Leah Mesquita
ICT
When Traci Sorell’s son was in preschool, only a handful of children’s books told contemporary Native stories – and none were about Cherokee people.
“It really surprised me because there are a lot of people in between the three Cherokee tribes that write, but no one was writing things for young people,” Sorell said. “That concerned me.”
Sorell, an eight-time American Indian Library Association award winner, was inspired to change that. Using her love of fiction, her community and her own observations as a mother, she created stories focused on experiences unique to her nation.
“‘Otsaliheliga’ was my first (published) book,” Sorell said. “It’s the Cherokee sentence ‘we are grateful’ …it was (written) to help Cherokee kids first and foremost, and the people around them see that we are very much still here.”
Sorell’s latest book, “Being Home”, is no different. The story follows a young Cherokee girl and her family as they prepare to move from the city back to their Native homeland. Through vibrant illustrations and powerful words, readers are given a look at Cherokee culture, Oklahoma landscapes and a tender family reunion.
“I wanted it to be joyous because there is a lot of movement in our communities and among our nations,” Sorell said. “And I want to share that joy whether you’re moving to the city to be closer to family or you’re moving to the reservation to be closer to family.”
Sorell said that the book’s message can be equally impactful for Cherokee families who live outside their homelands, as “Being Home” is more than a story specific to one location.
“You’ll have people who disparage living in the homelands and say ‘That’s not a place that you want to be,’” Sorell said. “Some of us, like in our case, it’s not our original homelands. …it’s where we were placed, but so many of us have grown up here and have history here and connection to this land.”
Replicating the vibrancy of Oklahoma’s hot pink sunsets, flowing rivers and blossoming fauna was crucial to executing Sorell’s vision, which is why she hand-picked illustrator and 2021 Caldecott Medal winner Michaela Goade for the project.
“I was under the assumption that Oklahoma was like a prairie grassland and not as diverse in its plant life or its color palette. But the more I researched, the more I realized how wrong I was,” Goade said. “Tracy was able to provide a thumb drive with hundreds of photos from her own photo library, so I got to see a variety of cultural activities and landscape activities.”
Goade, who is known for illustrating picture books about Indigenous communities, says she was only given a Word document to help develop her illustrations.
“I think what helped really move the art journey along was making the central figure the main character, the young girl, a young artist,” Goade said. “So we kind of see her sketches early on as she’s dreaming about moving back home to their reservation. And then as the journey progresses, her sketches start to permeate the landscape just demonstrating how her inner and outer worlds are aligning and what that means to her in her family.”
As Goade played with different color palettes, she said she felt “a bit like a botanist” while developing the lush forests around the main character’s new home.
“So I had all of these sheets of plants and colors and whatnot and one that really popped out to me was pink that they have on the Redbud trees,” Goade said. “Those trees and some of the other flowers are really vibrant magenta and it just started appearing in the art as I was working and it just made me really happy.”
As the young Cherokee girl moves from the city to her rural homeland, Goade relied on different palettes to contrast different emotions that coincided with the character’s move.
“As we move the girl from the city to the reservation, we have more muted colors, and then they become more vibrant,” Goade said. “Obviously as they get to the reservation we start to see the visual language a lot of right angles and straight edges. …As they move to the country, all of a sudden it starts to get more wild and just letting the art or the materials do their own thing was part of it.”
Sorell says that “Being Home” can be seen as a celebratory book by anyone, no matter their background or their reasons for leaving home in the first place.
“The book itself can speak to a lot of different reasons why people move,” Sorell said. “We’re always people that move back and forth between spaces. Sometimes you need to leave for a certain job or educational opportunities, but so many people are able to move home and use their education or their job to move closer to family.”
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