Middle Grade: 2021 Releases

Aimée Craft (Anishinaabe/Cree)

Luke Swinson (Anishinaabe/Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation)

The first treaty that was made was between the earth and the sky. It was an agreement to work together. We build all of our treaties on that original treaty. On the banks of the river that have been Mishomis’s home his whole life, he teaches his granddaughter to listen—to hear both the sounds and the silences, and so to learn her place in Creation. Most importantly, he teaches her about treaties: the bonds of reciprocity and renewal that endure for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the rivers flow.

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Christine Day (Upper Skagit)

This chapter book biography follows the amazing life of ballerina Maria Tallchief, and how she persisted to achieve her dreams. Maria loved to dance, but was told that she might need to change her Osage name to one that sounded more Russian to make it as a professional ballerina. Instead, she refused, and worked hard at dancing her best, eventually becoming America’s first prima ballerina. Many famous American ballets were created for Maria!

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Christine Day (Upper Skagit)

It’s been a hard year for Maisie Cannon, ever since she hurt her leg and could not keep up with her ballet training and auditions. Her blended family is loving and supportive, but Maisie knows that they just can’t understand how hopeless she feels. With everything she’s dealing with, Maisie is not excited for their family midwinter road trip along the coast, near the Makah community where her mother grew up. Soon, Maisie’s anxieties and dark moods start to hurt as much as the pain in her knee. How can she keep pretending to be strong when on the inside she feels as roiling and cold as the ocean?

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Hetxw’ms Gyetxw/Brett D. Huson (Gitxsan Nation)

Natasha Donovan (Métis)

To the Gitxsan of Northwestern British Columbia, Nox Ga’naaw—the frog mother—is a storyteller, speaking truths of the universe. After Nox Ga’naaw releases her eggs among the aquatic plants of a pond, the tiny tadpoles are left to fend for themselves. As they hatch, grow legs, and transform into their adult selves, they must avoid the mouths of hungry predators. Will the young frogs survive to spawn their own eggs, continuing a cycle 200 million years in the making? Follow the life cycle of the Columbia spotted frog and learn about the significance of this species to the Gitxsan people.

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Hetxw’ms Gyetxw/Brett D. Huson (Gitxsan Nation)

Natasha Donovan (Métis)

In a pack of grey wolves, new pups have just begun to open their eyes, one of which is a striking black female. Every day, her ears grow larger, her eyesight gets sharper, and her legs stretch farther. As she learns to hunt, play, and run with her pack, instinct pulls her to explore beyond her home territory. Will the young wolf’s bold spirit help her find a new pack of her very own? Learn about the life cycle of grey wolves, the traditions of the Gitxsan, and how these magnificent canines contribute to the health of their entire ecosystem.

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Dan Sasuweh Jones (Ponca Nation)

Weshoyot Alvitre (Tongva/Scots-Gaelic)

Dark figures in the night, cries on the wind, monsters watching from the edge of the wood… While some of these creatures are simply mischievous, many of them are the stuff of nightmares. From timeless tales to sightings that could have happened yesterday, prepare for terrifying accounts of restless spirits, walking dolls, and the wendigo, shape-shifters, and hungry skeletons. Ghost stories remain among the most treasured tales passed from generation to generation in American Indian cultures. Through time, communities have told and continue to tell stories to share origins of the world and tribal history, to carry messages and to teach, and of course to entertain.

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Steven Paul Judd (Kiowa/Choctaw) and Tvli Jacob (Choctaw)

This summer, Tasembo just wants to chill. But that’s not an option when it’s a scorching day on the Reservation and the Ice Cream Man is a no-show. In an attempt to impress his crush by solving the mystery, Tasembo joins forces with his neighbor, Nuseka, and his dog, Billy Jack, to take on their first case as the Rez Dog Detectives. With twists around every corner, this case won’t crack itself, but when you combine Nuseka’s brains, Billy Jack’s loyalty, and Tasembo’s… persistence, justice will be served. Cold, that is.

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Thomas King

Natasha Donovan (Métis)

On a trip to visit his older sister, who has moved away from the family home on the reserve to Salt Lake City, a young boy and his mother are posed a simple question with a not-so-simple answer. Are you Canadian, the border guards ask, or American? The mother answers: “Blackfoot.” When border guards will not accept their citizenship, mother and son wind up trapped in an all-too-real limbo between nations that do not recognize who they are.

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Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee Nation)

Native families from Nations across the continent gather at the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Here, in a high school gym full of color and song, people dance, sell beadwork and books, and celebrate friendship and heritage. The young protagonists of this anthology meet relatives from faraway, mysterious strangers, and sometimes one another—plus one scrappy rez dog. Ultimately, all find that they are the heroes of their own stories.

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Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee Nation)

What do Indian shoes look like, anyway? Like beautiful beaded moccasins… or hightops with bright orange shoelaces? Ray Halfmoon prefers hightops, but he gladly trades them for a nice pair of moccasins for his grampa. After all, it’s Grampa Halfmoon who’s always there to help Ray get in and out of scrapes—like the time they teamed up to pet sit for the whole block during a holiday blizzard!

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Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee Nation)

It’s been six months since Cassidy Rain Berghoff’s best friend, Galen, died, and up until now she has succeeded in shutting herself off from the world. But when controversy arises around Aunt Georgia’s Indian Camp in their mostly white midwestern community, Rain decides to face the outside world again, with a new job photographing the campers for her town’s newspaper. Soon, Rain has to decide how involved she wants to become in Indian Camp. Does she want to keep a professional distance from her fellow Native teens? And, though she is still grieving, will she be able to embrace new friends and new beginnings?

