About this item
The true story of John Meyers and Charles Bender, who in 1911 became the first two Native pro baseball players to face off in a World Series, teaches important lessons about resilience, doing what you love in the face of injustice, and the fight for Native American representation in sports.Charles Bender grew up on the White Earth Reservation in Northwestern Minnesota. John Meyers was raised on the Cahuilla reservation in Southern California. Despite their mutual respect for each other's talents and their shared dedication to Native representation in baseball, the media was determined to pit them against each other.However, they never gave up on their dreams of being pro baseball players and didn't let the supposed rivalry created by the media or the racism they faced within the stadium stop them.
About the Author
Traci Sorell writes award-winning fiction and nonfiction for young people of all ages. Her debut nonfiction picture book We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga, illustrated by Frané Lessac (Charlesbridge, 2018) , won an American Indian Youth Literature Award (AIYLA) - Picture Book Honor, a Sibert Honor, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Picture Book Honor and an Orbis Pictus Honor. Other titles include: At the Mountain's Base, illustrated by Weshoyot Alvitre (Kokila, 2019) , an AIYLA - Picture Book Honor; Indian No More, co-authored with Charlene Willing McManis (Tu Books, 2019) , won the AIYLA Middle Grade category and 2020 Global Read Aloud for Upper Elementary; Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer, illustrated by Natasha Donovan (Millbrook, 2021) , an Orbis Pictus Honor; and, We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know, illustrated by Frané Lessac (Charlesbridge, 2021) . A former federal Indian law attorney and policy advocate, Sorell is a 2021-22 Tulsa Artist Fellow and Cherokee Nation citizen who lives on her tribe's reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. For more about Traci, all of her books and accompanying teachers' guides, visit www.tracisorell.com.
