Holidays are time for gifts, and there are many wonderful books for folks of all ages written by authors close to home. I still celebrate every book I find written by a Native about their tribe. It’s still so deeply affirming to find stories that reflect the lives we live written by tribal members who know what they’re talking about. The many years of invisibility or misrepresentation make it extra special.
“The Art Thieves” by Cherokee author Andrea Rogers, is a young adult collection of stories of Cherokee futurism inspired by Afrofuturism, specifically the iconic Octavia Butler. Indigenous futurism, science fiction and horror have increased in popularity lately.
I hadn’t been a horror reader until I tiptoed into Stephen Graham Jones’ “The Only Good Indians” (Saga Press, 2020) and was hooked. His down-to-earth style and familiar Native world drew me in, and I found myself in the middle of scenes I wouldn’t have read if given a choice. Jones’s affable, sympathetic protagonist drew me along as he found himself in outlandish situations, for example, as he climbed a precarious ladder to fix an unstable electric ceiling fan, whose switch was not reliable. Predictable mayhem ensues involving an undead elk seeking revenge. I found myself reading and laughing, horrified but hooked.
All to say, when I started reading “The Art Thieves,” which begins with an email from a teen to her Mom about a pending apocalypse, “by the time you read this, it will be too late. No one will have started to panic, yet;” I was holding my breath.
“The Art Thieves,” like Rogers’ “Man Made Monsters” (2022) which won the Walter Dean Myers Award for Teens, was published by Levine Querido and is well-designed with evocative mystic figures and stars on the cover by Cherokee artist Rebecca Lee Kunz.
As an Osage and Cherokee myself, many of the historic settings in Andrea Rogers’ work are personal. Rogers weaves classic monsters into the landscape and situations in 1800s Cherokee history that many northeastern Oklahoma Natives know.
More and more beautiful Native children’s books are being published, among them two by Rogers. Leaving horror, Rogers turns her attention to the wild onion dinners that we enjoy in “When We Gather (Ostadahlisiha),” “A Traditional Cherokee Feast,” illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight (Chickasaw), published by We Need Diverse Books and Harper Collins this year. Released in October, “Chooch Helped,” offers a tender look at a sister learning to share space and with a much younger brother, with more beautiful images by Rebecca Lee Kunz.
No doubt quite a few Osages will find the new Maria Tallchief Barbie under the Christmas tree. Joining the Barbie Inspiring Women Series, which includes Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller, Susan B. Anthony and Billie Jean King, the new Barbie features the striking red costume that Maria Tall Chief wore to dance Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird ballet. Maybe some of our incredibly talented Osage crafters will be inspired to make tiny Barbie-sized ribbon skirts to go with even smaller beaded earrings and necklaces for other dolls and Barbies in their collections.