Levine Querido
Founded in 2019 by Arthur A. Levine and based in Hoboken, New Jersey, Levine Querido’s mission is to inspire a lifelong love of reading by publishing diverse, underrepresented voices in children’s literature. Their catalogue includes books that have garnered critical recognition including winners of the Newbery Medal, Pura Belpré Medal, Walter Dean Myers Award, Michael L. Printz Medal, as well as titles featured on “Best of the Year” lists by NPR, The New York Times, and more.
Levin Querido offer original children’s and adult books in English, as well as books in translation, including award-winning titles in Spanish. They also have paperback versions of their award winners, and reissued out-of-print books by underrepresented authors. LQ operates with a dedicated team of seven, allowing them to be adaptable and responsive to author needs, and able to secure outstanding media attention for their talented creators.
Elatsoe
ISBN
9781646140053
Publisher & Publication Year
Author
Darcie Little Badger (Lipan Apache)
Summary
Elatsoe lives in an alternate contemporary America shaped by the ancestral magics and knowledge of its Indigenous and immigrant groups. She can raise the spirits of dead animals. When her beloved cousin dies, all signs point to a car crash, but his ghost tells her otherwise: He was murdered. With the help of her family, her best friend Jay, and the memory of her great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother, Elatsoe must track down the killer and unravel both the mystery of this creepy town and its dark past.
Notable Achievements
Locus Award Winner – Best First Novel; A National Indie Bestseller; Nebula Award Finalist; Lodestar Award Finalist; Ignyte Award Finalist
Trade Reviews
School Library Journal: “Ellie’s family’s cultural beliefs and status as Indigenous people are presented well in the context of this supernatural fantasy.”
Publishers Weekly: “Indigenous stories, modern-day technology, and the supernatural successfully blend to build a fast-paced murder mystery in Little Badger’s intriguing solo debut. […] Cai’s grayscale spot illustrations imbue the book with shadowy breath and movement, bringing a lyrical undertone to the energetic plot and multifaceted, refreshing voice.”
Kirkus: “A fast-paced whodunit set in a contemporary world like our own, this is a creative fusion of Indigenous cultural influences and supernatural fantasy. A brilliant, engaging debut written by a talented author, it seamlessly blends cyberstalking with Vampire Citizen Centers and Lipan Apache stories.”
Booklist: “Older readers raised on series like the Spiderwick Chronicles or Artemis Fowl will delight in Ellie’s tongue-in-cheek, self-assured voice, as well as her adventures with the mystical and magical elements that run through her lineage.”
The Horn Book: Subscription needed
Educator Guide
Ten probing questions guide student readers to compare and contract Little Badger’s first two books (Elatsoe and A Snake Falls to Earth), encouraging them to do external research with provided links.
A Snake Falls to Earth
ISBN
9781646140923
Publisher & Publication Year
Author
Darcie Little Badger (Lipan Apache)
Summary
Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She’s always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories. Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli’s best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven’t been in centuries.
Notable Achievements
National Indie Bestseller; Newbery Award Honor; National Book Award Longlist; Minneapolis Star Tribune Best of the Year; Publishers Weekly Best of the Year; Kirkus Best of the Year; Apple Best of the Year; Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best; New York Public Library’s Best of the Year; YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults; CCBC Choices
Trade Reviews
School Library Journal: “Following traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure, this is an entertaining and illuminating look at how traditions and magic can exist in the modern world. Oli and his friends are delightful to read about, while Nina’s human concerns and love for her grandmother shine. A modern-day fable with real-world significance, perfect for magical realism fans and fantasy lovers alike.”
Publishers Weekly: “The second novel by Lipan Apache author Little Badger (Elatsoe) is a smartly intertwined, shifting-perspective story about two characters in worlds that diverged thousands of years ago. […] Fun, imaginative, and deeply immersive, this story will be long in the minds of readers.”
Kirkus: “Little Badger (Lipan Apache) alternates between two distinct, well-realized voices—Nina’s third-person and Oli’s first-person perspectives—highlighting critical issues of language revitalization and climate change. The story leads readers through two richly constructed worlds using a style that evokes the timeless feeling of listening to traditional oral storytelling.”
Booklist: “Nina’s third-person perspective is beautifully ruminative compared to Oli’s faster first-person point of view, but it’s the writing on the whole that resonates most, singing like poetry with lyrical, literary wisdom. Magical, stunning, and wholly original.”
The Horn Book: “Modern dialogue, which offers further depth to characterization, intermingles with elements of traditional storytelling and family history, creating an imaginative and multilayered work of speculative fiction.”
