It is the white man's year of 1840. Tsena, sixteen-year-old son of a Comanche peace chief, does not know that it is also the year the white man will change his life forever. Tsena's story is based on two historical encounters between the Comanches and Texans, the Council House Massacre and the Battle of Plum Creek. Although history is usually written from the Texan point of view, in this novel the reader will find out what it might have been like for a Comanche boy who was there.

Janice Shefelman says she became Sophie to write this journal. In her own life, Janice is an author with a strong interest in making the past come alive through historical fiction. Her books have won many awards, including the New York Public Library Best Book for Teens, the Children's Book Council Notable Book, Reading Rainbow Book, and the International Reading Association Children's Choices.The love of books began when her father, a German professor at S.M.U. in Dallas, read to her from an early age, which led to careers as teacher, librarian, and writer. Books also gave her the desire to see the world. She spent one summer bicycling around Europe and another traveling in North Africa and the Middle East. When she married Tom, an architect, they set out on a yearlong trip around the world, traveling by freighter and living for a time in a Buddhist temple. Her writing career began to blossom when her first book, A Paradise Called Texas, appeared on the Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List. Janice raised two sons with Tom and lives in Austin where she now devotes full time to writing.