Description
Christine Hartman Derr is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She’s a graduate from VCFA’s Writing for Children MFA program, where she was selected as a DEI Fellow and a Center for Arts and Social Justice Fellow. Her work includes themes on identity, belonging, and sharing the Cherokee language. Originally from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Christine lives in Tennessee with her spouse, children, and a rambunctious crew of lovable pets. Morgan Thompson is a Cherokee artist who loves telling stories. When not drawing, she is often writing, and when she isn’t writing she is beading. She has a deep love for her Cherokee community and telling Indigenous stories to a wider audience. She lives in Ada, Oklahoma.
This lyrical and tender debut picture book celebrates the memory of beloved, departed family members, and the power of language to link memory across time.
Instead of saying goodbye in Cherokee, people say donadagohvi (doh-nah-dah-goh-HUVH-ee)—“until we meet again.”
Though Millie has never met her grandfather, his memory leaves a handprint on her life. In her family’s stories and old pictures, she feels his presence.
Her grandfather’s greatest gift of all was words—Tsalagi (Cherokee) words that were kept safe and passed down to her. When Millie speaks these words, she knows he’s listening and feels his love most of all.
From author Christine Hartman Derr (Cherokee) and illustrator Morgan Thompson (Cherokee) comes a life-affirming picture book about our connections to the family that came before us. Audience: Ages 4-8.