Native American Books
Grades K-2
Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior by Carole Lindstrom: This picture book biography is about two Indigenous Rights Activists, Josephine Mandamin and Autumn Peltier, who worked tirelessly to protect our water . (2023)
Berry Song by Michaela Goade: As a young Tlingit girl collects wild berries over the seasons, she sings with her Grandmother as she learns to speak to the land and listen when the land speaks back. (2022, video)
Forever Our Home/kâkikê kîkinaw by Tonya Simpson: This picture-book lullaby, in both Plains Cree and English, is a celebration of the plants and animals of the Prairies and a meditation on the sacred, ancestral connections between Indigenous children and their Traditional Territories. (2023, video)
Grandma's Tipi: A Present-Day Lakota Story by S. D. Nelson: Clara spends her summer visiting her grandma and cousin on Standing Rock reservation, where Clara and her family set up the ancestral tipi and grow closer together as they tell stories, sing songs, and learn about their Lakota roots. (2023, video)
Hiawatha and the Peacemaker by Robbie Robertson: Hiawatha, a Mohawk, is plotting revenge for the murder of his wife and daughters by the evil Onondaga Chief, Tadodaho, when he meets the Great Peacemaker, who enlists his help in bringing the nations together to share his vision of a new way of life marked by peace, love, and unity rather than war, hate, and fear. (2015, video)
I Sang You Down From the Stars by Tasha Spillett-Sumner: A Native American woman describes how she loved her child before it was born and, throughout her pregnancy, gathered a bundle of gifts to welcome the newborn. (2021, video)
Just Like Grandma by Kim Rogers: Becca loves spending time with Grandma. Every time Becca says, "Let me try," Grandma shows her how to make something beautiful. Whether they are beading moccasins, dancing like the most beautiful butterflies, or practicing basketball together, Becca knows that, more than anything, she wants to be just like Grandma. And as the two share their favorite activities, Becca discovers something surprising about Grandma. (2023, video)
Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story by Danielle Greendeer: Wampanoag children listen as their grandmother tells them the story about how Weeâchumun (the wise Corn) asked local Native Americans to show the Pilgrims how to grow food to yield a good harvest. (2022, video)
A Letter for Bob by Kim Rogers: Ever since the day Mom and Dad brought Bob home from the car dealership, Bob has been a part of Katie’s family. Bob has taken them all over, from powwows to vacations to time spent with faraway family. Bob has been there in sad and scary times and for some of the family’s most treasured memories. But after many miles, it’s time for the family to say goodbye to Bob. Katie writes a goodbye letter to her family's car, thanking him for the memories. (2023)
The Most Amazing Bird by Michael Kusugak: When Aggataa goes for a cold winter walk with her grandmother, she's surprised by a sudden CRAH! All the birds have flown south for the winter except one kind, the tulugarguat, the ravens. They're the ugliest birds that Aggaataa has ever seen. They look like they slept in their coats, coats that don't even fit! However, as the winter slowly moves towards spring, Aggataa connects with one small raven in particular. As the seasons change in full, the ravens leave and are replaced by seagulls, cranes, geese, ducks, and swans-all of them far more elegant than the "Ugly Bird." But where Aggataa once thought the ravens odd for visiting during the harshest part of the year, she now finds herself watching the horizon, waiting for the return of the most amazing bird. (2020)
On the Trapline by David Robertson: A boy and Moshom, his grandpa, take a trip together to visit a place of great meaning to Moshom. A trapline is where people hunt and live off the land, and it was where Moshom grew up. As they embark on their northern journey, the child repeatedly asks his grandfather, "Is this your trapline?" Along the way, the boy finds himself imagining what life was like two generations ago, a life that appears to be both different from and similar to his life now. (2021, video)
Powwow Day by Traci Sorell: Because she has been very ill and weak, River cannot join in the dancing at this year's tribal powwow. She can only watch from the sidelines as her sisters and cousins dance the celebration, but as the drum beats she finds the faith to believe that she will recover and dance again. (2022, video)
Remember by Joy Harjo: US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo's iconic poem "Remember" invites readers to pause and reflect on the wonder of the world around them, and to remember the importance of their place in it. (2023, video)
The Song That Called Them Home by David A. Robertson: Lured away by the songs of mystical creatures in the lake, two Indigenous children must find their way home. (2023, video)
The Water Lady: How Darlene Arviso Helps a Thirsty Navajo Nation by Alice B. McGinty: Cody is worried when his family on a New Mexico Navajo reservation runs out of water, but Darlene Arviso, called "The Water Lady," is on the way with her tanker truck. (2021, video)
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom: Water is the first medicine. It affects and connects us all. When a black snake threatens to destroy the Earth and poison her people's water, one young water protector takes a stand to defend Earth's most sacred resource. Inspired by the many indigenous-led movements across North America, this bold and lyrical picture book issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth's water from harm and corruption. (2020, audiobook)
Grades 3-5
Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories For Kids edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith: This collection of intersecting stories by both new and veteran Native writers bursts with hope, joy, resilience, the strength of community, and Native pride. (2021, audiobook)
