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This Place: 150 Years Retold
Explore the past 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators in this groundbreaking graphic novel anthology. Beautifully illustrated, these stories are an emotional and enlightening journey through Indigenous wonderworks, psychic battles, and time travel. See how Indigenous peoples have survived a post-apocalyptic world since Contact.
Each story includes a timeline of related historical events and a personal note from the author. Find cited sources and a select bibliography for further reading in the back of the book. The accompanying teacher guide includes curriculum charts and 12 lesson plans to help educators use the book with their students.
This is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts' New Chapter initiative. With this $35M initiative, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada. -
Sordidez
Vero has always felt at odds with his community. As a trans man in near-future Puerto Rico, he struggles to gain acceptance for his identity and his vision of an inclusive society. After a hurricane decimates the island and Puerto Rico is abandoned by the United States, Vero leaves his home to petition the centralized government for aid and seek the truth about new colonists arriving on the island. But in the Yucatan, Vero finds a landscape ravaged by an ecological disaster of humanity's own making - the Hydrophage, a climate technology warped into a weapon of war and released onto the land by the dictator Caudillo. Amidst the destruction, Vero finds both desperation and hope for regrowth as he documents the lives of the survivors. Details about the colonists' intentions emerge when Vero meets the Loba Roja, an anti-Caudillo revolutionary who imagines the renewed power of the Maya. Intrigued by her vision of the future and her unapologetic violence, Vero is faced with life-changing questions: can an Indigenous resurgence protect his beloved island? And what must he sacrifice to support it? -
Two Old Women [Anniversary Edition]: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival
"No one should miss this beautiful legend." --Tony Hillerman
Velma Wallis's award-winning, bestselling tale about two elderly Native American women who must fend for themselves during a harsh Alaskan winter
Based on an Athabascan Indian legend passed along for many generations from mothers to daughters of the upper Yukon River Valley in Alaska, this is the suspenseful, shocking, ultimately inspirational tale of two old women abandoned by their tribe during a brutal winter famine.
Though these women have been known to complain more than contribute, they now must either survive on their own or die trying. In simple but vivid detail, Wallis depicts a landscape and way of life that are at once merciless and starkly beautiful. In her old women, she has created two heroines of steely determination whose story of betrayal, friendship, community, and forgiveness "speaks straight to the heart with clarity, sweetness, and wisdom" (Ursula K. Le Guin).
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Iwigara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science
"A beautiful catalogue of 80 plants, revered by indigenous people for their nourishing, healing, and symbolic properties." --Gardens Illustrated
The belief that all life-forms are interconnected and share the same breath--known in the Rarámuri tribe as iwígara--has resulted in a treasury of knowledge about the natural world, passed down for millennia by native cultures. Ethnobotanist Enrique Salmón builds on this concept of connection and highlights 80 plants revered by North America's indigenous peoples. Salmón teaches us the ways plants are used as food and medicine, the details of their identification and harvest, their important health benefits, plus their role in traditional stories and myths. Discover in these pages how the timeless wisdom of iwígara can enhance your own kinship with the natural world. -
We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga
2019 Sibert Honor Book
2019 Orbis Pictus Honor Book
NPR's Guide To 2018's Great Reads
2018 Book Launch Award (SCBWI)
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2018
School Library Journal Best Books of 2018
2018 JLG selection
2019 Reading the West Picture Book Award The Cherokee community is grateful for blessings and challenges that each season brings. This is modern Native American life as told by an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. The word otsaliheliga (oh-jah-LEE-hay-lee-gah) is used by members of the Cherokee Nation to express gratitude. Beginning in the fall with the new year and ending in summer, follow a full Cherokee year of celebrations and experiences. Written by a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, this look at one group of Native Americans is appended with a glossary and the complete Cherokee syllabary, originally created by Sequoyah. "A gracious, warm, and loving celebration of community and gratitude"--Kirkus Reviews STARRED REVIEW "The book underscores the importance of traditions and carrying on a Cherokee way of life"--Horn Book STARRED REVIEW "This informative and authentic introduction to a thriving ancestral and ceremonial way of life is perfect for holiday and family sharing"--School Library Journal STARRED REVIEW "An elegant representation"--Shelf Awareness STARRED REVIEW -
The Four Agreements Companion Book: Using the Four Agreements to Master the Dream of Your Life
The Four Agreements introduced a simple, but powerful code of conduct for attaining personal freedom and true happiness. Now The Four Agreements Companion Book takes you even further along the journey to recover the awareness and wisdom of your authentic self. This companion book is a must-read not only for those who enjoyed don Miguel's first book, but for anyone who is ready to leave suffering behind, and to master the art of living in our natural state: happiness. The Companion Book includes: - How to break the domestication that keeps you enslaved by fear
- Keys to recover your will, your faith, and the power of your word
- Practice ideas to help you become the master of your own life
- A dialogue with don Miguel about living The Four Agreements
- Success stories from people who have used The Four Agreements "The Four Agreements are a tool for transformation, leading you to stop judging, mainly yourself, and to start practicing another way of life." -- don Miguel Ruiz -
Too Much: My Great Big Native Family
A little boy wants a chance to shine on his own but discovers that being apart from his large and lively Native family isn't necessarily better in this heartwarming and humorous picture book. When Russell gets a part in the school play, he lights up like a shining star--and he can't wait to tell his big, boisterous Native family the exciting news. But catching their attention when they all get together feels impossible; no matter where they go, they seem to be too noisy, too many, and just too much! Russell decides to keep his big debut to himself and fly solo for once...but being alone may not be the answer. After all, there's no such thing as too much love, and when he needs them most, his great big family knows how to be just enough. -
Indian No More
American Indian Youth Literature Award Winner - American Indian Library Association
When Regina's Umpqua tribe is legally terminated and her family must relocate from Oregon to Los Angeles, she goes on a quest to understand her identity as an Indian despite being so far from home.
