When We Gather (Ostadahlisiha): A Cherokee Tribal Feast

In professional development workshops that I do where I ask people to bring books with Native content, I look over what they’ve brought. Lots of old — and not good — nonfiction (series books and biographies) and fiction. I also see dreadful books by Paul Goble that look like they’re Native, but they’re not. A better way to describe them is “white man’s Indian,” which means a white imagining of Native life and culture.

More and more, in recent years, I see that someone has brought in a terrific book. An example is Jenny Kay Dupuis’s I Am Not A Number. A librarian brought that one in last week. Another had Lindstrom and Goade’s We Are Water Protectors. And another had Christine Day’s biography of Maria Tall Chief. Terrific, for me, are books by Native writers who are writing stories from their own nation(s) and family experiences (like Jenny’s), or who give readers a Native point of view on someone who has significance to Native communities (like Christine’s), or that are set in the present day (like Carole and Michaela’s).

Due out this week is another that I hope every library will add to their shelves. Of course, I’m talking about Andrea Rogers and Madelyn Goodnight’s When We Gather (Ostadahlisiha): A Cherokee Tribal Feast.

Some things I love:

On the first page we see a luscious green landscape. Why does that matter? When they think “Native,” a lot of people imagine deserts or plains. A face: Native people were, and are, everywhere.  Continue reading on American Indians in Children’s Literature.

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Find more recommended books about this topic on our American Indians booklist.

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When We Gather (Ostadahlisiha): a Cherokee Tribal Feast by Andrea L. Rogers
Published by HarperCollins Publishers on May 7, 2024
Genres: American Indians First Nations Metis Inuit
Pages: 40
Reading Level: Grade K, Grades 1-2
ISBN: 9780063076792
Review Source: American Indians in Children's Literature
Also by this author: Mary and the Trail of Tears, Chooch Helped

Publisher's Synopsis:

Nothing welcomes spring like a wild onion dinner!

As the dirt warms and green sprouts poke up, a Cherokee girl joins her family in the hunt for green onions. Together, they pick enough to bring to a feast, which is cooked with love and shared by their community.

Idalisdayvhvga!

Let's all eat!

Written with simple, sensory lyricism by Andrea Rogers (Cherokee) and featuring warm, vibrant art by Madelyn Goodnight (Chickasaw), this picture book celebrates the spring tradition of wild onion dinners--and the community and comfort that are shared when we gather.