How I Became a Ghost: A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story by Tim Tingle: A Choctaw boy tells the story of his tribe's removal from the only land its people had ever known, and how their journey to Oklahoma led him to become a ghost with the ability to help those he left behind. (2013, video 1, video 2)
I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day: When twelve-year-old Edie finds letters and photographs in her attic that change everything she thought she knew about her Native American mother's adoption, she realizes she has a lot to learn about her family's history and her own identity. (2019, audiobook)
Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse: A Navajo teen teams up with her younger brother and her best friend to battle monsters threatening their world. (2020, audiobook)
Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac: Malian loves spending time with her grandparents at their home on a Wabanaki reservation. She’s there for a visit when, suddenly, all travel shuts down. There’s a new virus making people sick, and Malian will have to stay with her grandparents for the duration. Everyone is worried about the pandemic, but Malian knows how to keep her family and community safe: She protects her grandparents, and they protect her. She doesn’t go outside to play with friends, she helps her grandparents use video chat, and she listens to and learns from their stories. And when Malsum, one of the dogs living on the rez, shows up at their door, Malian’s family knows that he’ll protect them too. (2021, audiobook)
The Sea in Winter by Christine Day: After an injury sidelines her dreams of becoming a ballet star, Maisie is not excited for her blended family's midwinter road trip along the coast, near the Makah community where her mother grew up. (2021, audiobook)
The Second Chance of Benjamin Waterfalls by James Bird: After being caught stealing one too many times, Benjamin Waterfalls is sent to a "boot camp" at the Ojibwe reservation where he searches for answers as he tries to turn his life around and embrace this second chance. (2022, video)
Sisters of the Neversea by Cynthia Leitich Smith: Three children from a blended Creek-British family follow Peter Pan to an island filled with animals, merfolk, and fairies, but when they discover the dark side of Peter and Neverland they plan their escape. (2021, video)
Two Roads by Joseph Bruchac: In 1932, twelve-year-old Cal must stop being a hobo with his father and go to a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school, where he begins learning about his history and heritage as a Creek Indian. (2018, audiobook)
We Are Still Here!: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know by Traci Sorell: A group of Native American kids from different tribes presents twelve historical and contemporary time periods, struggles, and victories to their classmates. (2021, audiobook)
We Still Belong by Christine Day: Wesley's hopeful plans for Indigenous Peoples' Day (and asking her crush to the dance) go all wrong, until she finds herself surrounded by the love of her Indigenous family and community at the intertribal powwow. (2023)
Grades 6-8
Apple in the Middle by Dawn Quigley: Apple Starkington turned her back on her Native American heritage the moment she was called a racial slur for someone of white and Indian descent, not that she really even knew how to be an Indian in the first place. Too bad the white world doesn't accept her either. And so begins her quirky habits to gain acceptance. (2018)
The Barren Grounds by David Robertson: Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. (2020, author interview)
Borders by Thomas King: A boy and his mother refuse to identify themselves as American or Canadian at the border and become caught in the limbo between nations when they claim their citizenship as Blackfoot. (2022)
Chasing Bigfoot by Art Coulson: Chooch Tenkiller is not thrilled to be spending some of his summer with his Cherokee story-telling uncles and cousin Janees at a convention in North Carolina. While there, the uncles want to visit Judaculla Rock, a place of spiritual significance to the Cherokee people. Little does Chooch know that he has his own connection to the rock--a connection that could put him in mortal danger. (2022)
The Healer of the Water Monster by Brian Young: When Nathan goes to visit his grandma, Nali, at her mobile summer home on the Navajo reservation, he knows he's in for a pretty uneventful summer, with no electricity or cell service. Still, he loves spending time with Nali and with his uncle Jet, though it's clear when Jet arrives that he brings his problems with him. (2021, author interview)
In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse by Joseph Marshall: Teased for his fair coloring, eleven-year-old Jimmy McClean travels with his maternal grandfather, Nyles High Eagle, to learn about his Lakota heritage while visiting places significant in the life of Crazy Horse, the nineteenth-century Lakota leader and warrior, in a tale that weaves the past with the present. Includes historical notes and glossary. (2015, author Information)
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George: A young boy relates his adventures during the year he spends living alone in the Catskill Mountains including his struggle for survival, his dependence on nature, his animal friends, and his ultimate realization that he needs human companionship. (1988, audiobook)
The Star That Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson: When fourteen-year-old Norvia moves from Beaver Island to Boyne City in 1914, she has to contend with a new school, a first crush, and a blended family, but she also must keep secret her parents' divorce and her Ojibwe heritage. (2022, audiobook)
The Second Chance of Benjamin Waterfall by James Bird: After being caught stealing one too many times, Benjamin Waterfalls is sent to a "boot camp" at the Ojibwe reservation where he searches for answers as he tries to turn his life around and embrace this second chance. (2022)