14
S moke S ignals
JULY 1, 2016
Tribal couple writes ‘Bigfoot’ children’s book
By Brent Merrill
Smoke Signals staff writer
Grand Ronde Tribal member
Adam Jeffers and his wife, Sara,
want people to find Bigfoot.
Specifically, they want readers
and their children to look into
the pages of their new book series
“Bigfoot Trails” to locate clues to
finding the legendary and elusive
creature that has become iconic in
the Pacific Northwest.
Together, they wrote “Bigfoot
Trails: Pacific Northwest” under
the pseudonym S.A. Jeffers.
“My husband has always been
interested in the Bigfoot legends
and a couple of years ago we devel-
oped an idea one night and it was
centered around a Bigfoot book for
children,” says Sara. “This whole
idea of hide-and-seek came up with
the reigning champion of hide-and-
seek – Bigfoot. So we developed
the idea of creating the activity of
finding him on each page as they
are reading and developing their
reading skills.”
The first book in the planned
children’s activity series is set in
the Cascade Mountains and each
scene provides the reader with a
clue to Bigfoot’s presence. Some-
times the clue is a footprint and on
some pages you must find Bigfoot
hiding in the trees.
Courtesy photo
Sara and Adam Jeffers became a
husband-and-wife writing team to
create the children’s book “Bigfoot
Trails.” The Reedsport couple are
already planning their next book in
the hide-and-seek series.
The book is illustrated by artist
Catherine Straus and each picture
contains several images of animals
that can be identified by young
readers.
Sara says it gives children read-
ing more to do than just read a
story book.
“We have three boys ourselves
so we are well familiar with trying
to keep them involved and getting
good reading practice in,” says
Sara.
Adam, 32, is the son of Mark and
Dawn Jeffers and the grandson of
Don and Elota Jeffers. Sara is the
daughter of Ray and Brandy Dav-
enport. Adam works as a welder
and Sara is a stay-at-home mom in
Reedsport on the southern Oregon
coast.
Adam says their boys (Jaxon, 10,
Kainan, 8, and Toye, 18 months)
were the inspiration for the book
series.
“We felt we were tired of gaming
systems and them wanting to sit
in the house and play games all
day,” says Adam, who grew up
camping and being outdoors with
his parents and grandparents. “We
thought this would be a good way
to develop some further interest in
the outdoors and animals and stuff
of that nature.”
Adam says he wanted to take the
scary out of the Bigfoot legends for
the book series. Sara said she liked
the friendlier “Harry and the Hen-
dersons”-type Bigfoot persona for
their books, referring to the 1987
comedy starring John Lithgow.
“That was one of my favorite mov-
ies growing up because they were
able to take something kind of scary
and make him lovable,” says Sara.
“You ended up being on his side. I
always liked that movie.”
Sara says the two plan to explore
their book series further in the
future and that they are already
planning their next book.
“We have a business meeting/
date night scheduled soon to work
on our next book idea,” says Adam.
“We want to inspire kids to get
unplugged from their electronics
a little bit and inspire them to get
outdoors and have some fun.”
Adam and Sara’s book can be
found in paperback for $11.99 and
e-book via Amazon and is available
as a free Kindle download. The
authors also have a Facebook page
under “Bigfoot Trails.”
Fee assistance
Enrolled Tribal members can request assistance with test fees (i.e. GRE,
SAT, LSAT, ACT) and admissions application fees. Contact Higher Edu-
cation for more information at 1-800-422-0232, ext. 2275.
Ad created by George Valdez