{"id":6303,"date":"2024-01-04T18:34:47","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T18:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nhd.org\/?post_type=team&p=6303"},"modified":"2024-01-04T18:34:56","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T18:34:56","slug":"shelley-pearsall","status":"publish","type":"team","link":"https:\/\/nhd.org\/en\/team\/shelley-pearsall\/","title":{"rendered":"Shelley Pearsall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where do you currently live?<\/strong>
Ohio<\/p>\n\n

What is your current occupation?<\/strong>
Full-time children\u2019s author with Random House Books<\/p>\n\n

What school did you attend while participating in NHD?<\/strong>
Valley Forge HS, Parma, OH<\/p>\n\n

What college did you attend?<\/strong>
The College of Wooster, BA majored in English
John Carroll University, MEd<\/p>\n\n

Who were your teachers?<\/strong>
Gail Little<\/p>\n\n

What years and in what category did you participate in NHD?<\/strong>
Individual Paper 1982, Child Labor diary
Individual Project, 1983 Lewis and Clark
Individual Performance, 1984 Women Workers of Lowell<\/p>\n\n

What are a few of your favorite or defining moments from your NHD experience?<\/strong>
Placing 2nd at Nationals for Project and Performance were such memorable experiences. However, I\u2019ll never forget being questioned by the judges for my pink nail polish when I was dressed as Sacajawea \u2014 fortunately, they didn\u2019t deduct anything! In my 1984 performance, the use of the word \u201clifestyle\u201d was a deduction. Both experiences taught me that even the smallest details matter. I still use that lesson in my writing today \u2014 and try to give the smallest historical details (wallpaper, cereal brands, weather, dialect, etc.) as much research time as the \u201cmajor\u201d facts.<\/p>\n\n

How did NHD help you after high school?<\/strong>
NHD led me to pursue an internship at Colonial Williamsburg while I was in college where I had the chance to work on original research and a Revolutionary War shipwreck archaeology project. It also helped in my first job as Cleveland Metroparks\u2019 first historical interpreter. I created historical scripts for living history performances and wrote historical articles \u2014 very much like what I did for NHD! For the past decade, I\u2019ve been a historical fiction author for Random House where I use my NHD research and writing skills every day. I\u2019m always looking for the stories missing from, or overlooked by, history. I still love the thrill of finding new stories.<\/p>\n\n

What recognition did you receive for participating in NHD?<\/strong>
2nd place, Nationals for Individual Project, 1983
2nd place, Nationals for Individual Performance, 1984<\/p>\n\n

Did you do anything with your NHD project or research after the contest year?<\/strong>
No\u2013but I still have pieces of my Lewis & Clark project in storage.<\/p>\n\n

What has kept you busy since your days as an NHD student? Any particular challenges, stories, or achievements?<\/strong>
I\u2019ve had a variety of jobs\u2013park and museum history jobs, classroom teaching, and now, writing historical fiction novels and speaking in schools. I\u2019m honored to have written Trouble Don\u2019t Last, one of the first books for youth written from the viewpoint of a runaway slave. It received the national Scott O\u2019Dell Award for Historical Fiction. I\u2019m also proud of researching and writing about the history of the all-black paratrooper unit in World War II, the Triple Nickles\u2013and interviewing one of the last original members of the unit. I think one of the biggest challenges in my work continues to be convincing kids through my books and speeches that history can be exciting, surprising, and relevant to their lives today.<\/p>\n\n

Is there anything else that you would like to share about your NHD experience?<\/strong>
I\u2019ll never forget how it was such a wonderful family experience \u2014 my parents and my grandparents always came to the contests\u2026we drove a UHaul trailer with our projects from Cleveland to DC and spent time touring the city together as a family\u2026so many happy memories.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where do you currently live?Ohio What is your current occupation?Full-time children\u2019s author with Random House Books What school did you attend while participating in NHD?Valley Forge HS, Parma, OH What …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6304,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"featured_image_background_position":"","team_title":"NHD 1982, 1983, 1984 <\/i>","email":"","posts_contributor":"","footnotes":""},"team-type":[132],"class_list":["post-6303","team","type-team","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","team-type-alumni-profiles"],"yoast_head":"\nShelley Pearsall - National History Day<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nhd.org\/en\/team\/shelley-pearsall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shelley Pearsall - 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