by Charles Waters and Traci Sorell
About the Book
In Rye, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, people work hard, kids go to school, and football is big on Friday nights. An eighth-grade English teacher creates an assignment for her class to debate whether Rye’s mascot should stay or change. Now six middle-schoolers—all with different backgrounds and beliefs—get involved in a contentious issue that already has the suburb turned upside down with everyone choosing sides and arguments getting ugly.
Told from several perspectives, readers see how each student comes to new understandings about identity, tradition, and what it means to stand up for real change.
Type of text: Realistic Fiction; Narrative; Middle-Grade Novel in Verse
About the Creators
Charles Waters is an award-winning Black American author, children’s poet, actor, and educator whose works have appeared in various anthologies and magazines including National Geographic. He was born in the Philadelphia area making him a dedicated Philly sports fan. He believes poetry for young people is one of the world’s greatest inventions alongside the creation of fire, the wheel and various breakfast foods.
Traci Sorell is an Indigenous author who lives with her family in the Cherokee Nation, out in the country like she did as a child. Back then, she had geese, chickens, horses, dogs, and cats. Her mother’s Cherokee family has been in the area since the removal of most Cherokee people from their southeastern homelands in 1838. Traci grew up hearing stories about her ancestors and looking at their photographs with her elisi (eh-lee-see), grandma. Now her son does that with his elisi, in addition to fishing in the nearby lake and learning their Cherokee culture. When Traci was a child, she never read culturally accurate books about the Cherokee or any other Indigenous peoples. The stories and poems she writes now reflect her mission to add to the canon of literature showing that Native Nations and their citizens still exist and thrive today.
Note: These descriptions include self-identifiers provided directly by the author, illustrator, and/or publisher via email; they also contain information made publicly available (e.g., through professional websites, interviews, etc)