Regina Petit's family has always been Umpqua, and living on the Grand Ronde Tribe's reservation is all ten-year-old Regina has ever known. Her biggest worry is that Sasquatch may actually exist out in the forest. But when the federal government enacts a law that says Regina's tribe no longer exists, Regina becomes "Indian no more" overnight--even though she lives with her tribe and practices tribal customs, and even though her ancestors were Indian for countless generations.
Now that they've been forced from their homeland, Regina's father signs the family up for the federal Indian Relocation Program and moves them to Los Angeles. Regina finds a whole new world in her neighborhood on 58th Place. She's never met kids of other races, and they've never met a real Indian. For the first time in her life, Regina comes face to face with the viciousness of racism, personally and toward her new friends.
Meanwhile, her father believes that if he works hard, their family will be treated just like white Americans. But it's not that easy. It's 1957 during the Civil Rights era, and the family struggles without their tribal community and land. At least Regina has her grandmother, Chich, and her stories. At least they are all together.
In this moving middle-grade novel drawing upon Umpqua author Charlene Willing McManis's own tribal history, Regina must find out: Who is Regina Petit? Is she Indian, American, or both? And will she and her family ever be okay?
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Grandma's Tipi: A Present-Day Lakota Story
A young girl spends the summer at her grandmother's home on the Standing Rock Reservation in this illustrated, heartwarming family story from acclaimed, award-winning author-artist S. D. Nelson. Now that Clara is almost in third grade, she's finally old enough to spend her first summer away from home visiting her grandma, Unci, and her cousin at their home in Standing Rock Reservation. To welcome her visit, Uncle Louie brings an extra-special surprise in his pickup truck: the tipi that's been passed down through their family for generations. The girls learn how to stack the poles and wrap the canvas covering around them, how to paint spirit pictures on its walls, and how the circle of the tipi tells its own story, reminding us how to live in the great Circle of Life. Over long days spent playing outside, doing beadwork together, telling stories, singing songs, and sleeping under the stars, the tipi brings the family closer together. As summer draws to an end, goodbye comes all too soon, but Clara will always cling to the memories of summer days and starry nights . . . and Grandma's tipi. -
Blood to Rubies
"Rhapsodic and sensuous." "Savage and tender." Blood to Rubies is the scorching saga of injustice, love, and redemption in the western wilderness. A young frontier photographer goes West to escape the Civil War draft and settles in the Bitterroot Mountains, ancestral home of the Nez Perce Indians. There he becomes obsessed with a young Irish pioneer woman he spies swimming nude in a mountain lake. He comes to admire the Nez Perce and photographs the young leader, Chief Joseph, and a Nez Perce woman warrior (based on a real historical person). Their stories tangle in a ruthless convergence of fates. As he chronicles Chief Joseph's desperate struggle to save his people and their harrowing 1,500-mile exodus to the Canadian border-the medicine line-to join Sitting Bull in freedom, he feels complicit in their demise.Blood to Rubies has already garnered early praise from New York Times bestselling authors, calling the book "brilliant," "heartbreakingly beautiful," "unforgettable," and "a riveting debut."
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Where Wonder Grows
Pura Belpré Illustrator Award Winner 2023 - American Library Association (ALA)
A 2023 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award Winner
From the creators of the award-winning picture book All Around Us comes another lyrical intergenerational story exploring our connections to nature, family, and traditions.
