Six Native American Middle Grade Novels to Enrich Your World
November is Native American Heritage Month.
It began as a single day, American Indian Day, and continued until 1990 when George W. Bush extended it to encompass the entire month.
These special heritage months are important because they remind us that our country is full of people who may or may not look like us, with traditions and ceremonies that may or may not look like ours.
They remind us to open our minds and see the differences and similarities amongst the people in our communities.
They shine a light on the underrepresented people who enrich this country.
November presents an opportunity to highlight the Native American culture and traditions…and to show how colonization impacted Native people throughout our history, including through genocide and slavery.
As I’ve said before, literature can be a great mirror, reflecting the people in our society.
Kids need to see themselves represented in their stories so they can learn to stand tall and be proud of who they are and who their families are.
Kids need to know that our country is rich with diverse people.
With that in mind, here are six middle grade fiction novels by Native American authors and featuring Native American characters.
Cynthia Leitich Smith is a citizen of the Muscogee nation and has written many books, middle grade and young adult, featuring Native Americans.
Two of her more recent middle grade releases include Sisters of the Neversea, reminiscent of Peter Pan, and Indian Shoes, about the love between a Cherokee-Seminole boy and his grandfather.
Christine Day’s debut novel, I Can Make This Promise, is about a girl who always knew she was Native American, but now she has more questions than her parents can answer.
The Sea in Winter, also by Day, is about a young girl with anxieties and dark moods who learns to find joy while on a road trip with her family to the Makah community where her mother grew up.
Day is a citizen of the Upper Skagit tribe.
Two Roads by Joseph Bruchac is a story about a boy who is sent to a Creek Indian boarding school during the Depression, shortly after learning that he, too, is Creek.
Eagle Song is the story of a Mohawk Indian boy in Brooklyn, New York, who must learn to stand up for himself and the Indian nation he is so proud of.
Bruchac is Abenaki and a Native American scholar.
Check out these books from your public library for yourself and/or your kids.
Talk about what you read.
Watch your world expand.
~ Gail
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Great list, thanks for compiling! I have only read I CAN MAKE THIS PROMISE, which I loved. It’s also partially set in Suquamish, which is just across the bridge from where I live. It’s always fun to read a book with a familiar setting, isn’t it?
I do love to read a book in a familiar setting. I didn’t know you lived across from Suquamish. These books are beautiful. And I like how in MG fiction, the authors are almost always members of the groups they’re writing about. So they have first-hand experiences and emotions. That’s not always a requirement in adult fiction.