Roxane B. Salonen

Roxane Beauclair Salonen, the daughter of teachers, grew up in Poplar, Montana, on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. In second grade, she gave her teacher a handmade book she'd stapled together. Miss Larsen told her, "You should write books someday."

She began her writing career in journalism, and currently works as a freelance writer from her home in Fargo, North Dakota, where four of her five children were born.

Her first children's book to be published, P is for Peace Garden, part of the Discover America State by State series by Sleeping Bear Press, takes readers on a rhyming alphabet tour of North Dakota. Her second book to be released, First Salmon, (Boyds Mills Press, October 2005) introduces Charlie, a young boy who comes to better accept the loss of his uncle through experiencing his tribe's salmon-honoring ceremony.

P is for Peace Garden
illustrated by Joanna Yardley
Sleeping Bear Press, 2005
ages 4 to 10, ISBN 978-1-58536-142-7

This alphabet journey takes us to North Dakota, the home to such wide-eyed wonders as bison, mosasaurs and the Red River. Look to the North Dakota skies for a bald eagle or to the horizon for a wild prairie rose, the state flower. Every letter in the alphabet is another chapter in this land rich with history, people, and nature. But no matter where children look in P is for Peace Garden, they're sure to find the singular treasures—from Knepfla soup to the peace gardens—that make North Dakota what it is.

Awards
2005-2006 Flicker Tale Children's Book Award nominee