Traci Sorell Books In Order

Publication Order of Children's Books

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of She Persisted Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Traci Sorell is an accomplished best-selling author and a citizen of Cherokee Nation. She is known for writing historical and contemporary fiction and nonfiction work in different formats for young people and has won awards for her work (she is a two-time winner of the Sibert Medal and is an Orbis Pictus honoree).

In addition to her stories, Traci is also an award-winning narrator of audiobooks and a producer. Several of her books have been given awards from the American Indian Library Association. She has received other awards as well for her work. This lengthy list includes the Charlotte Huck Honor Award, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Honor Award, the Septima Clark Women in Literature Honor Award, the International Literacy Association’s Social Justice Literature Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, and Reading the West’s Picture Book Winner. It has also made it to the top of many Best-of and Notables lists.

She is a former federal Indigenous law attorney and a policy advocate. She is a first generation college graduate and lives with her family in the Cherokee Nation, out in the country on the tribe’s reservation in Northeastern Oklahoma like she did when she was younger. Then she had all types of animals around, such as cats, dogs, chickens, horses, and geese. The family on her mother’s side has been living in this area ever since the removal of many of the Cherokee people in 1838 from their homelands in the southeast.

Traci would hear stories while growing up about her ancestors and would look at their photographs with her grandmother. Now her son has taken on this tradition. He also fishes in the lake close by and learns more about their culture.

When she was younger, the author would read quite often. She would also act and sing in different musical theater productions. She loved playing with her younger siblings, and along with her sister and brother would drive toy cars over towns drawn on cardboard or play outside with their own games they had made up.

When they first moved to town, they would spend their days in the summer riding their bikes to the pool to swim and go to the library to check out books. When they weren’t home, they would visit their family all over the nation and west or different places in Oklahoma. To this day, Sorell enjoys playing learning, swimming, reading, and traveling.

Her family would relocate to the southern California area when Traci was just a teen. She didn’t act as much but she wrote more, in class and as part of the yearbook staff. She became the first in her family to go to college and graduate, but her siblings and her mother would later go on to get their degrees.

Prior to becoming a children’s author, Traci focused on assisting the Native Nations and the people who belong to them as citizens. She would write legal codes, federal budget requests, testimony for Congressional hearings, reports, and grants. She has kept up that area of work through her original stories for younger people as well as working to encourage other Native artists to share their own.

When she was younger, the author did not read books that were culturally accurate about the Cherokee or different Indigenous people. The poems and stories that she writes now are intended to show her mission to add to literature showing how Native Nations continue to exist and thrive today.

Here are some interesting facts about this author that readers might not know about! Traci tried out for the part of Annie in the 1982 movie when she was eight years old. She also has all of the books that she enjoyed when she was younger. She also cannot whistle, no matter the amount of effort that she puts in. She’s working on learning the Cherokee language, but is not fluent. She lived in Madrid for a year in college and her second language is actually Spanish.

Powwow Day is a picture book written by Traci Sorell and illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight. If you have been looking for a unique children’s book as an adult that will be both interesting and enriching for your audience, this is a great selection.

The plot of the book revolves around River, an eight year old girl. She’s used to dancing at the powwow but is getting over a sickness and cannot do it this year. She has no idea if she’ll ever be able to dance again.

River really wants to dance on powwow day, something she is used to doing every year. Readers will follow along with her journey from feeling on her own after going through an illness as well as learning how community can be not only helpful but healing in a picture book that is great for readers who are just starting out.

This book also goes further into the history of powwows and their function, which take place in the U.S. and Canada and are open to Native Americans as well as visitors who are not natives. Traci Sorell is part of the Cherokee Nation and the illustrator belongs to the Chicasaw Nation.

Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series is an illustrated book written by Traci Sorell and illustrated by Arigon Starr. If you are familiar with other books from this author, you’ll be interested in yet another book that goes into native history that entertains and informs at the same time.

This is the story of John Meyers and Charles Bender. In 1911, they became the first two professional baseball players who were Native to face off in a World Series. The book shows off different lessons about resilience, as well as doing what you care about in the face of injustice, as well as how Native American representation in sports was fought for.

Charles grew up in northwestern Minnesota on the White Earth Reservation. John Meyers grew up in southern California on the Cahuilla reservation. Both individuals respected the other’s talents and were dedicated to representing Native people in baseball. Despite this, the media would not stop putting them up against each other.

Neither Charles or John gave up on the dream of being a professional baseball player. They also refused to let the media rivalry or stadium racism get in their way. They broke barriers, playing in a total of nine champions. Grab a copy of this book and read this inspiring story that really happened!