Celebrating Indigenous Voices for National Native American Heritage Month
Celebrate National Native American Heritage Month in your school or library! Keep reading to find more book recommendations, download resources for your classroom—including a teacher’s guide for Saints of the Household and an activity kit for Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior—and hear from H.E. Edgmon about their debut middle grade novel The Flicker!
Meet Author H.E. Edgmon!
Perfect for fans of The Marrow Thieves, Hatchet and The City of Ember, H.E. Edgmon’s middle grade debut offers a bittersweet tale of hope and survival, and is a modern classic for the climate change generation. With two starred reviews, The Flicker is both a thrilling survival story and a tender exploration of Indigenous ideas of identity and found family.
Watch H.E. Edgmon discuss their debut middle grade novel, The Flicker
The Flicker by H.E. Edgmon
Two starred reviews!
Ages 8-12
288 pages
One year ago, a solar flare scorched the Earth and destroyed life as we know it.
With their parents gone and supplies running dangerously low, step-sisters Millie and Rose only have one chance at survival: leave home with their infant half-brother and loyal dog Corncob in search of Millie’s grandma, a Seminole elder. As they navigate the burning land with a group of fellow survivors, dodging The Hive, a villainous group that has spent the last year hoarding supplies and living in luxury, the siblings have to learn to rely on each other more than ever, and discover how to build a new life from the ashes.
Expertly balancing heartbreak and hope, The Flicker is both a thrilling survival story and a tender exploration of Indigenous ideas of identity and found family.
Meet Newbery Honor Author Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson!
Born and raised in the rural expanse of the North Slope of Alaska, Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson grew up on fantastic tales from her unique and rich Indigenous Iñupiaq culture. When she is not writing or creating art inspired by these stories, she is studying how to grow food in the arctic and is working at preserving traditional Iñupiaq knowledge. She has a degree in Studio Art and has taught all levels of Art from kindergarten to college level. She lives in Anaktuvuk Pass Alaska with her husband and daughter, three dogs, and a small flock of arctic chickens where she lives off the land and the amazing bounty it provides like her ancestors did for thousands of years. Eagle Drums is her debut novel.
Learn more about Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson, and read what inspired her to write Eagle Drums, in her Author Spotlight interview.
Eagle Drums by Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson
Three starred reviews!
Newbery Honor Book
American Indian in Youth Literature Award Honor Book
Ages 8-12
256 pages
A magical realistic middle grade debut about the origin story of the Iñupiaq Messenger Feast, a Native Alaskan tradition.
As his family prepares for winter, a young, skilled hunter must travel up the mountain to collect obsidian for knapping—the same mountain where his two older brothers died. When he reaches the mountaintop, he is immediately confronted by a terrifying eagle god named Savik. Savik gives the boy a choice: follow me or die like your brothers. What comes next is a harrowing journey to the home of the eagle gods and unexpected lessons on the natural world, the past that shapes us, and the community that binds us. Eagle Drums by Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson is part cultural folklore, part origin myth about the Messenger’s Feast—which is still celebrated in times of bounty among the Iñupiaq. It’s the story of how Iñupiaq people were given the gift of music, song, dance, community, and everlasting tradition.
Author Spotlight: Ari Tison!
Ari Tison is a Bribri (Indigenous Costa Rican) American and African descended poet and storyteller. Her poems and short works have been published in Yellow Medicine Review, The Under Review, Rock & Sling, and POETRY‘s first ever edition for children. She was the winner of the 2018 Vaunda Micheaux Nelson award for a BIPOC writer with Lerner Publishing. She currently is the annual broadside editor for Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop where she gets to collaborate with the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts to bring incarcerated voices into the world. Saints of the Household is her debut novel.
Learn more about Ari Tison, and read what inspired her to write Saints of the Household, in her Author Spotlight interview.
Saints of the Household by Ari Tison
Three starred reviews!
Pura Belpré Award Winner
Walter Award Winner for Young Adult Literature
A YALSA William C. Morris Award Finalist
Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Winner
Américas Book Award Winner for Young Adult Literature
Ages 14-18
320 pages
Saints of the Household is a haunting contemporary YA about an act of violence in a small-town—beautifully told by a debut Indigenous Costa Rican-American writer—that will take your breath away.
Max and Jay have always depended on one another for their survival. Growing up with a physically abusive father, the two Bribri American brothers have learned that the only way to protect themselves and their mother is to stick to a schedule and keep their heads down.
But when they hear a classmate in trouble in the woods, instinct takes over and they intervene, breaking up a fight and beating their high school’s star soccer player to a pulp. This act of violence threatens the brothers’ dreams for the future and their beliefs about who they are. As the true details of that fateful afternoon unfold over the course of the novel, Max and Jay grapple with the weight of their actions, their shifting relationship as brothers, and the realization that they may be more like their father than they thought. They’ll have to reach back to their Bribri roots to find their way forward.
Told in alternating points of view using vignettes and poems, debut author Ari Tison crafts an emotional, slow-burning drama about brotherhood, abuse, recovery, and doing the right thing.
Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
An instant New York Times bestseller!
Six Starred Reviews!
American Indian in Youth Literature Award Honor Book
Ages 14-18
400 pages
From Angeline Boulley, the New York Times bestselling author of Firekeeper’s Daughter, comes Warrior Girl Unearthed, a thrilling YA mystery about a Native teen who must find a way to bring an ancestor home to her tribe.
Perry Firekeeper-Birch was ready for her Summer of Slack but instead, after a fender bender that was entirely not her fault, she’s stuck working to pay back her Auntie Daunis for repairs to the Jeep.
Thankfully she has the other outcasts of the summer program, Team Misfit Toys, and even her twin sister Pauline. Together they ace obstacle courses, plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer doesn’t feel so lost after all.
But when she attends a meeting at a local university, Perry learns about the “Warrior Girl”, an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives, and everything changes. Perry has to return Warrior Girl to her tribe. Determined to help, she learns all she can about NAGPRA, the federal law that allows tribes to request the return of ancestral remains and sacred items. The university has been using legal loopholes to hold onto Warrior Girl and twelve other Anishinaabe ancestors’ remains, and Perry and the Misfits won’t let it go on any longer.
Using all of their skills and resources, the Misfits realize a heist is the only way to bring back the stolen artifacts and remains for good. But there is more to this repatriation than meets the eye as more women disappear and Pauline’s perfectionism takes a turn for the worse. As secrets and mysteries unfurl, Perry and the Misfits must fight to find a way to make things right – for the ancestors and for their community.
Watch author Angeline Boulley discuss her inspiration, storytelling, and research process for her bestselling debut novel Firekeeper’s Daughter. Plus, educator Kit Robinson shares how teachers can use Firekeeper’s Daughter in the classroom.
Find Ojibwe language translations, correct spellings, and audio pronunciations for Firekeeper’s Daughter in this Anishinaabemowin resource center, created by Margaret Noodin, a professor at UW-Milwaukee.
An instant New York Times bestseller, Angeline Boulley’s debut novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter, is a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, perfect for readers of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange.
Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team.
Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.
Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims.
Now, as the deceptions—and deaths—keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.
From New York Times bestselling picture book author Carole Lindstrom and illustrator Bridget George comes Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior, an inspiring picture book biography about two Indigenous Rights Activists, Josephine Mandamin and Autumn Peltier that will energize young readers to join the tidal wave of change.
Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior by Carole Lindstrom; illustrated by Bridget George
Two Starred Reviews!
Ages 4-8
40 pages
The seventh generation is creating
A sea of change.
It was a soft voice, at first.
Like a ripple.
But with practice it grew louder.
Indigenous women have long cared for the land and water, which in turn sustains all life on Earth—honoring their ancestors and providing for generations to come. Yet there was a time when their voices and teachings were nearly drowned out, leaving entire communities and environments in danger and without clean water.
But then came Anishinaabe elder Grandma Josephine and her great-niece, Autumn Peltier.
Featuring a foreword from water advocate and Indigenous Rights Activist Autumn Peltier herself, this stunning picture book encourages young readers to walk in the footsteps of the water warriors before them.
From author Carole Lindstrom and illustrator Michaela Goade comes a New York Times bestselling and Caldecott Medal winning picture book that honors Indigenous-led movements across the world. Powerfully written and gorgeously illustrated, We Are Water Protectors, issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth’s water from harm and corruption—inviting young readers everywhere to join the fight.
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom; illustrated by Michaela Goade
Caldecott Medal Winner!
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winner
Kirkus Prize Finalist
Four Starred Reviews!
Ages 3-6
40 pages
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.
No Place Like Home by James Bird
Two starred reviews!
Ages 10-14
320 pages
A middle-grade novel by James Bird about homelessness and hope.
When home is a car, life is unpredictable. School, friends, and three meals a day aren’t guaranteed. Not every town has a shelter where a family can sleep for a night or two, and places with parking lots don’t welcome overnight stays.
Opin, his brother Emjay, and their mother are trying to get to Los Angeles, where they hope an uncle and a new life are waiting. Emjay has taken to disappearing for days, slowing down the family’s progress and adding to their worry.
Then Opin finds a stray dog who needs him as much as he needs her, and his longing for a stable home intensifies, as his brother’s reckless ways hit a new high. Opin makes a new friend in the shelter, but shelters don’t allow dogs . . .
Will anything other than a real home ever be enough?
Told in lively and powerful verse by debut author Kevin Noble Maillard, Fry Bread is an evocative depiction of a modern Native American family, vibrantly illustrated by Pura Belpre Award winner and Caldecott Honoree Juana Martinez-Neal.
Fry bread is food.
It is warm and delicious, piled high on a plate.
Fry bread is time.
It brings families together for meals and new memories.
Fry bread is nation.
It is shared by many, from coast to coast and beyond.
Fry bread is us.
It is a celebration of old and new, traditional and modern, similarity and difference.
Watch author Kevin Mallard’s read-a-loud of Fry Bread, the Sibert Award winning picture book about a Native American family.
