By Abby Ballas, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
The future Dr. Andrea Rogers is in the process of earning her PhD in English. Despite this, the Cherokee writer and former English and art teacher is already an established and award-winning author of children’s and young adult books. In 2024 alone, she published two books: Chooch Helped, which won a Caldecott Medal for its illustrations, and the sci-fi YA novel The Art Thieves. Rogers is a versatile author; her stories vary in genre from fantasy to historical fiction to science fiction and futurism. Using this versatility, she integrates her knowledge of subjects and issues, such as a range of social justice themes and her expertise in discussing different styles of art.
The Art of The Art Thieves
As would be expected in a book titled The Art Thieves, Rogers demonstrates her passion for the fine arts, music and even other literary works through the analytical eyes of her teenage protagonist, Stevie. The primary piece Rogers focuses on in the book is Martin Puryear’s “Ladder for Booker T. Washington.” The piece “manifests worlds” because the viewer brings her own ideas into how she understands it, thereby becoming somewhat of an artist herself. The same rule applies to literature, including to Rogers’ own book. She says, “The book you read is not going to be the same book I read.”
“Art can evoke something new inside of you, can make you feel something, like you’re a different person from when you sat down to read this story than when you stood up and finished the story. You can have steps in that process which change you, and I think that’s what art does. Art changes you.”
Rogers’ love for art stems from her late father, a talented sketch artist who taught himself to play any and all string instruments. Having grown up surrounded by it, Rogers recognizes that art adds beauty to a place. With her literary artistry, she builds Stevie’s apocalyptic universe by describing art’s beauty into Stevie’s world along with the weight of the societal and familial burdens placed upon her.
Stevie Henry is an insightful but ordinary teenage girl saving up for college by working at an art museum within a world that is falling apart due to extreme climate change. When a boy named Adam shows up as an intern at the museum, they bond over a love of art, Stevie’s interest in their mutual Cherokee heritage, and care for Stevie’s kid brother, Levi, who faces life-threatening health challenges. After spending some time with Stevie and the rest of the Henry family, he admits to her that he is not who he seems: He is from nearly 200 years into the future. In his time, a utopia has arisen out of the ashes of Stevie’s time, during which the world collapsed as a result of human indecency and people’s carelessness about the environment, decimating the population and destroying valuable artwork. Adam’s job is to come back into our near-future and steal the most meaningful pieces to preserve them—but he needs Stevie’s help to do it.
Showcasing Supportive Siblings
The most important person in Stevie’s life and her motivation for most things is her little brother, who requires constant looking after. Stevie’s love for Levi inspires her to make the world a better place. Their relationship is a reflection of Rogers’ relationship with her own brother, who is eight years younger. “My brother was my first experience of unconditional love where I would have done anything for him and wanted to make sure that every day was better for him and that he knew he was loved,” she explains.
This sibling relationship is also the central theme of Chooch Helped. In the picturebook, 2-year-old Chooch “helps” with all kinds of things around the house and in his community, yet he never gets in trouble for the messes he makes, much to the dismay of his older sister, Sissy. When he attempts to help her make a clay pot that gets destroyed in an argument, Sissy is initially upset, but she comes to realize that she plays a vital role as an older sister and a teacher to her loving baby brother.
Collectivism, Futurism and Optimism
Rogers’ considers her characters to be extensions of herself. For instance, her main characters are Cherokee, representing her own culture and beliefs. While not every story is about Cherokee life or heritage, the values influence her works and her worldbuilding. For example, placing value on collectivism over individualism is common in many cultures, including Cherokee culture.
Before writing The Art Thieves, Rogers did additional research on this outlook by reading some afro-futuristic science fiction, “which values community over the individual,” whereas “in traditional sci-fi, the individual is the most important thing.” Individualism is a western mentality that gets conveyed by western authors through white main characters. Finding people of color in sci-fi novels can be difficult; Rogers wanted to see Native people thrive in the future.
To Rogers, “Futurism is about hope, but it’s also about working to create the world we want in the future now.” The disastrous near-future setting of The Art Thieves does not have to come to pass if people in the present learn to care more about each other and the environment they live in. Rogers introduces readers to the harsh subjects of racism, homophobia, transphobia, and sexual assault and invites readers to consider environmentalism and disability inclusion in their own lives in order to build a brighter future. “I think that’s what you can do in writing, is you can basically write a recipe for creating a better world.”
Rogers handles the book’s heavy topics with optimism, even when her characters are faced with an imminent apocalypse. One of Rogers’ favorite interactions with a reader was through a social media user who shared a similar viewpoint to the one crafted by Rogers in The Art Thieves. The reader, who had been disheartened by the state of the world, “felt like they grew with the book” and “could be more hopeful about the future” for having read it.
Another memorable interaction was with a reader who said that Rogers’ previous YA novel, Man Made Monsters, had changed her life. “I can’t think of higher praise than someone telling you that their book got them through something hard or your book changed the way they thought about something (in a good way),” Rogers shared.
Young Voices and New Perspectives
As a child, learning to read allowed Rogers to choose what themes and topics she wanted to explore on her own, without being dependent on others for her entertainment and knowledge. Having raised three kids, she acknowledges that some enjoy reading words on a page more than others, but to her, encouraging kids to think critically is more important than the format of the content they consume. Some kids may prefer podcasts, she says, or very niche subjects. Rogers suggests that caregivers and instructors should continue offering a variety of material in a variety of formats and, most importantly, “Don’t yuck someone’s yum.” Anything that can inspire lifelong curiosity in a kid should be supported.
In her books, Rogers poses thought-provoking situations that motivate young readers to critically consider the effects of their behavior on the world. While her stories are impactful, so are her school visits. For Rogers, a successful school visit “inspires kids to tell their own stories and find their voice.” She encourages all students to share their individual perspectives.
As an art teacher at an all-girls public school, she found that every piece of art was unique to the student who created it. The same, she says, applies to writing: One prompt can lead to vastly different stories from person to person. “There’s so much room out there for stories. There are so many stories we haven’t read, haven’t heard, so many perspectives we haven’t been told about. There’s a lot out there that we don’t know.” In fact, she hopes that future children’s and YA literature will incorporate more of those diverse perspectives while continuing to focus on universal themes like kindness and love.
Authors’ Corner is a periodic profile feature in which authors discuss their writing process and the importance of school visits. Worlds of Words frequently hosts these authors for events in the collection. To find out when we are hosting an author, check out our events page. Journey through Worlds of Words during our open reading hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Themes: Abby Ballas, Andrea Rogers, Art Thieves, Chooch Helped
- Descriptors: Authors' Corner