Chooch Helped

A Cherokee girl introduces her younger brother to their family's traditions — begrudgingly! — in this picture book written by Walter Award-winner Andrea L. Rogers and featuring gorgeous collage illustrations from debut artist Rebecca Lee Kunz.

Sissy’s younger brother, Chooch, isn’t a baby anymore. They just celebrated his second birthday, after all. But no matter what Chooch does — even if he’s messing something up! Which is basically all the time! — their parents say he’s just “helping.” Sissy feels that Chooch can get away with anything!

When Elisi paints a mural, Chooch helps. When Edutsi makes grape dumplings, Chooch helps. When Oginalii gigs for crawdads, Chooch helps. When Sissy tries to make a clay pot, Chooch helps . . .

“Hesdi!” Sissy yells. Quit it! And Chooch bursts into tears. What follows is a tender family moment that will resonate with anyone who has welcomed a new little one to the fold. Chooch Helped is a universal story of an older sibling learning to make space for a new child, told with grace by Andrea L. Rogers and stunning art from Rebecca Lee Kunz showing one Cherokee family practicing their cultural traditions.

Andrea L. Rogers is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and graduated with an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. Her collection of horror stories, Man Made Monsters, received six starred reviews and won the Walter Dean Myers Award for Young Adult fiction. She has a YA novel entitled The Art Thieves also forthcoming from Levine Querido.

Author residence: Fayetteville, AR

Rebecca Lee Kunz (b. 1975 Norman, OK) is a multi-media artist and the owner of Tree of Life Studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She earned a BFA in painting from the College of Santa Fe in 1998. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, her work draws upon traditional iconography and is greatly inspired by mythic and archetypical symbolism, where each of her paintings serves as an invocation and a prayer. Chooch Helped is her debut picture book.

Illustrator residence: Sante Fe, NM