Indigenous Peoples Books & Resources

Great booklists, articles, and resources for home and classroom to celebrate Indigenous People Day and beyond.

The CBC has curated a list of brand-new 2023 and 2024 children’s books by Indigenous & Native Peoples. You can find that list in our November 2024 Native American Heritage Month blog post. Additionally, we created a list of books in 2022, which you can find below.

Resources

Indigenous Reads Rising — nonprofit by We Need Diverse Books
10 Children’s Books by Indigenous Authors and Illustrators — KidLit TV
American Indians in Children’s Literature — AICL blog

Children’s Books (compiled in 2022)

A Break with Charity: A Story about the Salem Witch Trials, by Ann Rinaldi (HMH Books for Young Readers
A Cry From The Earth: Music Of The North American Indians, by John Bierhorst (Ancient City Press)
A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1), by Ursula K. Le Guin (Random House Children’s Books/Bantam)
All Around Us, by Xelena González; illus. Adriana M. Garcia (Cinco Puntos Press)
Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids, edited by Cynthia L. Smith (HarperCollins/Heartdrum)
Arctic Dreams, by Carole Gerber (Charlesbridge)
At the Mountain’s Base, by Traci Sorell; illus. Weshoyot Alvitre
Bearwalker, by Joseph Bruchac; illus. Sally Wern Comport (HarperCollins)
Between Two Worlds, by Katherine Kirkpatrick (Random House Children’s Books/Wendy Lamb Books)
Bo at Ballard Creek, by Kirkpatrick Hill; illus. LeUyen Pham (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group/Henry Holt and Co. (BYR))
Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story, by S.D. Nelson (ABRAMS)
Buffalo Days, by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith; illus. Lawrence Migdale (Holiday House)
Buffalo Hunt, by Russell Freedman (Holiday House)

Cheyenne Again, by Eve Bunting; illus. Irving Toddy (HMH Books for Young Readers/Clarion Books)
Chickadee (Birchbark House #4), by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins)
Children of Native America Today, by Yvonne Wakim Dennis & Arelen Hirschfelder (Charlesbridge)
The Christmas Coat: Memories of My Sioux Childhood, by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve; illus. Ellen Beier (Holiday House)
Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two, by Joseph Bruchac (Penguin Young Readers/Speak)
Come Look With Me: American Indian Art, by Stephanie Salomon (Charlesbridge)
D Is for Drum: A Native American Alphabet, by Debbie and Michael Shoulders; illus. Irving Toddy (Sleeping Bear Press)
The Demon King (Seven Realms, #1), by Cinda Williams Chima (Disney Publishing/Hyperion)
El Dia del Bebe, by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace; illus. Nancy Elizabeth Wallace (HMH Books for Young Readers)
The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank (Random House Children’s Books/Bantam)
First Laugh–Welcome, Baby!, by Rose Ann Tahe and Nancy Bo Flood; illus. Jonathan Nelson (Charlesbridge)
Flying Lessons & Other Stories, by Ellen Oh et al (Random House Children’s Books/Yearling Books)

The Game of Silence (Birchbark House #2), by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins)
Ghost Hawk, by Susan Cooper (Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry Books)
Give Me Some Truth, by Eric Gansworth (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books)
Great Spirit Horse, by Linda Little Wolf (Pelican Publishing)
Happily May I Walk: American Indians and Alaska Natives Today, by Arlene Hirschfelder (Simon & Schuster/Scribner Books)
Healer of the Water Monster, by Brian Young (HarperCollins/ Heartdrum)
Henry Thoreau and John Muir Among the Native Americans, by Richard F. Fleck (Westwinds Press)
History News: The Aztec News, by Norma Rosso (Candlewick Press)
The Horse and the Plains Indians: A Powerful Partnership, by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent; illus. William Muñoz (HMH Books for Young Readers/Clarion Books)
How I Became a Ghost, by Tim Tingle (The Roadrunner Press)
How the Moon Regained Her Shape, by Janet Ruth Heller; illus. Ben Hodson (Silver Dell Publishing)
How the Stars Fell into the Sky: A Navajo Legend, by Jerrie Oughton; illus. Lisa Desimini (HMH Books for Young Readers)

