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Dakota Attitude

Dakota Attitude

Honors Those Who Served

Veterans fill the pages of Dakota Attitude—from the Puppe brothers (Jim’s dad’s first cousins) who died in World War II to the survivors of every conflict since—our country’s history would be different if it weren’t for the men and women who put themselves in harm’s way. It’s why the book is dedicated to all the North Dakota service men and women who died fighting for our freedom.

To honor their service, we’ve listed several of the stories of Those Who Served that appear in Dakota Attitude. We encourage you to celebrate Veterans Day, and every day, by reading about those who fought so you could be free. By the way, Dakota Attitude makes a great gift for your veteran.

Those Who Served

Dakota Attitude

Awarded Bronze Medallion

The Independent Book Publishers chose Dakota Atttitude as the 2020 recipients of a bronze medallion in the Midwest Best Regional Non-Fiction category.

Conducted annually, the Independent Publisher Book Awards honor the year’s best independently published titles in English from around the world. The awards are intended to bring increased recognition to thousands of exemplary independent, university and self-published books released each year.

Jim says, “I’m thankful for literary organizations like IBP that include self-published works in their awards.”

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Dakota Attitude in the News

We’re pleased to share that Dakota Attitude has been getting a lot of ink in the last month!

Jim and Sharon Puppe, who've endowed a nursing scholarship at NDSU, where Sharon took her nurse training.

Dakota Attitude

Awarded Bronze Medallion

The Independent Book Publishers chose Dakota Attitude as the 2020 recipient of a bronze medallion in the Midwest Best Regional Non-Fiction category.

Conducted annually, the Independent Publisher Book Awards honor the year’s best independently published titles in English from around the world. The awards are intended to bring increased recognition to thousands of exemplary independent, university and self-published books released each year.

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News & Events​

The Independent Book Publishers chose Dakota Atttitude as the 2020 recipients of a bronze medallion in the Midwest Best Regional Non-Fiction category.

 

Independent Book Publisher Award - 2020 Best Regional Non-Fiction Midwest. (Photo: Dan Francis)
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Dedications

This book is dedicated to all North Dakota service men and women who died fighting for our freedom, including my dad’s first cousins, brothers Lester and Elmer Puppe, from rural Hensel.

These two died in combat just 69 days apart following the amphibious and air assault of southern Europe during World War II. Lester was killed by small arms fire near Brolo, Sicily, and Elmer died of shell fragmentation wounds just north of the Volturno River in Italy.

These brave soldiers were members of the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, the same military unit as Audie Murphy, the most highly decorated American soldier during World War II.

The Puppe brothers are buried at the Sicily-Rome Cemetery, Nettuno, Italy, amongst 7,856 other American military war dead who gave the ultimate sacrifice—their lives for the free world. This cemetery also has a memorial to 3,095 other Americans missing in action from World War II. Over 200,000 people visit this military cemetery annually.

Lester W. Puppe (1920-1943)
Elmer A. Puppe (1917-1943)

In the Readers' Own Words...​

Dakota Attitude

Even the most inspiring experiences and unique life lessons go unknown if they are not shared. Jim Puppe has travelled North Dakota to ensure those stories were heard and not forgotten.

Having visited every North Dakota town, interviewed 617 people, and documented their words, Jim has assembled Dakota Attitude as our chance to hear those stories directly.

The stories told in Dakota Attitude inspire enjoyment, wonder, admiration, and a few tears. Purchase Dakota Attitude today.

AZ Subtle

Jim traveled over 113,000 miles between 2004 and 2018 to collect the stories now shared in Dakota Attitude. His map has been with him throughout the project and shows the drive, dedication and passion—Jim’s own Dakota Attitude—he engaged while bringing Dakota Attitude to fruition.

Jim’s well-used map of North Dakota. (Photo: Gregory Locnikar)

Dedications

This book is dedicated to all North Dakota service men and women who died fighting for our freedom, including my dad’s first cousins, brothers Lester and Elmer Puppe, from rural Hensel.

These two died in combat just 69 days apart following the amphibious and air assault of southern Europe during World War II. Lester was killed by small arms fire near Brolo, Sicily, and Elmer died of shell fragmentation wounds just north of the Volturno River in Italy.

These brave soldiers were members of the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, the same military unit as Audie Murphy, the most highly decorated American soldier during World War II.

