This is an odd little book -- more of a collection of short stories than a linear narrative. Almost feels like a magazine, and the illustrations are compelling. I am deeply amused at Chooch's loathsome teenager attitude and delighted at how his uncles manage to connect with him anyway. ( )

This small but important collection includes two illustrated stories and a third section called "Cherokee Life Today," with information and photos.

In "The Reluctant Storyteller," Maurice Tenkiller resists the perceived expectation that he become an oral storyteller like many others in his family, but his family actually encourages him to be his own person - which in his case, means expressing himself through cooking ("Helping to feed his family was part of a larger family tradition he had never really thought much about").

"His mother once told him that her father, his grandfather, had talked the quills off an angry porcupine in their backyard in Oklahoma.
'That's how we got possums,' she said."

In the second story, "The Energy of the Thunder Beings," young Saloli ventures up a mountain called Standing Man, in search of hickory wood to make sticks to play anetsodi. His mother warns him not to go up there, but although he disregards this warning, he takes into account the stories she has told about the mountain and the Thunder Beings and the Little People who live there. In this way, Saloli is able to make the trip safely and return successfully ("You didn't take what wasn't yours. And you knew the right words to say").

In the third section, Traci Sorell presents facts about Cherokee life today, including a map of the Cherokee Nation, a few words and a pronunciation guide, and photographs. ( )