Middle School

The Berkeley Unified School District honors and celebrates the history, contemporary issues and culture of the Indigenous People of the Americas.  In November 2020, the BUSD Board of Education passed a resolution to annually recognize the month of November as Indigenous People’s Heritage Month.  


These reading lists, organized by grade level, represent books published in the last 5 years that are devoted to celebrating, representing, and affirming Indigenous heritage, featuring Indigenous authors, characters and the North American Indigenous experience.


All of these books are available through Berkeley school libraries as a physical and/or digital book. If an ebook is available through Sora, you can access it by clicking the cover of the book. For more information about any of these books, or to check one of them out, ask your school librarian.

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kidsedited by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Genre: Short Stories
Audiobook available
Apple: Skin to the Coreby Eric Gansworth
Genre: Memoir in Verse
Audiobook available
The Barren Grounds: The Misewa Saga Series #1-3by David Alexander Robertson
Genre: Fantasy
Audiobook available
Bordersby Thomas King
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Format: Graphic Novel
Colonization and the Wampanoag Storyby Linda Coombs
Genre: Nonfiction
Elatsoeby Darcie Little Badger
Genre: Fantasy
Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: Young Readers' Editionby Anton Treuer
Genre: Nonfiction
The Grizzly Motherby Hetxw'ms Gyetxw
Genre: Illustrated Nonfiction

I Can Make This Promiseby Christine Day
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Audiobook available


Indian No Moreby Charlene Willing McManis
Genre: Historical Fiction

Mascotby Charles Waters and Traci Sorell
Genre: Fiction
Format: Novel in Verse
No Place Like Homeby James Bird
Genre: Fiction
Powwow: A Celebration Through Song and Danceby Karen Pheasant-Neganigwane
Genre: Nonfiction
The Sea in Winterby Christine Day
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Audiobook available
The Sea-Ringed World: Sacred Stories of the Americasedited by Maria Garcia Esperon
Genre: Myths
Audiobook available
Sisters of the Neverseaby Cynthia Leitich Smith
Genre: Fantasy
Audiobook available
The Star That Always Staysby Anna Rosa Johnson
Genre: Historical Fiction




We Still Belongby Christine Day
Genre: Fiction

Audiobook available
Weird Rules to Followby Kim Spencer
Genre: Historical Fiction