Children's books by or about Indigenous People: Middle school
This guide lists children's books and young adult literature in Cubberley Education Library by or about Native Americans and Indigenous Peoples..
Middle school
- Harvest house by Cynthia Leitich SmithPublication Date: 2023Lexile measure 850; Ages 12 and up; Gr.7 and up.
Halloween is near, and Hughie Wolfe is volunteering at a new rural attraction: Harvest House. He's excited to take part in the fun, spooky show--until he learns that an actor playing the vengeful spirit of an "Indian maiden," a ghost inspired by local legend, will headline. Folklore aside, unusual things have been happening at night at the crossroads near Harvest House. A creepy man is stalking teenage girls and young women, particularly Indigenous women; dogs are fretful and on edge; and wild animals are behaving strangely. While Hughie weighs how and when to speak up about the bigoted legend, he and his friends begin to investigate the crossroads and whether it might be haunted after all. - Mascot by Charles Waters; Traci SorellPublication Date: 2023Lexile measure 710; Ages 10-13; Gr.7-9.
What if a school's mascot is seen as racist, but not by everyone? In Rye, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, people work hard, kids go to school, and football is big on Friday nights. An eighth-grade English teacher creates an assignment for her class to debate whether Rye's mascot should stay or change. Now six middle schoolers--all with different backgrounds and beliefs--get involved in the contentious issue that already has the suburb turned upside down with everyone choosing sides and arguments getting ugly. - Braiding sweetgrass for young adults : indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer; Monique Gray Smith; Nicole Neidhardt (Illustrator)Publication Date: 2022Ages 12 and up; Gr.7 and up.
Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things--from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen--provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. - The power of style: how fashion and beauty are being used to reclaim cultures by Christian AllairePublication Date: 2021Lexile measure 1070; Ages 12-17; Gr.7-12.
Style is not just the clothes on our backs--it is self-expression, representation, and transformation. As a fashion-obsessed Ojibwe teen, Christian Allaire rarely saw anyone that looked like him in the magazines or movies he sought out for inspiration. Now the Fashion and Style Writer for Vogue, he is working to change that--because clothes are never just clothes.
2020
- Apple: skin to the core by Eric GansworthPublication Date: 2020Ages 12-18; Gr.7-12.
The term "Apple" is a slur in Native communities across the country. It's for someone supposedly "red on the outside, white on the inside." In APPLE (SKIN TO THE CORE), Eric Gansworth tells his story, the story of his family--of Onondaga among Tuscaroras--of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds. Eric shatters that slur and reclaims it in verse and prose and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking. - Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger; Rovina Cai (Ill.)Publication Date: 2020Ages 12 and up; Gr.5 and up.
Imagine an America very similar to our own. It's got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day. Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. - Elatsoe [e-version] by Darcie Little Badger; Rovina Cai (Ill.)Publication Date: 2020Ages 12 and up; Gr.5 and up.
Imagine an America very similar to our own. It's got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day. Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. - The shaman's apprentice by Zacharias Kunuk; Megan Kyak-Monteith (Illustrator)Publication Date: 2020Ages 9-12; Gr.4-8.
The Shaman's Apprentice tells the story of a young shaman in training who must face her first test--a trip to the underground to visit Kannaaluk, The One Below, who holds the answers to why a community member has become ill. Facing dark spirits and physical challenges, the young shaman must learn to stifle her fear and listen to what Kannaaluk has to tell her.
2017-2018
- Stone mirrors: the sculpture and silence of Edmonia Lewis by Jeannine AtkinsPublication Date: 2018Lexile measure 680; ages 12 and up; Gr.7-9.
A sculptor of historical figures starts with givens but creates her own vision. Edmonia Lewis was just such a sculptor, but she never spoke or wrote much about her past, and the stories that have come down through time are often vague or contradictory. Some facts are known: Edmonia was the daughter of an Ojibwe woman and an African Haitian man. She had the rare opportunity to study art at Oberlin, one of the first schools to admit women and people of color, but lost her place after being accused of poisoning and theft, despite being acquitted of both. She moved to Boston and eventually Italy, where she became a successful sculptor. - Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School football team by Steve Sheinkin; Connie Hsu (Ed.)Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » GV958 .U33 S54 2017Lexile measure 980; Ages 10-14; Gr.6 and up.
Native American Jim Thorpe became a super athlete and Olympic gold medalist. Indomitable coach Pop Warner was a football mastermind. In 1907 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, they forged one of the winningest teams in American football history. Called "the team that invented football," they took on the best opponents of their day, defeating much more privileged schools in a series of breathtakingly close calls, genius plays, and bone-crushing hard work.
2015-2016
- Love beyond body, space, and time : an Indigenous LGBT sci-fi anthology by Hope Nicholson (Editor); Richard Van Camp; Jeffrey Veregge (Artist); Nathan Adler; Gwen Benaway; Cherie Dimaline; Daniel Heath Justice; Cleo Keahna; Mari Kurisato; Darcie Little Badger; David Alexander RobertsonCall Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PR9197.35 .S33 L68 2016Gr.7 and up.
These stories range from a transgender woman undergoing an experimental transition process to young lovers separated through decades and meeting in their own far future. - Flying Lessons and Other Stories by Ellen OhCall Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PS648 .S5 F65 2015Lexile measure 800; Ages 11-14.
