November is a dedicated time to celebrate the diverse history, culture, and traditions of American Indian and Alaska natives as well as acknowledge their unique contributions and educate the public about different tribes and their challenges.
Here are a few of our favorite books for young to older children to help raise awareness and celebrate Native Americans:
Cradle Me
By Debbie Slier
Board Book
This book is filled with photos of Native American babies with their different styles of cradle boards.
Josie Dances
By Denise Lajimodiere
Picture Book
As she prepares for her first powwow, an Ojibwa girl practices her dance steps, gets help from her family, and is inspired by the soaring flight of Migizi, the eagle.
When Turtle Grew Feathers
By Tim Tingle
Picture Book
A Native American version of the big race between the turtle and the hare shows that it was not being slow and steady that won turtle the big race.
Jingle Dancer
By Cynthia Leitich Smith
Picture Book
Tink, tink, tink, tink, sang cone-shaped jingles sewn to Grandma Wolfe’s dress. Jenna’s heart beats to the brum, brum, brum, brum of the powwow drum as she daydreams about the clinking song of her grandma’s jingle dancing. Jenna loves the tradition of jingle dancing that has been shared by generations of women in her family. She hopes to dance at the next powwow. But she has a problem — how will her dress sing if it has no jingles?
The Used-to-be Best Friend
By Dawn Quigley
Intermediate Book
Jo Jo Makoons Azure is a spirited seven-year-old who moves through the world a little differently than anyone else on her Ojibwe reservation. It always seems like her mom, her kokum (grandma), and her teacher have a lot to learn. Jo Jo knows how to clean up, rhyme, and how to be friendly. Even though Jo Jo loves her #1 best friend Mimi (who is a cat), she’s worried that she needs to figure out how to make more friends. Because Fern, her best friend at school, may not want to be friends anymore.
In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse
By Joseph Marshall
Junior Fiction
Teased for his fair coloring, eleven-year-old Jimmy McClean travels with his maternal grandfather, Nyles High Eagle, to learn about his Lakota heritage. They visit places significant in the life of Crazy Horse, the nineteenth-century Lakota leader and warrior, in a tale that weaves the past with the present.
Written by the Orem Library Children’s Librarians