Educator Guide
Ten probing questions guide student readers to compare and contract Little Badger’s first two books (Elatsoe and A Snake Falls to Earth), encouraging them to do external research with provided links.
Apple: Skin to the Core
ISBN
9781646140138
Publisher & Publication Year
Author
Eric Gansworth (Onondaga Nation)
Summary
In Apple: Skin to the Core, Eric Gansworth tells his story, the story of his family, and of Onondaga among Tuscaroras, through his YA memoir in verse. He details the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools through his grandfather. Using references to the catalogue of Beatle’s songs, he describes his struggles balancing two worlds – native and white.
Notable Achievements
Winner of the American Indian Youth Literature Award; Printz Honor Winner; National Book Award Longlist; TIME 10 Best YA and Children’s Books of the Year; NPR Best of the Year; Shelf Awareness Best of the Year; Publishers Weekly Big Indie Books of Fall; Amazon Best Book of the Month; AICL Best YA Books of the Year; CSMCL Best Multicultural Children’s Books of the Year
Trade Reviews
Publishers Weekly: “Phrases and concepts circle and repeat throughout […] creating a raw, layered story about love and loss of community, culture, and place. Family photos, black-and-white reproductions of the author’s paintings, and project “liner notes” round out the telling.”
Kirkus: “[T]he book skims over a lifetime; feelings of intimacy and emotional intensity are variable even as the elliptical voice is unique. Black-and-white reproductions of Gansworth’s paintings and family photographs enhance and extend the text in a work originally conceived of as a visual arts project. A rare and special read.”
Booklist: “Gansworth’s art, a mix of gouache paintings, photographs, and collages (reproduced in black and white), is interspersed throughout, adding interest and detail. With language rich in metaphor, this is a timely and important work that begs for multiple readings.”
The Horn Book: “This introspective memoir confirms by its very existence that, though the boarding schools tried to erase Indian culture, Native peoples ‘are still / here, / still standing, still walking, one resilient step at a time.'”
Educator Guide
This educator guide for Apple: Skin to the Core offers 12 discussion questions that probe deep into the story and inspire students to create their own playlist or their own collage from family pictures.
Where Wolves Don’t Die
ISBN
9781646143818
Publisher & Publication Year
Author
Anton Treuer (Leech Lake Ojibwe)
Summary
Ezra Cloud hates living in Northeast Minneapolis. His father is a professor of their language, Ojibwe, at a local college, so they have to be there. One day, Ezra gets into a terrible fight with his bully, Matt Schroeder, and that same night, Matt’s house burns down. Instantly, Ezra becomes a prime suspect. Knowing he won’t get a fair deal, and knowing his innocence, Ezra’s family sends him away to run traplines with his grandfather in a remote part of Canada, while the investigation is ongoing. But the Schroeders are looking for him.
Trade Reviews
School Library Journal: “A great first purchase for all libraries, with a unique hero’s journey for Ezra as he begins to assume adult responsibilities.”
Publishers Weekly: “This leisurely paced novel by Ojibwe author Treuer (Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians but Were Afraid to Ask, for adults) contains immersive detail about trapping methods as well as Indigenous tales about the natural world, making for an intriguing if meandering adventure.”
Kirkus: “Alongside issues such as racism, Ezra’s first-person perspective thoughtfully explores grief: His mother passed recently, and he’s angry
and has a rocky relationship with Byron. The novel positively portrays Indigenous characters through characterization that embraces and affirms the parallel paths of traditional ways and formal schooling.”
Booklist: “The details and pure physicality of running the lines are vivid and fascinating, and Grandpa Liam is a character for the ages, filled with love, knowledge, and humor. The pace accelerates when treacherous terrain, threatening wildlife, family secrets, and Matt’s vow of revenge spill into an extended fight for survival.”
The Horn Book: Subscription needed
Chooch Helped
ISBN
9781646144549
Publisher & Publication Year
Author
Andrea L. Rogers (Cherokee Nation)
Illustrator
Rebecca Kunz (Cherokee Nation)
Summary
Sissy’s younger brother, Chooch, isn’t a baby anymore. They just celebrated his second birthday, after all. But no matter what Chooch does, their parents say he’s just “helping,” even if he’s messing everything up. What follows is a tender family moment that will resonate with anyone who has welcomed a new little one to the fold.
Trade Reviews
School Library Journal: “This recommended story reminds readers how they could lead by example for those who are curious and want to also be included in the joys of life, be it miniscule chores or creating art.”
