At the Mountain's Base

Kokila Books/Penguin Random House
ISBN: 9780735230606

Cover of Cherokee Version of At the Mountain's Base by Traci Sorell

A family, separated by duty and distance, waits for a loved one to return home in this lyrical picture book celebrating the bonds of a Cherokee family and the bravery of history-making women pilots.
At the mountain's base sits a cabin under an old hickory tree. And in that cabin lives a family -- loving, weaving, cooking, and singing. The strength in their song sustains them through trials on the ground and in the sky, as they wait for their loved one, a pilot, to return from war. 
With an author's note that pays homage to the true history of Native American U.S. service members like WWII pilot Ola Mildred "Millie" Rexroat, this is a story that reveals the roots that ground us, the dreams that help us soar, and the people and traditions that hold us up.

recognition

2022 Notable Children's Recording
2020 American Indian Youth Literature Award - Picture Book Honor
2020 Notable Books for a Global Society
2020 Bank Street's Best Children's Books of the Year - Poetry
2020 American Library Association Notable Children's Book
2020 Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People
2020 Rise: A Feminist Book Project - Top Ten List

RAVE REVIEWS

  • “Accessible to a wide range of young audiences and military families, this picture book is also a unique and specific recognition of the strength and courage of Indigenous women. A first-purchase for any library.”

    —School Library Journal, starred review

  • “With a message that is universal while also centering Native women, this blend of fiction and nonfiction, the human and the divine, is simply brilliant.”

    —Booklist, starred review

  • “An Indigenous family awaits the return of a loved one, a Women's Airforce Service pilot, in this touching picture book.”

    —Shelf Awareness, starred review

  • “Winningly contemporary, uniting a grandmother’s domestic chores with a song and prayer about a granddaughter who is flying a fighter plane during World War II. Sorell’s poem and Alvitre’s illustrations are marvelously integrated: Words and paintings each take up a part of the story in a very beautiful dance.”

    —David Treuer for the New York Times Book Review

  • “Highly recommended! . . . the words in this book . . . carry so much strength, so much beauty, so much power! The art . . . the colors and arrangement convey a quiet strength. Together they are breathtaking!”

    —Dr. Debbie Reese, American Indians in Children’s Literature

  • “Captures the emotions of families separated by war while introducing the reader to a part of history that is often erased.”

    —The Horn Book

  • “Meditative text is lovely, and the artwork brings the small Cherokee abode to life with warmth and love. Children will find comfort in the story's repetition as well as its message of prayer and peace. A Cherokee family's worry for their loved one at war reminds readers of the sacrifices made by Natives in our military.”

    —Kirkus Reviews

  • “Expansive, intimate picture book”

    —Publishers Weekly

NEWS

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Interviews

listen to Illustrator Weshoyot Alvitre Interviewed on The Children's Book Podcast

Written Interviews

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