Bronzeman created several bronze sculptures for the Storybook Trail at Oklahoma State University in 2026 that symbolize various children’s books and create opportunities for exploration and imagination. It is truly a walk through literary experience as visitors can walk from one literary scene to another with the garden as the setting for the stories.
The featured books are:
- Charlotte’s Web — The installation includes a bronze child figure alongside the “Some Pig” spider-web element and a spider sculpture.
- Black Beauty — A dramatic rearing horse sculpture, positioned on top of an open book, represents the classic horse story.
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone — A wizard character and owl sculpture represent the book.
- The Secret Garden — The trail entrance features young Mary Lennox, depicted as she enters the secret garden.
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer — A sculpture of Tom Sawyer appears along the trail, including a scene involving fishing.
There are QR-code experiences at each sculpture, allowing visitors to hear OSU theater students read selected passages from the corresponding books.
The trail was created by Annawyn DeBenning Shamas and her family in honor of her mother, Evelyn DeBenning. Evelyn was a Stillwater teacher who began teaching there in the 1940s and had a particular love of literature and teaching elementary-aged children.
