Native American Heritage Month (older kids)

Edited by award-winning and bestselling author 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.

This confidence-building book for young girls--particularly those from a diverse community or heritage--is inspired by a real girl, Jayla Rose, who lives in central California.

Traces the childhood, friendships and dangers experienced by Buffalo Bird Woman, a Hidatsa Indian born in 1839, whose community along the Missouri River in the Dakotas transitioned from hunting to agriculture.

"As a boy, Chester Nez was taught his native language and culture were useless, but he was later called on to use his Navajo language to help create an unbreakable military code during WWII"--

Lakota chief Crazy Horse and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer had long been enemies when they finally crossed paths for the last time in 1876, as the people of the Great Plains resisted the invasion of their homes. Witness reports and reflections by their peers accompany side-by-side storytelling, revealing different perspectives on the historical events during their intertwined lives.

"Filled with lots of glitter, raised pinkies, and humorous misunderstandings, this second book in the Jo Jo Makoons series--written by Dawn Quigley and illustrated by Tara Audibert--is filled with the joy of a young Ojibwe girl discovering her very own special shine from the inside out. First grader Jo Jo Makoons knows how to do a lot of things, like how to play jump rope, how to hide her peas in her milk, and how to be helpful in her classroom. But...

"On a cloudless summer night, a fox falls to earth and comes across a family of humans. As the seasons change and they move their camp, she follows them, growing ever more intrigued by human ways--and especially by the oldest son, Irniq. When Irniq grows older and sets out hunting on his own, he is surprised to enter his tent one day and find the lamp lit, the tea made ... and a strange woman who says she is his wife. Tired of being alone, Irniq welcomes...

"An engaging look at how the animals, people, and seasons within an ecosystem are intertwined. To the Gitxsan people of Northwestern British Columbia, the grizzly is an integral part of the natural landscape. Together, they share the land and forests that the Skeena River runs through, as well as the sockeye salmon within it. Follow mother bear as she teaches her cubs what they need to survive on their own. The Mothers of Xsan series uses striking...

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--one with the ability to help those he left behind.

"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"--