Sherri Maret, author of The Cloud Artist, which was translated into Choctaw by Dora Wickson and illustrated by Choctaw artist Merisha Lemmer, was thrilled when her book was nominated for the First Nation Communities Read Award, Oklahoma Book Award, and Writers’ League of Texas Book Award.
Now she is celebrating the upcoming fourth picture book in her Twelve Days series. Twelve Days of Winter was published by Muddy Boots in 2022. Twelve Days of Summer (2024) and Twelve Days of Autumn (2025) followed. Twelve Days of Spring is scheduled for release in early 2026. Thomas Hilley from Stillwater illustrated the series.
Maret loves wildlife and nature, so she wanted to share that with young readers. The series features wildlife from the United States. The author stated, “I realized that the song, Twelve Days of Christmas, had so many things or people that a child wouldn’t connect with, so I created a version that was more child-friendly with animals in the different seasons.
The books can be sung or read. The author and illustrator also created an animal track activity to accompany the books, which can be found at SherriMaret.com.
“I was a teacher and library media specialist for years, so I wanted to create a fun activity to do following a reading of any of the books,” said Maret. “I hope to encourage young ones to love nature like I do!”