This story was updated on Jan. 30 with quotes from the Caldecott committee chair.

A chance meeting of creators grew into Chooch Helped, the 2025 Caldecott Medal winner.

Author Andrea L. Rogers was at the 2022 Cherokee National Holiday in Oklahoma promoting her YA title Man Made Monsters when she met Kunz, a fellow citizen of Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee National Holiday, which commemorates the signing of the 1839 Cherokee Nation Constitution, is an annual celebration that draws tens of thousands of visitors over Labor Day weekend. Among those thousands of people, a serendipitous meeting united an unlikely pair.

Kunz wasn’t a book illustrator, but Rogers was so struck by the artist and the artwork that Rogers immediately texted Levine Querido executive editor Nick Thomas with a link to Kunz’s portfolio. When it was time to find an illustrator for Rogers’s manuscript of Chooch Helped—a story about a Cherokee family and a younger brother who is just trying to help his sister and other family members—Thomas contacted Kunz.

“I fell in love with the story instantly,” said Kunz. “I really just loved Chooch.”

Rogers gave Kunz “pretty much full creative license,” Kunz said. Thomas also empowered the fine artist feel free to create as a newly minted children’s book illustrator.

“He was very encouraging of me to use my voice and not hold back,” said Kunz.

With the support of Rogers and the guidance of Thomas along with art director Joy Chu, the debut book illustrator was ready to get to work. Rogers’s only ask was that the characters and illustrations represent modern, contemporary Indigenous life.

“That means people living and doing very modern things, because we are modern people; we live in today, not in the past,” Kunz said. “It's really important to me that we get to tell this story. We also get to debunk a lot of myths that people have about what it's like to be Indigenous in this time. In 2025 there remain a lot of stereotypes, a lot of misconceptions.”

It was also important to Kunz to create characters that young Indigenous readers could see themselves in and relate to. While the visual for Chooch came to Kunz quickly, the rest of the characters developed over time, following the same process from paintings in Kunz’s fine art career. Kunz tries to allow the images to shift and change as needed to become what they are meant to be.

“I take inspiration from all over the place, everything I see and do in the world,” Kunz said. “I intentionally gather a lot of traditional Cherokee motifs and symbols, and I infused a lot of that into this book, as I do with all of my work.”

Chooch Helped will now have the coveted Caldecott Medal sticker on its cover, vaulting the book into broader release and onto more school and public library shelves.

“I wasn't expecting it at all, so it was a huge surprise,” said Kunz, who received the call from the Caldecott committee on Sunday. “I'm still in shock.”

Caldecott committee chair Hanna Lee called Chooch Helped the "indisputable medalist" among the noteworthy collection of picture books reviewed.

"When we began discussing all of the remarkable picture books of 2024, our committee quickly found that Chooch Helped stood alone in truly meeting all of the Caldecott criteria—excellence of execution of artistic technique, excellence of pictorial interpretation of the story, appropriateness of style of illustration, delineation of plot/theme/characters/setting, and excellence of presentation in recognition of a child audience," said Lee. "Kunz expertly deploys simple lines to so clearly express Chooch's delight and Sissy's growing frustration, and each element layered into each spread—the evocative textures of cloth, the origami cranes, the footprints that track through the book, and the incorporation of Cherokee motifs, to name a few—gives the story deeper meaning. Chooch Helped clearly demonstrates the care and thought that goes into making an exemplary picture book, from cover to cover, and our committee is proud and honored to play a role in recognizing its excellence."

The diversity of considered titles stood out to the committee, according to Lee.

"Diversity of art styles, themes, narrative styles, author/illustrator backgrounds," she said. "Our group of Caldecott Honor titles, each exceptional in their own right, gives a sense of the quality and diversity of picture books that we reviewed. We were thrilled to see it, even as it made our work more challenging. While Chooch Helped was our indisputable medalist, there were many noteworthy picture books this year, and we wanted to recognize all of them! Illustrators who were not named among our winners and honors should know that our committee reviewed your books with respect and care, and that we will advocate tirelessly for you and your books."

With this Caldecott Medal, publisher Levine Querido has now won the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz awards since being founded in 2019. And with one project, Kunz—who is working on a second book—is now part of children’s literature’s elite.

“I'm not sure I know what it means, what all is coming,” said Kunz. “I feel humbled, and I feel the responsibility and the weight of holding this title and being among the other Caldecott Medalists. It's a huge honor, the honor of a lifetime. I hope it means more people that are underrepresented can have their voice and be inspired.”