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Cover Reveal for “Clack, Clack! Smack!: A Cherokee Stickball Story” by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Joseph Erb

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Here is the amazing cover of Clack, Clack! Smack! A Cherokee Stickball Story by Traci Sorell and illustrated by Joseph Erb! The book will release from Charlesbridge on August 6, 2024. 

Cover reveal of "Clack, Clack! Smack! A Cherokee Stickball Story"

Award-winning author Traci Sorell and debut picture-book illustrator Joseph Erb come together to create a book about a game important to Cherokee people—stickball. Can the Eagles clack, clack their sticks together to smack the pole in time to win?

Vann isn’t a good player. He messed up in a game just last week, and he’s feeling down on himself. He doesn’t know if he’s OK when his friend and star player, Jesse, asks, “Osdatsu?”

Can these two boys work together to bring victory to their team?

Creating a book is always a group effort. Other integral book making team members of Clack, Clack! Smack! include Charlesbridge Publishing’s senior editor Karen Boss and creative director Diane Earley. Traci also consulted with fellow Cherokee Nation citizens to craft this story. Ryan Mackey, JP Johnson and Ryan Sierra shared their knowledge of stickball and its evolution. Cherokee first language speaker and translator John Ross helped with the Cherokee syllabary.

Congrats to all!

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Traci Sorell writes award-winning fiction and nonfiction in a variety of formats for young people. She is the best-selling author of Powwow Day; We Are Still Here!; We Are Grateful Otsaliheliga; Contenders; and At the Mountain’s Base as well as the coauthor of Mascot. She is an enrolled Cherokee Nation citizen and lives within her tribe’s reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. www.tracisorell.com

Joseph Erb is a computer animator, film producer, educator, language technologist and artist enrolled in the Cherokee Nation. He created the first Cherokee animation in the Cherokee language, “The Beginning They Told.” He has spent many years working on projects that expand the use of Cherokee language. He teaches at University of California, Santa Cruz and has spent his life in continued dedication to Indigenous stories and language. This is his first picture book. www.josepherb.com