whatever topic she was interested in that day. In fact, she actually worked in a library during high school and college to help fund her education.
Though Sherry didn’t publish her first children’s book till 1989, her love for writing began in high school when her English teacher encouraged her to enter a writing contest about why she loved Texas, where she won first place.
“When I won the contest, I was able to use the $100 prize to pay for my first semester of college and I was published in a journal,” Sherry says. “I always had in the back of my mind that I would someday write for my own enjoyment, but in my 30s I decided to try and get published. I always give that English teacher credit and I dedicated one of my books to her.”
She has used this love for writing to create a number of books, Sherry grew in her love for the children’s book industry authoring popular titles including “The Buffalo Soldier,” “The Silent Storm” and has five books in the Voices of History series to include “Voices of the Alamo,” “Voices of Gettysburg,” “Voices of the Dust Bowl,” “Voices of Pearl Harbor” and “Voices of the Western Frontier.” She also wrote several books about the Vietnamese culture, including "The Lotus Seed" which has won several awards.
With a focus on detailing the past and sharing about her home state, Sherry says she draws a lot from history but also ensures that her own experiences or the experiences of people she knows makes an appearance in her books.
“They always say when you write fiction, you reveal more about yourself and when you write nonfiction, you put things in that are your personal feelings,” Sherry says. “For my historical books, I'll take names of my real ancestors and I have a lot of stories that I've written that are scenes directly from my childhood.”
Throughout her career, Sherry has gotten to travel the world to talk to children about her books through author visits sponsored by schools and libraries. At these presentations, she was able to educate children on history and also what goes into writing books.
“I really enjoy getting to talk to the students while on author visits,” Sherry says. “The kids are not afraid to ask questions and they love to see all the different artifacts and props I bring with me as a way to tell them more about the books.”
Books by Sherry Garland are available online at a variety of places including Amazon, Barnes and Noble and on her website, where local customers can opt to pick up in person to receive a signed copy. To learn more about her work or to inquire about author visits or teacher resources, visit sherrygarland.com.
