Being Home is a contemporary story of a young Cherokee girl making the move from her current house in the city back to her ancestorial lands. Life in the city is chaotic and lacks the rhythm, family and natural surroundings of “home.” The young girl is ready to return home to the land of her people and Native culture. When moving day comes, the girl joyfully tells her old home good-bye and draws out her journey to her new home where she is greeted by relatives eager to help the family settle. When the move is done, the family gathers for a feast, the children play and explore their natural surroundings and the girl comes to “love the rhythm of being home.”
Unlike most picturebooks that highlight fears and uncertainties of moving away from a childhood home, this story shares the joy in reconnecting with family and heritage. The use of pink crayon within the illustrations signifies a progression of reconnection to the young girl’s home. While in the city, the pink is minimal. The first illustration shows a burst of pink within the window of the girl’s home that is centered on the page surrounded by the chaos of the city. The following page zooms in closer to reveal the young girl in the window drawing with the pink crayon.
The drawings depict the pieces of her native land that she longs for; the pieces that can only be found in the girl’s imagination when she resides in the city. As the girl makes her journey home, the pink crayon leads the way. Once she is home, the pink begins to fill more of the girl’s surroundings from the foods she eats to the flowers found in nature, and bursts of pink hovering above her family. As the sun sets, the two-page spread becomes a world of pinkish hues. As the sky darkens, a fog of pink is left behind, highlighting that the girl has found herself within her home on her ancestorial lands.
“Being home” takes on a deeper meaning so often shared by Indigenous peoples who have felt a disconnect with their heritage when placed outside of their ancestorial lands. As I read this book, my thoughts turned to my own grandmother, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation. Following a whitewashed narrative within her schooling, my grandmother left the reservation of her native tribe as soon as the opportunity arose. In doing so, she also left behind many aspects of her culture including the language and many traditions. Her daughters were raised in a white American culture but would visit family still living on their ancestorial lands from time to time. For my mother, these visits felt like a return to her native heritage; a return to “home.”
Being Home illustrates how the colonization of Indigenous peoples on American soil has confined access to Native culture to small areas of land. Negative stereotypes and colonization have furthered damaged Indigenous rights and access to their native heritage. Even as native-born American citizens, we lose pieces of our heritage once life takes us beyond the reservation lines. In effect, Being Home reminds us of a need for recognizing, valuing and honoring Native ways of knowing, not just as relics of the past but as dynamic frameworks still alive today.
Both the author, Traci Sorell (Cherokee Nation), and the illustrator, Michaela Goade (Tlinget Nation), are award-winning creators of Indigenous Youth Literature. Traci grew up and continues to reside in her ancestorial lands in northeastern Oklahoma. Likewise, Michaela also grew up and continues to live in her native homeland along the southeast coast of Alaska.–Recommended by Deonna Tourtellot, Red Rock Elementary School
Title: Being Home
Author: Traci Sorell
Illustrator: Michaela Goade
ISBN: 9781984816030
PubDate: May 7, 2024
Publisher: Kokila
Each month a committee of Worlds of Words advisors recommends a book published within the last year. Our hope is to spark conversations on our website and on social media about the book that expand global understandings and perceptions. Please join us by leaving a comment. You can also share your thoughts with us by using the hashtag #WOWRecommends on social media.
- Themes: Being Home, Deonna Tourtellot, Michaela Goade, Traci Sorell
- Descriptors: WOW Recommends