When Grandma walks to her special garden, her granddaughters know to follow her there. Grandma invites the girls to explore her collection of treasures--magical rocks, crystals, seashells, and meteorites--to see what wonders they reveal. "They are alive with wisdom," Grandma says. As her granddaughters look closely, the treasures spark the girls' imaginations. They find stories in the strength of rocks shaped by volcanoes, the cleansing power of beautiful crystals, the mystery of the sea that houses shells and shapes the environment, and the long journey meteorites took to find their way to Earth. This is the power of Grandma's special garden, where wonder grows and stories blossom.
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Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk
An Indigenous artist blends the aesthetics of punk rock with the traditional spiritual practices of the women in her lineage in this bold, contemporary journey to reclaim her heritage and unleash her power and voice while searching for a permanent home Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe has always longed for a sense of home. When she was a child, her family moved around frequently, often staying in barely habitable church attics and trailers, dangerous places for young Sasha. With little more to guide her than a passion for the thriving punk scene of the Pacific Northwest and a desire to live up to the responsibility of being the namesake of her beloved great-grandmother--a linguist who helped preserve her Indigenous language of Lushootseed--Sasha throws herself headlong into the world, determined to build a better future for herself and her people. Set against a backdrop of the breathtaking beauty of Coast Salish ancestral land and imbued with the universal spirit of punk, Red Paint is ultimately a story of the ways we learn to find our true selves while fighting for our right to claim a place of our own. Examining what it means to be vulnerable in love and in art, Sasha offers up an unblinking reckoning with personal traumas amplified by the collective historical traumas of colonialism and genocide that continue to haunt native peoples. Red Paint is an intersectional autobiography of lineage, resilience, and, above all, the ability to heal. -
Sold outThunderous
WINNER OF THE 2023 HIGH PLAINS BOOK AWARD FOR CHILDREN'S MIDDLE GRADE! If Aiyana hears one more traditional Lakota story, she'll scream! More interested in her social media presence than her Native American heritage, Aiyana is shocked when she suddenly finds herself in a magical world-with no cell coverage! Pursued by the trickster Raven, Aiyana struggles to get back home, but is helped by friends and allies she meets along the way. Her dangerous journey through the Spirit World tests her fortitude and challenges her to embrace her Lakota heritage. But will it be enough to defeat the cruel and powerful Raven?Sold out -
We All Play
A BEST CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE YEAR: New York Times, Washington Post, New York Public Library, Kirkus Reviews, Globe and Mail, Horn Book, and Boston Globe
STARRED Reviews in Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, The Horn Book, School Library Journal
A 2022 Best Book for Babies
From Julie Flett, the beloved author and illustrator of Birdsong, comes a joyous new book about playtime for babies, toddlers, and kids up to age 7.
Animals and kids love to play! This wonderful book celebrates playtime and the connection between children and the natural world. Beautiful illustrations show:
- birds who chase and chirp!
- bears who wiggle and wobble!
- whales who swim and squirt!
- owls who peek and peep!
- and a diverse group of kids who love to do the same, shouting:
We play too! / kimêtawânaw mîna
At the end of the book, animals and children gently fall asleep after a fun day of playing outside, making this book a great bedtime story. A beautiful ode to the animals and humans we share our world with, We All Play belongs on every bookshelf.
This book also includes:
- A glossary of Cree words for wild animals in the book
- A pronunciation guide and link to audio pronunciation recordings
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Still This Love Goes on
A New York Times / New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Book of 2022! NAMED A BEST PICTURE BOOK OF THE YEAR: Kirkus Reviews, Globe and Mail, and Chicago Public Library
"A love letter to family, home, and Indigenous traditions... This story reminds readers of the joy we experience upon returning to those whom we love and who love us." --Kirkus STARRED Review From Cree-Métis artist Julie Flett and Academy Award-winning icon Buffy Sainte-Marie comes a celebration of Indigenous community, and the enduring love we hold for the people and places we are far away from. Based on Sainte-Marie's song of the same name, Still This Love Goes On combines Flett's breathtaking art with vivid lyrics to craft a stunning portrait of a Cree worldview. At the heart of this picture book is a gentle message about missing our loved ones, and the promise of seeing each other again.This gem of a picture book features:
- Sheet music of Buffy Sainte-Marie's beloved song
- Notes from Sainte-Marie and Flett about their inspiration for the song and illustrations
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Thunder's Hair
Thunder is tired of dealing with bullies at school who pick on him because of his long hair. They don't understand why a boy would grow his hair long. When he is sure he has made up his mind to cut it, his grandmother reminds him of the power of having long hair.