I Am Apache, by Tanya Landman (Candlewick Press)
I Can Make This Promise, by Christine Day (HarperCollins/Heartdrum)
If You Lived With The Iroquois, by Ellen Levine; illus. Helly Hehenberger (Scholastic)
Indian Shoes, by Cynthia L. Smith; illus. MaryBeth Timothy (HarperCollins/Heartdrum)
In Two Worlds: A Yup’Ik Eskimo Family, by Aylette Jenness & Alice Rivers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell (Random House Children’s Books/Yearling Books)
Itse Selu: Cherokee Harvest Festival, by Daniel Pennington; illus. Don Stewart (Charlesbridge)
Jingle Dancer, by Cynthia L. Smith; illus. Cornelius Van Wright, Ying-Hwa Hu (HarperCollins/Heartdrum)
Jim & Me (Baseball Card Adventures, #8), by Dan Gutman (HarperCollins)
Jimmy Bluefeather, by Kim Heacox (Alaska Northwest Books)
Jo Jo Makoons: The Used-to-Be Best Friend, by Dawn Quigley; illus. Tara Audibert (HarperCollins/Heartdrum)
Kunu’s Basket, A Story from Indian Island, by Lee DeCora Francis; illus. Susan Drucker (Tilbury House Publishers)
La casa adormecida, by Audrey Wood; illus. Don Wood (HMH Books for Young Readers)
Louisiana Indian Tales, by Elizabeth Moore and Alice Couvillon; illus. Marilyn Rougelot (Pelican Publishing)

Maria Montoya Martinez: Master Potter, by Elsie Karr Kreischer (Pelican Publishing)
Moon’s Cloud Blanket, by Rose Anne St. Romain; illus. Joan C. Waites (Pelican Publishing)
My Name is Not Easy, by Debby Dahl Edwardson (Amazon Publishing/Skyscape)
Native American Heroes: Osceola, Tecumseh Cochise, by Ann McGovern (Scholastic)
New Found Land: Lewis and Clark’s Voyage of Discovery, by Allan Wolf (Candlewick Press)
One Shot Away, A Wrestling Story, by T. Glen Coughlin (HarperTeen)
Paiute Princess: The Story of Sarah Winnemucca, by Deborah Kogan Ray (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Pedro’s Journal, by Pam Conrad (Scholastic Press)
Pocahontas: The Story of Pocahontas, by Walt Disney Company (Disney Publishing)
The Porcupine Year (Birchbark House #3), by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins)
Puritan Girl, Mohawk Girl, by John Putnam Demos (ABRAMS)

Rain Is Not My Indian Name, by Cynthia L. Smith (HarperCollins/Heartdrum)
Red Cloud: A Lakota Story of War and Surrender, by S.D. Nelson (ABRAMS)
Saga of the Sioux: An Adaptation from Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown; Adapted by Dwight Jon Zimmerman (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group/Henry Holt and Co. (BYR))
The Sea in Winter, by Christine Day (HarperCollins/Heartdrum)
Sisters of the Neversea, by Cynthia L. Smith (HarperCollins/ Heartdrum)
Something to Hold, by Katherine Schlick Noe (HMH Books for Young Readers/Clarion Books)
Sorceress (Witch Child #2), by Celia Rees (Bloomsbury)
Sorrow’s Knot, by Erin Bow (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books)
Spirits Dark and Light: Supernatural Tales from the Five Civilized Tribes, by Tim Tingle (August House Publishers)
Squanto’s Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving, by Joseph Bruchac; illus. Greg Shed (HMH/Harcourt Children’s Books)
Starfish, by James Crowley (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Visions of the Buffalo People, by Linda Little Wolf (Pelican Publishing)
W is for Welcome: A Celebration of America’s Diversity, by Brad Herzog (Sleeping Bear Press)
Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech (HarperCollins)
Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky: Poetry and Prose by Lakota Youth at Red Cloud Indian School, by Timothy P. McLaughlin; illus. S.D. Nelson (ABRAMS)
We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga, by Traci Sorell; illus. Frané Lessac (Charlesbridge)
The Wednesday Surprise, by Eve Bunting; illus. Donald Carrick (HMH Books for Young Readers/Clarion Books)
Whale Snow, by Debby Dahl Edwardson; illus. Annie Patterson (Charlesbridge)
When a Ghost Talks, Listen (How I Became A Ghost, Book 2), by Tim Tingle (The Roadrunner Press)
Why the Possum Has a Large Grin, by Johnette Downing; illus. Christina Wald (Pelican Publishing)
Wolf Mark, by Joseph Bruchac (Lee & Low/Tu Books)
The World Before This One, by Rafe Martin (Scholastic)
Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, by Dee Brown; Adapted by Amy Ehrlich (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group/Henry Holt and Co. (BYR))