Firekeeper's Daughter

Give Me Some Truth by Eric Gansworth

The year is 1980. Carson is a senior in high school from the Tuscarora Reservation, and he has an opinion on just about everything. But Carson is also a dreamer. He hopes to win a Battle of the Bands competition and punch his ticket to NYC. The journey to the stage, though, is proving long, winding, and complicated with family matters and disturbing interactions with racists. Magpie — Maggie — is new to the area and bursting with creativity. She can barely remember living on the Tuscarora Reservation when she was much younger, and is eager for new experiences. Together, the characters chase after their dreams, even when the world isn’t quite ready for them yet.

Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Lou is a member of the Muscogee Nation and she is fed up with hearing negative stereotypes about Native people repeated time and time again. When her boyfriend says something problematic, she dumps him and turns her focus to her last year of high school. But the year will bring anything but smooth waters: soon Lou’s school’s theater department — and its cast members of color — are caught up in choppy waves. Racist threats are made when the school’s adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz includes students of color in prominent roles. When Lou is paired up with a boy named Joey for school newspaper assignments, she finds herself wading knee-deep into truth, danger, disturbing literary history, and love.

Wings of Ebony by J. Elle

Just like Daunis, Rue does not shy away from doing what is necessary to protect her people; fear is weaker than her love for her younger sister and the folks she grew up with. When Rue’s mother is murdered, the teen is reunited with her father and learns that she has a magical heritage and access to immense power. Something sinister is happening both in the city of Houston, where she grew up, and in Ghizon, where her father resides. As more and more youth are found dead in relation to drug dealing in Houston, Rue knows it’s time to get to the bottom of it all.

City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson

After fleeing their home in the Congo, Tina’s family lands in Kenya. As if things weren’t already bad enough, Tina’s mother is shot in the home of a rich crook named Roland Greyhill and Tina turns to thievery and revenge in order to survive on the streets alone. She thinks she knows why and who killed her mother, but when Tina returns to the Greyhill mansion years later, things prove to not be what she initially thought. Anyone who loved the mystery in Firekeeper’s Daughter will enjoy the similar thrill found in this book by Natalie C. Anderson!