LibGuides: Native American Writers @ Memorial Library: Children's Books

Sherman Alexi

Thunder Boy Jr.
Call Number: CMC CYA PZ7.A382 Th 2016
Thunder Boy Jr. wants a normal name ... one that's all his own. Dad is known as Big Thunder, but Little Thunder doesn't want to share a name.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Call Number: CMC PZ7.A382 Ab 2007
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Paula Gunn Allen

Paula Gunn Allen was the author of many books, including the landmark title, The Sacred Hoop. An American of Laguna Pueblo/Metis descent, she is credited as the founder of the field of Native American literary studies.

Spider Woman's Granddaughters: traditional tales and contemporary writing by Native American women
Call Number: CMC PS508 .I5 S64 1990 & ebook
Native American scholar, literary critic, poet, and novelist Paula Gunn Allen became increasingly aware in her academic career that the writings of Native Americans, especially women, have been marginalized by the Western literary canon. Allen set out to understand why this was so and, more importantly, to remedy the situation. The result is this powerful collection of traditional tales, biographical writings, and contemporary short stories, many by the most accomplished Native American women writing today.

Joseph Bruchac

More by Joseph Bruchac

Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back: a Native American year of moons
Call Number: CMC PS3552 .R794 T47 1992 & ebook
Celebrates the seasons of the year through poems from the legends of such Native American tribes as the Cherokee, Cree, and Sioux.
The Great Ball Game: a Muskogee story
Call Number: CMC E99.C9 B88 1994 & ebook
Bat, who has both wings and teeth, plays an important part in a game between the Birds and the Animals to decide which group is better.
Navajo Long Walk : the tragic story of a proud people's forced march from their homeland
Call Number: CMC E99.N3 B744 2002 & ebook
Describes how, in the 1860s, U.S. soldiers forced thousands of Navajos to march to a desolate reservation four hundred miles from their homeland, only to have hundreds die along the way and the rest find unspeakable living conditions at their destination.

Michael Dorris

Morning Girl
Call Number: CMC PZ7.D7287 Mo 1999 & ebook
It’s 1492, and Morning Girl and her brother Star Boy are two very different children who are about to encounter whites for the first time. Ages 7-up.

Louise Erdrich

The Birchbark House
Call Number: CMC PZ7.E72554 Bi 2002
Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847. Ages 8-up.
Chickadee
Call Number: CMC PZ7.E72554 Ch 2012
In 1866, Omakayas's son Chickadee is kidnapped by two ne'er-do-well brothers from his own tribe and must make a daring escape, forge unlikely friendships, and set out on an exciting and dangerous journey to get back home.

Eric Gansworth

Eric Gansworth, Sˑha-weñ na-saeˀ, (Onondaga, Eel Clan) is a writer and visual artist, who was born and raised at the Tuscarora Nation. He is a Professor of English and Lowery Writer-in-Residence at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. Gansworth's work is a commentary on the oral tradition existing within Haudenosaunee culture and its fluid nature.

If I Ever Get Out of Here: a novel with paintings
Call Number: CMC Young Adult Book Collection PZ7.G1532 If 2013
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. Ages 12-up.

Xelena Gonzalez

All Around Us
Call Number: CMC PZ7.1.G6533 Al 2017
A story about the relationship between a little girl and her grandfather, as he teaches her about the circles that make up existence.

Joy Harjo

Good Luck Cat by Joy Harjo; Paul Lee (Illustrator)
Call Number: CMC PZ7.H2229 Go 2000
Because her good luck cat Woogie has already used up eight of his nine lives in narrow escapes from disaster, a Native American girl worries when he disappears.

Cynthia Leitich Smith

Cynthia Leitich Smith is best known as an award-winning, bestselling author of fantastical and realistic fiction for young readers. She is based in Austin, Texas, and a citizen of Muscogee Nation /ma(:)skó:k-î/.

Cynthia Leitich Smith official author site

Jingle Dancer
Call Number: CMC PZ7.S64464 Ji 2000
The affirming story of how a contemporary Native American girl turns to her family and community to help her dance find a voice.

Monique Gray Smith

Monique Gray Smith is a mixed-heritage — Cree, Lakota and Scottish — award-winning, best-selling author who often writes and speaks about the resilience of Indigenous communities in Canada.

Monique Gray Smith official author site

My Heart Fills with Happiness
Call Number: ebook
This is an enhanced ebook with a read-along function. The sun on your face. The smell of warm bannock baking in the oven. Holding the hand of someone you love. What fills your heart with happiness? This beautiful board book, with illustrations from celebrated artist Julie Flett, serves as a reminder for little ones and adults alike to reflect on and cherish the moments in life that bring us joy.

Tim Tingle

Saltypie: a Choctaw journey from darkness into light
Call Number: CMC E99.C8 T55 2010 & ebook
Moving back and forward in time, Tingle offers a tribute to his grandmother, Mawmaw, in a quietly poetic story about dealing with adversity.

Simon J. Ortiz

The People Shall Continue
Call Number: CMC E77.4 .O77 1988 & ebook
Traces the progress of the Indians of North America from the time of the Creation to the present.

Richard Van Camp

What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Know about Horses?
Call Number: CMC PZ7.V26247 Wh 1998
Our friendly guide invites us to accompany him on his playful search for the most beautiful thing about horses. He asks his family, his friends, and even the artist, George Littlechild, what is the most beautiful thing they know about horses. The answers he gets range from zany to profound, and show him that even seemingly ordinary things can be seen in entirely new ways.