The Puppe brothers are buried at the Sicily-Rome Cemetery, Nettuno, Italy, amongst 7,856 other American military war dead who gave the ultimate sacrifice—their lives for the free world. This cemetery also has a memorial to 3,095 other Americans missing in action from World War II. Over 200,000 people visit this military cemetery annually.

Lester W. Puppe (1920-1943)
Elmer A. Puppe (1917-1943)

In the Readers' Own Words...

Thanks for completing this book...it will touch many people! Joel
Priceless North Dakota wisdom and history! Joyce H.
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More Reader Feedback

The Photographer Behind Dakota Attitude

During his time in Vietnam, Jim was an aerial photographer. The skill became his hobby. It was handy when it came time to do 617 interviews with nearly 1,000 people. Yes, Jim took all the photos for Dakota Attitude. What’s more, he’s been taking pictures of the beauty of his home state for a long time. Here are just a few for you to enjoy. (When they click on the thumbnail the photo pops up in it’s own box and has a caption?)

Moved from the About Page

Name

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor
Read Their Story

Marshall Johnson

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor
Read Their Story

Name

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor
Read Their Story

Calvin and Illah Mae (Kronebusch) Lettenmaier

Selling Beer for 10 Cents a Bottle

He Learned from the Bums

John Redmer of Bowbells, Burke County

Twenty-One Children in 21 Years

Pauline (Koch) Roll
Heil, Grant County

I actually like this one but think our photos are too unreliable in composition for this.

Great that we can pull in from a backend dynamically and can display random stories from a larger database.I’m hoping for 20-30 stories within a few months but six to start. 

We don’t need to crop anything in this before we show Jim…he’ll get it. Not loving the green either. Can the drop shadow be just right and bottom? I could not find how to change this based on your instructions. 🙂

I like this one but the name length (something I dealt with in the book) is just too variable. I entered three names and three titles and you can see how the box height really varies. And Ilah Mae’s name is not uncharacteristic of the book.

This top one is my favorite. I just wish it had the photo legend below it like the second option does. Can the two text fields change in size. Can that popup field change in layout? We have so many compositions and only one photo to choose from for each story. It’s not a deal break if that can’t change. The rate seems fast right now.

Since we have to touch every photo for this, maybe it’s worth it to add their name, info, and title onto the photo (back to what I do for the library). It’ll be some work up front, but if we only have 20-30 stories, it won’t be bad. Then we could use the bottom one that includes the filmstrip but no text on photo options that I can see.

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The rest, shown in order of my preference

I like this six pack below. For demo purposes I’ve changed the top row to fade and the bottom row to zoom out. There was just too much movement for me with all six. We can always tell him there are more options. I messed around here too with changing the font sizes in just columns 1 and 2. I think could also be a nice alternative. We have three potential pieces of information (name, city/county, article title). But I kind of like the lower John Redmer. Nothing to obscure the photo; all the info on the back.

 

The Lettenmaiers

Selling Beer for 10 Cents a Bottle

Calvin and Ilah Mae (Kronebusch) Lettenmaier

He Learned from the Bums

John Redmer

Name

This is the heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor

Calvin and Illah Mae (Kronebusch) Lettenmaier

Selling Beer for 10 Cents a Bottle

John Redmer

He Learned from the Bums

21 Children in 21 Years

Paulette (Koch) Roll

Heil, Grant County

This one could work too.

Calvin and Illah Mae (Kronebusch) Lettenmaier

Selling Beer for 10 cents a Bottle
Read Their Story

John Redmer

He Learned From the Bums
Read Their Story

Name

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor
Read Their Story

VT Suggestions for textures.

Climpek 40%

Going for smaller sections so reducing text 

Jim’s well-used map of North Dakota. (Photo: Gregory Locnikar)

Ecailes

Going for smaller sections so reducing text 

Going for smaller sections so reducing text 

Jim’s well-used map of North Dakota. (Photo: Gregory Locnikar)

Dakota Attitude

Climpek 40%

Dakota Attitude will bring you hours of enjoyment, wonder, recognition and a few tears.​

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Dakota Attitude

Elegant Grid ... this is Roboto Slab italicized

Dakota Attitude will bring you hours of enjoyment, wonder, recognition and a few tears.​

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