Author Traci Sorell will read her new picture book, Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series.

The true story of John Meyers and Charles Bender, who in 1911 became the first two pro baseball players from Native Nations 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 came from the White Earth Ojibwe 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. They continued to break barriers and went on to play a combined total of nine championships.

With text by Traci Sorell and illustrations by Arigon Starr that brings these two players to life, the stories of John Meyers and Charles Bender remain an inspiration for achieving and maintaining one’s dreams in the face of prejudice.

Best-selling author Traci Sorell writes inclusive, award-winning historical and contemporary fiction and nonfiction in a variety of formats for young people. She is a two-time Sibert Medal and Orbis Pictus honoree and award-winning audiobook narrator and producer. Her first five books have received awards from the American Indian Library Association. Other accolades include Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, International Literacy Association's Social Justice Literature Award Winner, Reading The West’s Picture Book Winner, and many Best-of and Notables lists. In 2023, she shares Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series, a Kirkus Reviews starred nonfiction picture book biography illustrated by Arigon Starr, and Mascot, a middle grade fiction novel-in-verse co-authored with Charles Waters.

A former federal Indigenous law attorney and policy advocate, Traci is a Cherokee Nation citizen and first-generation college graduate. She lives with her family within her tribe’s reservation in northeastern Oklahoma. For more about Traci and her work, visit www.tracisorell.com.

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