An Early Oklahoma Coloring Book is a fascinating, fact-filled 48-page coloring book for adults and older children, showing highlights from the history of the frying pan-shaped area that became Oklahoma. Areas of focus include the pre-human era, the pre-Columbian era, the age of white exploration, the Removals, the Civil War, the Dawes Act, land runs, statehood, and the Great Depression. By engaging with the images (through coloring), students, history buffs, Oklahomans, and the mildly curious can slow down and really consider moments in the state’s history. This can lead to a desire to learn more about the state, encourage further study, and question presumptions, both in popular history and in An Early Oklahoma Coloring Book. In keeping with Jerald Pope’s other coloring books (An Early Appalachian Coloring Book and The Beacon Blanket Coloring Book), An Early Oklahoma Coloring Book offers highly detailed images that challenge and engage the reader/colorer, adding a dimension of content seldom found in the popular “adult coloring books” which are ubiquitous in every bookstore, grocery market, and web outlet. Pope clearly includes the experiences of Native and African Americans. An Early Oklahoma Coloring Book will provide hours of quality, thoughtful, and rewarding activity.