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Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee Nation)

Lily and Wendy have been best friends since they became stepsisters, but with their feuding parents planning to spend the summer apart, what will become of their family—and their friendship? Little do they know that a mysterious boy has been watching them from the oak tree outside their window. A boy who intends to take them away from home for good, to an island of wild animals, Merfolk, Fairies, and kidnapped children, to a sea of merfolk, pirates, and a giant crocodile. A boy who calls himself Peter Pan.

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SD Nelson (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe)

In 1876, Lakota chief Crazy Horse helped lead his people’s resistance against the white man’s invasion of the northern Great Plains. One of the leaders of the invading US military forces was Army Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. The men had long been enemies, and at the height of the war, they crossed paths for the last time. Their opposing destinies culminated in the infamous Battle of the Greasy Grass, as the Lakota called it, or the Battle of the Little Bighorn, as it was called by the Euro-Americans.

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Chris Newell (Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township)

Winona Nelson (Leech Lake Band of Minnesota Chippewa)

What if you lived when the English colonists and the Wampanoag people shared a feast at Plimoth? What would you have worn? What would you have eaten? What was the true story of the feast that we now know as the first Thanksgiving, and how did it become a national holiday? Exploring both sides of this historical event, this book answers all these questions and more.

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Dawn Quigley (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe)

Tara Audibert (Wolastoqey)

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—about how good Jo Jo is at cleaning up, what makes a good rhyme, and what it means to be friendly. And 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…

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David A. Robertson (Norway House Cree)

In this second book in the Indigenous fantasy series the Misewa Saga, Eli and Morgan journey once more to Misewa, travelling back in time. Back at home after their first adventure in the Barren Grounds, Eli and Morgan each struggle with personal issues: Eli is being bullied at school, and tries to hide it from Morgan, while Morgan has to make an important decision about her birth mother. They turn to the place where they know they can learn the most, and make the journey to Misewa to visit their animal friends. This time they travel back in time and meet a young fisher that might just be their lost friend. But they discover that the village is once again in peril, and they must dig deep within themselves to find the strength to protect their beloved friends. Can they carry this strength back home to face their own challenges?

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Gary Robinson (Choctaw/Cherokee)

In this book, Jayla, a confident young woman, shares her advice for any girl who doubts herself or is the subject of exclusion or body shaming. Jayla takes pride in her diverse heritage, and she steers readers away from negative self-talk with proven strategies. If kids are mean to you, she advises, make new friends. If a TV program tells you to change how you look, change the channel! Replace negative talk with positive talk the Jayla way by replacing the voice of self-doubt and self-hate with the voice of self-love and light. Once you believe in yourself, you will always have a best friend!

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Pauline Vaeluaga Smith (Samoan/Tuvaluan/Scottish/Irish)

Mat Hunkin (Samoan)

Sofia is like most twelve-year-old girls in New Zealand. How is she going to earn enough money for those boots? Who is she going to be friends with at school this year? It comes as a surprise to both Sofia and her family when her big brother, Lenny, starts talking about protests, “overstayers”, and injustices against Pacific Islanders by the government. Inspired by the Black Panthers in America, a group has formed called the Polynesian Panthers, who encourage immigrant and Indigenous families across New Zealand to stand up for their rights. Soon the whole family becomes involved in the movement, and Sofia learns how to stand up and fight.

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Traci Sorell (Cherokee Nation)

Natasha Donovan (Métis)

Mary Golda Ross designed classified airplanes and spacecraft as Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s first female engineer. This book traces her journey from being the only girl in a high school math class to becoming a teacher to pursuing an engineering degree, joining the top-secret Skunk Works division of Lockheed, and acting as a mentor for Native Americans and young women interested in engineering. The narrative highlights Cherokee values, including education, working cooperatively, remaining humble, and helping ensure equal opportunity and education for all. Readers are shown how these values, alongside her passion for math, shaped Ross’s life and work.

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Traci Sorell (Cherokee Nation) and Lee Francis IV (Laguna Pueblo)

Jesse Hummingbird (Cherokee) and Michelle Sisneros (Santa Clara/Laguna/Navajo)

Many people think of the United States as one country and one land, but within its borders are many nations—sovereign Native American nations whose citizens have dual citizenship. In Volume 1 of this series, Native American authors Traci Sorell (Cherokee Nation) and Lee Francis IV (Laguna Pueblo) take readers on a contemporary tour of their respective nations. Readers learn the histories of their people, famous citizens, traditional stories, as well as details about tribal life today—including their systems of government, education, and commerce.

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Traci Sorell (Cherokee Nation)

Frané Lessac

Too often, Native American history is treated as a finished chapter instead of an ongoing story. This book offers readers everything they never learned in school about Native American people’s past, present, and future. Twelve Native American kids present historical and contemporary laws, policies, struggles, and victories in Native life, each with a powerful refrain: “We are still here!” Important topics are addressed, including forced assimilation, land allotment and Native tribal reorganization, termination, relocation, self-determination, Native civil rights, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), religious freedom, economic development, Native language revival efforts, cultural persistence, and nationhood.

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Brian Young (Navajo)

When Nathan goes to visit his grandma, Nali, at her mobile summer home on the Navajo reservation, he knows he’s in for a pretty uneventful summer, with no electricity or cell service. Still, he loves spending time with Nali and with his uncle Jet, though it’s clear when Jet arrives that he brings his problems with him. One night, while lost in the nearby desert, Nathan finds someone extraordinary: a Holy Being from the Navajo Creation Story—a Water Monster—in need of help. Now Nathan must summon all his courage to save his new friend. With the help of other Navajo Holy Beings, Nathan is determined to save the Water Monster, and to support Uncle Jet in healing from his own pain.

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