Native American Heritage Month is coming to an end, but Native authors
and their work are excellent for any day of the year. Here are six young
adult titles by Native authors we’d recommend, including titles from
the U.S. and Canada.
Heart’s Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich-Smith
Candlewick Press [Crystal’s review] [Interview with author]
When Louise Wolfe’s first real boyfriend mocks and disrespects Native people in front of her, she breaks things off and dumps him over e-mail. It’s her senior year, anyway, and she’d rather spend her time with her family and friends and working on the school newspaper. The editors pair her up with Joey Kairouz, the ambitious new photojournalist, and in no time the paper’s staff find themselves with a major story to cover: the school musical director’s inclusive approach to casting The Wizard of Oz has been provoking backlash in their mostly white, middle-class Kansas town. From the newly formed Parents Against Revisionist Theater to anonymous threats, long-held prejudices are being laid bare and hostilities are spreading against teachers, parents, and students — especially the cast members at the center of the controversy, including Lou’s little brother, who’s playing the Tin Man. As tensions mount at school, so does a romance between Lou and Joey — but as she’s learned, “dating while Native” can be difficult. In trying to protect her own heart, will Lou break Joey’s?
Apple in the Middle by Dawn Quigley
North Dakota State University Press
Apple Starkington turned her back on her Native American heritage the
moment she was called a racial slur. 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. So began her quirky habits to gain acceptance.
Apple’s name, chosen by her Indian mother on her deathbed, has a double
meaning: treasured apple of my eye, but also the negative connotation: a
person who is red, or Indian, on the outside, but white on the inside.
After her wealthy [white] father gives her the boot one summer, Apple
reluctantly agrees to visit her Native American relatives on the Turtle
Mountain Indian Reservation in northern North Dakota for the first time,
which should be easy, but it’s not. Apple shatters Indian stereotypes
and learns what it means to find her place in a world divided by color.
Give Me Some Truth by Eric Gansworth
Arthur A. Levine Books [Crystal’s Review]
Carson Mastick is entering his senior year of high school and
desperate to make his mark, on the reservation and off. A rock band —
and winning the local Battle of the Bands, with its first prize of a
trip to New York City — is his best shot. But things keep getting in the
way. Small matters like the lack of an actual band, or the fact that
his brother just got shot confronting the racist owner of a local
restaurant.
Maggi Bokoni has just moved back to the reservation from the city
with her family. She’s dying to stop making the same traditional artwork
her family sells to tourists (conceptual stuff is cooler), stop feeling
out of place in her new (old) home, and stop being treated like a
child. She might like to fall in love for the first time too.
Carson and Maggi — along with their friend Lewis — will navigate loud
protests, even louder music, and first love in this stirring novel
about coming together in a world defined by difference.
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
Dancing Cat Books
In a futuristic world ravaged by global warming, people have lost the
ability to dream, and the dreamlessness has led to widespread madness.
The only people still able to dream are North America’s Indigenous
people, and it is their marrow that holds the cure for the rest of the
world. But getting the marrow, and dreams, means death for the unwilling
donors. Driven to flight, a fifteen-year-old and his companions
struggle for survival, attempt to reunite with loved ones and take
refuge from the “recruiters” who seek them out to bring them to the
marrow-stealing “factories.”
Pemmican Wars (A Girl Called Echo) by Katherena Vermette
HighWater Press
Echo Desjardins, a 13-year-old Métis girl adjusting to a new home and
school, is struggling with loneliness while separated from her mother.
Then an ordinary day in Mr. Bee’s history class turns extraordinary, and
Echo’s life will never be the same. During Mr. Bee’s lecture, Echo
finds herself transported to another time and place—a bison hunt on the
Saskatchewan prairie—and back again to the present. In the following
weeks, Echo slips back and forth in time. She visits a Métis camp,
travels the old fur-trade routes, and experiences the perilous and
bygone era of the Pemmican Wars.
Pemmican Wars is the first graphic novel in a new series, A Girl
Called Echo, by Governor General Award–winning writer, and author of
Highwater Press’ The Seven Teaching Stories, Katherena Vermette.
#NotYourPrincess edited by Lisa Charleyboy & Mary Beth Leatherdale
Annick Press [Crystal’s Review] [Group Discussion]
Whether looking back to a troubled past or welcoming a hopeful
future, the powerful voices of Indigenous girls and women across North
America resound in this book. In the same visual style as the
bestselling Dreaming in Indian, #NotYourPrincess presents an eclectic
collection of poems, essays, interviews, and art that combine to express
the experience of being a Native woman. Stories of abuse,
intergenerational trauma, and stereotyping are countered by the voices
of passionate women demanding change and realizing their dreams.
Sometimes outraged, often reflective, but always strong, the women in
this book will give teen readers insight into the lives of women who,
for so long, have had their history hidden and whose modern lives have
been virtually invisible.
Some resources addressing Native representation in books and other media:
Dr. Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children’s Literature
Cynthia Leitich Smith with Kidlit/YA News at her blog Cynsations
Dr. Adrienne Keene on Native Appropriations
Matika Wilbur with Project 562
Métis in Space podcast