From basketball dreams and family fiascos to first crushes and new neighborhoods, this anthology, written by award-winning children's authors, celebrates the uniqueness and universality in all of us. - Hiawatha and the Peacemaker by Robbie Robertson; David Shannon (Illustrator)Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PS3618 .O3174 H53 2015Lexile measure AD740L; Gr.5 and up.
Born of Mohawk and Cayuga descent, musical icon Robbie Robertson learned the story of Hiawatha and his spiritual guide, the Peacemaker, as part of the Iroquois oral tradition. Now he shares the same gift of storytelling with a new generation. Hiawatha was a strong and articulate Mohawk who was chosen to translate the Peacemaker's message of unity for the five warring Iroquois nations during the 14th century. - Urban Tribes by Mary Beth Leatherdale (Editor); Lisa CharleyboyCall Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » E98 .U72 U73 2015Gr.7 and up.
Young, urban Natives powerfully show how their culture and values can survive--and enrich--city life. Urban Tribes offers unique insight into this growing and often misperceived group.
2011-2014
- If I Ever Get Out of Here: a novel with paintings by Eric L. GansworthCall Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PS3557 .A5196 I3 2013Lexile measure 870; Ages 12-15; Gr.6-10; Guided reading Z+
Seventh-grader Lewis "Shoe" Blake from the Tuscarora Reservation has a new friend, George Haddonfield from the local Air Force base, but in 1975 upstate New York there is a lot of tension and hatred between Native Americans and Whites--and Lewis is not sure that he can rely on friendship. - Killer of Enemies by Joseph BruchacCall Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PS3552 .R794 K55 2013Lexile measure 860; Ages 12 and up; Gr.7-12.
Years ago, seventeen-year-old Apache hunter Lozen and her family lived in a world of haves and have-nots. There were the Ones--people so augmented with technology and genetic enhancements that they were barely human--and there was everyone else who served them. Then the Cloud came, and everything changed. - Looks Like Daylight by Deborah Ellis; Loriene Roy (Foreword by)Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » E98 .C5 E45 2013Lexile measure 780; ages 12 and up.
After her critically acclaimed books of interviews with Afghan, Iraqi, Israeli and Palestinian children, Deborah Ellis turns her attention closer to home. For two years she traveled across the United States and Canada interviewing Native children. The result is a compelling collection of interviews with children aged nine to eighteen. - Saga of the Sioux by Dee Alexander Brown; Dwight Jon Zimmerman (Adapted by)Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » E81 .Z56 2011Lexile measure 1140; Ages 11-15, gr. 5-8.
Focusing on the Sioux nation as representative of the entire Native American story, this meticulously researched account allows the great chiefs and warriors to speak for themselves about what happened to the Sioux from 1860 to the Massacre of Wounded Knee in 1891.
2001-2010
- Trickster by Matt Dembicki (Editor)Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » E98 .F6 T73 2010Lexile measure 950; ages 9-15, book level 5.9.
All cultures have tales of the trickster - a crafty creature or being who uses cunning to get food, steal precious possessions, or simply cause mischief. He disrupts the order of things, often humiliating others and sometimes himself. In Native American traditions, the trickster takes many forms, from coyote or rabbit to raccoon or raven. The first graphic anthology of Native American trickster tales, Trickster brings together Native American folklore and the world of comics. - Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich SmithCall Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PS3619 .M5743 T36 2008Lexile measure 760; Ages 12 and up; Gr.7-12.
When multiple murders in Austin, Texas, threaten the grand re-opening of her family's vampire-themed restaurant, seventeen-year-old, orphaned Quincie worries that her best friend-turned-love interest, Keiren, a werewolf-in-training, may be the prime suspect. - Geronimo by Joseph BruchacCall Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » E99 .A6 G3226 2006Guided Reading Level Y; Lexile measure 900; ages 12-16; book level 5.8
Acclaimed author Joseph Bruchac weaves history and suspense into a riveting account of Geronimo's last days. - Remember Little Bighorn by Paul Robert WalkerCall Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » E83.876 .W35 2006Guided Reading Level: Z; Lexile measure 1170; book level 7.1.
Author Paul Robert Walker draws on scores of eyewitness accounts of the Battle of the Little Bighorn from Indians, soldiers, and scouts, measuring their testimony against the archaeological evidence to separate fact from fiction. - Code Talker by Joseph BruchacCall Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PS3552 .R794 C63 2005Lexile measure 910, ages 12 and up; book level 6.4.
Throughout World War II, in the conflict fought against Japan, Navajo code talkers were a crucial part of the U.S. effort, sending messages back and forth in an unbreakable code that used their native language. They braved some of the heaviest fighting of the war, and with their code, they saved countless American lives. - Rain Is Not My Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith; Lori Earley (Illustrator)Call Number: Education Library (Cubberley) » Curriculum Collection » PS3619 .M5743 R35 2001Guided Reading Level W; Lexile measure 860; Ages 10-14
Tired of staying in seclusion since the death of her best friend, a fourteen-year-old Native American girl takes on a photographic assignment with her local newspaper to cover events at the Native American summer youth camp.
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