Shelley's Biography

It was rejected by New York editors who felt kids would not be interested in "some story about a dog race in Alaska." "When I read that," Shelley said, shaking her head, "I wondered if that editor had ever even been a kid...much less talked to one! Sometimes you just have to trust your own instincts." Since Kiana's Iditarod , Shelley has written 25 more best-sellers.

"I write about the same stuff I liked to read about when I was a kid," she says. "Kids are excellent judges of good and bad, and there's so much out there that's bad." Shelley was born in Alburquerque, New Mexico and raised in south Florida. "I was a surfer. My only experience with snow was what I saw on Christmas cards."

Shelley drove a Volkswagon bus to Alaska on a 1972 vacation and never came back. She has worked as a stone mason, a wrangler, a pizza cook and a newspaper reporter, editor and publisher.

"I have one simple goal. I want to produce something kids can relate to, a story that knocks their socks off, that fills them with that WOW! feeling. I want kids to say: "THIS is my FAVORITE book!"Shelley lives in Homer, Alaska - a small fishing town on the tip of the Kenai Peninsula with her Mom, her animals and her way cool daughter, Kye.

Shelley with Paleontologist and
"Jurassic Park Dude" Jack Horner

Some Reviews

Virginia@Ashley River El., October 20, 2000 A Kid's Review - I loved this book! If you want a cool {get it? She lives in Alaska} author to come to your scool,get Shelley Gill! I loved Kiana's Iditarod because it told me a lot of things.

An Alaskan Author & Educator Shares Cool Activities, Projects, Games, Maps, and Fascinating Facts to Help You Explore Our Northernmost State
NEW! Funtastic social studies! Bundle up for fun with this learning-packed resource on awesome Alaska! Students make a model of Denali, avoid the perils of the icy Iditarod in a History and Hazards board game, chart the sizes of big bears and other "giants" of the Alaskan wilderness, --Amazon.com

Gr. 2-4. As the tallest mountain in North America, Denali, or Mount McKinley, has its own unique ecosystem. To start, Gill gives two explanations of the mountain's origins, including the scientific and the Athabascan Indian legend. The shortness of the scientific explanation of Denali's geology will likely confuse young readers. However, most of the pages in this picture book are devoted to the plants and animals that live on or near the mountain, and these anecdote-filled accounts will spark plenty of interest. Cartwright supplies slightly cartoonish watercolor illustrations in double-page spreads that show the plants and animals with a certain amount of sly humor. Each of the layouts also features informative borders with additional pictures and facts on topics such as the yearly growth of a moose's antlers, wildflowers from the mountain meadows, or the fish of the mountain streams. Pages on animal tracks and scat are also included. An amusing and informative introduction to Denali's climate zones and the varied wildlife of Alaska. --Todd Morning Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

If your science class is anything like mine, your students are fascinated by the magnificant blue whale. Big Blue by Shelley Gill and illustrated by Ann Barrow, is an enjoyable story that integrates sound scientific information about the ocean's largest mammal with the universal theme of dreams becoming reality. In Big Blue, a young heroine dreams of swimming with a blue whale. Her adventure takes her and biologist friends to Baja, Mexico. Snorkeling in the warm waters, the heroine encounters eels, skates, and dolphins in her search for the blue whale. Beautiful colored illustrations take the reader along with the heroine on her adventure. This book is unique in that it is not entirely about whales and other marine life. There is room for many classroom discussions about dreams, goal-setting, and character traits such as persistence, dedication, and responsibility. If you like to integrate good literature into your science class programs, Big Blue is highly recommended. -- Science Scope, January 2004

Two long-time Alaska residents take the name of a local and beloved flower and give it to an outsized heroine in this awkwardly scanned, rhymed tall tale. "Not an inch of her was tame" goes the story of Sitka Rose by Shelley Gill and illustrated by Shannon Cartwright. With her long flame-colored braids woven with wildflowers, and like most heroes, Sitka Rose could do fabulous things even as an infant, when she'd climb a spruce to see the sky before she could crawl. The image shows a grubby girl in a nest with fledgling eagles. She lassoed a whale to reach the Nome gold rush, left a trench filled by the Yukon River in her search for nuggets, and won a sled race by harnessing a grizzly bear and ten wolverines. the watercolors have both a slightly mystical bent and a gorgeous sunrise-over-the-mountains palette: the animals have almost-human expressions and Sitka Rose wears a wonderful pink plaid shirt, green breeches, hiking boots--and then there's that hair. -- Kirkus Reviews, January 2005

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