Jim Kjelgaard wrote more than forty extremely popular novels for children. He incorporated into his books his two great loves -nature and animals. He spent much of his childhood living on farms in the Allegheny Mountain Range in Pennsylvania. This wild country and his experiences of the animals he knew and loved come alive on the pages of his books. The Spell of the White Sturgeon (1953), The Lost Wagon (1955), Trading Jeff and his Dog (1956), Double Challenge (1957), We Were There at the Oklahoma Land Run (1957), Swamp Cat (1957), Rescue Dog of the High Pass (1958), The Black Fawn (1958), The Story of Geronimo (1958), Hi Jolly (1959), The Duck-footed Hound (1960).