Description
What is Four Famous Faces?
Four Famous Faces is a 32-page hardcover children’s picture book about Prairie Dog and a small crew of regional animal friends looking for the four famous faces of Mount Rushmore. The joke of the book, which carries through the poetry, is that Prairie Dog and friends keep expecting the famous faces to be animal faces, not human ones. Along the way the book moves through the parks, monuments, and memorials of the Black Hills and Badlands region, with a six-page back-of-book section of facts about the animals, geology, and history of each location.
The book was written by Jean L.S. Patrick and illustrated by Renee Graef, the same author-and-illustrator team behind several regional children’s titles. It won the 2015 Association of Partners for Public Lands (APPL) Publication of the Year award, the top publishing prize for cooperating-association presses on public lands.
What’s inside
The story is a picture-book quest: Prairie Dog, starting in the Badlands, sets out to find the four famous faces. Along the way the crew picks up regional animal companions from the parks of the Black Hills and Badlands region. The verse pulls in wordplay and rhyme that reads well out loud. Renee Graef’s illustrations are a warm, traditional picture-book style (she is also the illustrator behind the My First Little House picture books).
- A rhyming, read-aloud narrative with wordplay around the “faces” idea
- Full-color illustrations throughout by Renee Graef
- Six pages of back matter with facts about the animals, geology, and history of each park location featured
- 10″ x 10″ square trim, the classic picture-book proportion
- Hardcover binding, built for repeat read-aloud sessions
Specifications
- Pages: 32
- Dimensions: 10″ x 10″ x 5/16″
- Weight: 13.9 oz
- Binding: Hardcover
- Interior: Full-color illustrations throughout
- Author: Jean L.S. Patrick
- Illustrator: Renee Graef
- ISBN: 978-0-9798823-8-8
- Publisher: Stories in Stone (a joint imprint of BHPFA, Badlands NHA, Devils Tower NHA, and Mount Rushmore Bookstores)
- Year published: 2014 (2015 APPL Publication of the Year winner)
- Reading age: about 4 to 9
Who is this for?
Families visiting the Black Hills and Badlands with young kids. If your family trip includes Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, the Badlands, or Devils Tower, this is a book that works as a ride-along (read to kids on the drive between sites) and as a trip-memory keeper at home afterward.
Grandparents and gift buyers. A hardcover picture book with a specific regional tie is a solid grandparent-to-grandkid gift after a Black Hills trip, or as a setup for a future trip. The award sticker on the cover helps with the “is this a real book or a tourist trinket” question.
Classroom and library use. Teachers and librarians in South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, and the broader region use Four Famous Faces for Black Hills units, national parks units, and poetry and wordplay lessons in K-3 classrooms. The back-of-book facts section makes it usable as a light nonfiction-plus-story pairing.
About the Stories in Stone partnership
Stories in Stone is the joint imprint of four regional cooperating associations: Black Hills Parks & Forests Association, Badlands Natural History Association, Devils Tower Natural History Association, and Mount Rushmore Bookstores. The four associations pool resources to publish books and produce other projects that any one of them would struggle to do alone. Four Famous Faces is one of the flagship Stories in Stone titles and was the imprint’s APPL Publication of the Year winner.
Frequently asked questions
What reading age is this for?
About 4 to 9. It works as a read-aloud for preschool and kindergarten, and as an independent read for first through third graders. The rhyming text makes it a good picture-book read-aloud; the back-of-book facts section gives older readers more to chew on.
Is the whole book a rhyming story?
The narrative is in verse with wordplay on the “four famous faces” idea. The last six pages are a prose fact section about the animals, geology, and history of each park location featured in the story.
Which parks does the book cover?
The book moves through the parks, monuments, and memorials of the Black Hills and Badlands region. Mount Rushmore is the destination (the four famous faces are the presidents). Prairie Dog and the animal crew travel through the Badlands and Black Hills along the way.
Who is Jean L.S. Patrick?
Jean L.S. Patrick is a South Dakota children’s book author with several titles set in the Black Hills and broader Great Plains. She has written picture books, middle-grade nonfiction, and poetry for young readers.
Who is Renee Graef?
Renee Graef is the illustrator best known for the My First Little House picture book series (adapted from Laura Ingalls Wilder), along with dozens of other children’s picture books. Her style is warm, detailed, and traditional.
Is this the same as the Stories in Stone hat or the Stories in Stone apron?
No. Stories in Stone is the shared publishing and merchandise imprint of four regional associations. It includes this book, the Cooks in Parks cookbook, apparel, and other joint products. The hat and the book share the imprint, not the product line.
What award did it win?
The 2015 Association of Partners for Public Lands (APPL) Publication of the Year. APPL is the trade association for cooperating associations and other nonprofit partners of US public lands. Publication of the Year is the top book award of that program.
Does buying this support national parks?
Yes. BHPFA is the official nonprofit partner of Wind Cave National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Scotts Bluff National Monument, and Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, as well as the Black Hills National Forest and Nebraska National Forests & Grasslands. Proceeds from every purchase support education programs, conservation projects, and visitor services at these sites.
Can I get this at the Mount Rushmore or Badlands visitor centers?
Yes. Because the book is co-published by the cooperating associations at Badlands and Mount Rushmore, it is also sold at their stores. BHPFA stocks it at our own partner-site stores and ships it nationally from our online shop.