Publishers Weekly: “Two-year-old Chooch seeks to help everyone, often with disastrous results, in this tender familial picture book from Cherokee creators Rogers and Kunz. […] Delicately hued, layered mixed-media images that utilize Cherokee iconography […] Creators’ notes, pinch-pot instructions, and a Cherokee glossary conclude.”
Kirkus: “The touching narrative and its universal lesson are brought to life through Kunz’s powerful images, which make stunning use of collage to illustrate the children’s rich familial and cultural webs. Readers’ hearts will be warmed by Sissy and Chooch’s relationship and by the moving representation of Cherokee traditions.”
Man Made Monsters
ISBN
9781623543808
Publisher & Publication Year
Author
Andrea L. Rogers (Cherokee Nation)
Illustrator
Jeff Edwards (Cherokee Nation)
Summary
Following one extended Cherokee family across centuries, from the tribe’s homelands in Georgia in the 1830s to World War I, the Vietnam War, our own present, and well into the future, each story delivers a slice of a particular time period. Alongside each story, Cherokee artist and language technologist Jeff Edwards delivers illustrations that incorporate Cherokee syllabary. Each story—filled with zombies, werewolves, vampires—stands on its own but contributes to the larger narrative.
Notable Achievements
Walter Dean Myers Award Winner; American Indian Library Association Youth Literature Honor; International Literacy Association Book Award Winner; Whippoorwhill Award Winner; Reading the West Book Award Shortlist; NEA Read Across American Recommended Title; Best of the Year Washington Post; Best of the Year Booklist; Best of the Year Publishers Weekly; Best of the Year Horn Book; Best of the Year New York Public Library
Trade Reviews
School Library Journal: “Full of familiar tropes and new ideas, these stories are the right balance of suspense without too much horror. A strong first purchase.”
Publishers Weekly: “Rogers recounts the past, present, and future trials and tribulations of one Cherokee family in this spine-tingling horror collection. Fresh, crisply written text, which alternates between first-, second-, and third-person tellings, artfully tackles themes of colonialism and its effects on entire generations, for a simultaneously frightening and enthralling read.”
Kirkus: “The short story format means any character one meets could later die. Exquisite white-on-black line art from Cherokee artist Edwards sets the eerie mood. The use of the Noto Sans Cherokee typeface and Edwards’ hand-drawn Cherokee syllabary beautifully integrates written language into the book’s design.”
Booklist: “At once precisely contained and wildly expansive, this is a collection that doesn’t push boundaries so much as claw at them and then pull back. […] Both Rogers and illustrator Edwards, whose art precedes each story, incorporate Cherokee words into their work, threading the language into the bones of the collection.”
The Horn Book: “Many of these stories sound as if they were passed down as family histories. It may read like speculative fiction, but it feels like truth.”
Educator Guide
This brief guide for Man Made Monsters offers a handful of questions for discussion or writing prompts as well as external links to an interview with Andrea Rogers herself and an essay about Indigenous horror.
Coming Home: A Hopi Resistance Story
ISBN
9781646144570
Publisher & Publication Year
Author
Mavasta Honyouti (Hopi/Iswungwa)
Summary
When Mavasta Honyouti was a boy, he would go with his grandfather to their cornfield, watching him nurture every plant and whittle beautiful carvings into paako root with his pocketknife– carvings Mavasta would later learn to do himself. Using this knowledge, Honyouti tells his grandfather’s time at a residential boarding school, who managed to hold onto his culture and language despite the whitewashing tactics employed.
Trade Reviews
Publishers Weekly: “In this intergenerational telling, Hopi woodcarver Honyouti relays some of his grandfather’s childhood experiences at a residential boarding school… Acrylic-painted relief carvings portray stylized landscapes and rooms alongside decorative elements, a fitting medium for this reflective narrative about community-taught knowledge and care.”
Kirkus: “Honyouti’s rich wood carvings, painted with acrylics, beautifully illuminate this account of ancestral pride, Indigenous power, and intergenerational memory… This powerful tale is a much-needed reminder that the stories of Indigenous peoples, despite being threaded with trauma, are marked by defiance and pride. A stirring tribute to Hopi culture, language, and resistance.”
Booklist: “Through evocative storytelling, the narrator reveals a painful chapter of his grandfather’s childhood—being taken away to a state residential school, a place designed to erase his cultural identity. The book powerfully portrays the emotional and cultural toll of such experiences while also celebrating the strength and perseverance of the Hopi people… Coming Home is an invaluable resource for classrooms, particularly those looking to include stories of resilience and remembrance.”
