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Making the Leaves Talk is the story of Sequoya, a Cherokee silversmith who lived 200 years ago. This was a time when there was no way to write down the Cherokee language.
Stories were remembered because they were told, not written.
But Sequoya was afraid that Cherokee children who grew up reading and writing English would forget their history and their stories if there wasn't any written record of them. He worked for years trying to invent a way to write the Cherokee language, not knowing that no written language in the history of mankind had ever been invented by a single person.
Some people thought that Sequoya was crazy - some thought that he was evil. But his daughter, Ahyoka, believed in him. She helped him draw pictures for different Cherokee words, until tragedy struck and his drawings were destroyed. Instead of discouraging Sequoya, however, this made him think about writing more carefully, and he came up with the idea of drawing a symbol for each sound in the Cherokee language, instead of each word.
But when Sequoya finished this written Syllabary, everyone thought it was a waste of time to learn it - everyone except Ahyoka, who urged her father to take his Syllabary to the great chiefs at the national council house.
Sequoya thought that was a good idea, especially if he took Ahyoka with him to demonstrate how well she could read his symbols. But could one small girl convince the great chiefs that this new Cherokee writing was an important idea they should adopt?
Making the Leaves Talk is an Award Series Book, aimed at third grade readers.
Click here to read an excerpt from Making the Leaves Talk.